Duane A Gill
Biographic Data
| ID | 203446 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Duane A Gill |
| GIVEN NAMES | Duane A |
| FAMILY NAME | Gill |
| SIGNATURE | GILL D A |
| AFFILIATIONS | Mississippi State University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-0262-0241 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 33 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 279 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 33 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1992 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 11 |
Resource Loss, Slow Violence, and Psychosocial Stress
In August 2022, the Pearl River flooded portions of Jackson, Mississippi and temporarily closed the city’s water treatment plant, leaving most citizens without access to safe drinking and potable water for more than a month. This event punctuated an ongoing water crisis that had lingered for decades in this predominately African American city. We employ a social production of disaster approach to reveal aspects of slow violence perpetrated agains…
A legacy of recreancy
In late August of 2022, Jackson, MS experienced severe flooding leaving approximately 150,000 without access to drinking water. Compounding this acute event is a decades long water crisis, often attributed to government neglect and mismanagement of water services. The chronic technological disaster (water crisis) worsened by a significant acute hazard event (the 2022 flood) in a place that regularly experiences flooding (persistent acute hazard e…
“And Then Covid-19 Happened”
There is a limited but growing body of literature on the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on academic faculty, scholars, and researchers in the US and around the world. In this article, we present findings of a US-based study conceived in 2020 at the onset of COVID-19. In it, we focus on ways in which the pandemic has affected the professional and personal lives of hazard and disaster researchers from the social sciences, public health, engineeri…
Media Framing and Agenda Setting (Tone) in News Coverage of Hurricane Harvey
Media organizations can quickly disseminate information from official sources to the general population. The media play a vital role before, during, and after a hazard incident or natural disaster by broadcasting early warnings, coordinating emergency management strategies, providing timely updates, and offering advice on protective actions. Therefore, it is important to examine how news media use various framing devices such as story selection, …
Citizen perceptions of fracking-related earthquakes
Considering Covid-19 through the Lens of Hazard and Disaster Research
Decades of social science research have taught us much about how individuals, groups, and communities respond to disasters. The findings of this research have helped inform emergency management practices, including disaster preparedness, response, recovery, and mitigation. In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, most of us-researchers or not-have attempted or are attempting to make sense of what is going on around us. In this article, we assert …
Shale Gas Development and Community Distress
This research examines psychosocial stress associated with shale gas development through the narratives of residents and the Revised Impact of Event Scale (IES-R). We carried out our research in three of England's communities impacted by shale gas development. To gather data, we conducted qualitative interviews and engaged in participant observation in all three communities and conducted a quantitative survey of residents. From our qualitative in…
Considering Cumulative Social Effects of Technological Hazards and Disasters
This article describes research designs utilized to study cumulative sociocultural and psychosocial effects of technological hazards and disasters. We apply these designs to two cases: (a) the Exxon Valdez disaster with a focus on Cordova, Alaska, and (b) the Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline project with a focus on the Gitga'at First Nation in Hartley Bay, British Columbia, Canada. The Exxon Valdez oil spill began in 1989 with the grounding of …
Freudenburg, William R. (1951–2010)
William R. Freudenburg was a pathbreaking environmental sociologist who made major contributions to understanding the impacts of resource extraction and technological disasters on communities, the sociopolitical dimensions of risk, and the disproportionate impact of environmental hazards, among other topics. His work was notable for its use of innovative methodologies and development of keen theoretical insights
Analogies and Natural Cycles in Climate Change Skepticism
This paper examines the “natural cycles” explanation of climate change skepticism found among some Oklahomans. Natural cycles skepticism rejects the anthropogenic cause of climate change and asserts that observed weather changes are the result of the Earth's natural cycles. This explanation is a folk model, a type of cultural model, of the climate that makes analogic comparisons between present and past weather patterns. In this paper, we use ins…
Politics, climate change, and earthquakes
Factors influencing stress response avoidance behaviors following technological disasters
Building upon the growing body of empirical social science research examining psychosocial stress following natural, technological, and human-caused disasters, this article presents new research findings specifically regarding stress response avoidance behaviours. In this article, we present a conceptual model of factors contributing to such avoidance behaviours as measured by the Impact of Event Scale (IES) Avoidance subscale. We empirically tes…
Cultivating disaster resilience in rural Oklahoma
Tracking Drought Perspectives
Rural towns are especially susceptible to the effects of drought because their economies are dependent on natural resources. However, they are also resilient in many ways to natural hazards because they are rich in civic engagement and social capital. Because of the diverse nature of drought’s impacts, understanding its complex dynamics and its effects requires a multidisciplinary approach. To study these dynamics, this research combines apprecia…
Mitigating Litigating
During the past four decades, a number of social science scholars have conceptualized technological disasters as a social problem. More specifically, research in this arena has identified individual and collective stress as a secondary trauma of processes intended to provide compensation and economic relief from disasters in general and, more specifically, technological disasters. Based on data from a 2013 household telephone survey of 1,216 resi…
Sociocultural and psychosocial impacts of the exxon valdez oil spill
Recreancy Revisited
In 1993, Freudenburg suggested the term “recreancy” to refer to behaviors associated with institutional failures, which he distinguished from the consequences of such failures. This article revisits issues related to recreancy associated with the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill. Using qualitative data collected in Cordova, Alaska, between 2002 and 2010, we examine notions about recreancy and technological disasters. Findings highlight perceptions of …
The Exxon Valdez and BP Oil Spills
The 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill and the 2010 BP oil spill were the largest and most ecologically damaging releases of oil in North American history. This research provides a comparison of the social and mental health impacts of these two major technological disasters. Random samples of residents of Cordova, Alaska, and south Mobile County, Alabama, were collected 5 months after each event. A standardized indicator of event-related stress was used…
Managing Tsunami Risk
This article describes the testing of a model that proposes that people's beliefs regarding the effectiveness of hazard preparedness interact with social context factors (community participation, collective efficacy, empowerment and trust) to influence levels of hazard preparedness. Using data obtained from people living in coastal communities in Alaska and Oregon that are susceptible to experiencing tsunami, structural equation modelling analyse…
The Selendang Ayu Shipwreck and Oil Spill
On December 8, 2004, the Selendang Ayu, a Malaysian-flagged freighter, ran aground off Unalaska Island in Alaska's Aleutian chain. Despite rescue efforts by the United States Coast Guard, six of the Selendang Ayu's crew members died. In addition to the deaths, more than 300,000 gallons of heavy bulk fuel oil spilled into the sea. Much of the oil washed onto the island's shores, into areas providing cultural, recreational, subsistence, and commerc…
Post-Katrina Guiding Principles of Disaster Social Science Research
A Katrina Summit was held November 18–19 at Mississippi State University's Social Science Research Center (SSRC). Major funding was provided by the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station (MIS–605270). Duane Gill, SSRC Associate Director for Research on Society and Environment and Coordinator of the Societal Risk Unit, organized and presided over the Summit. The Summit included eighteen invited scholars (anthropologists, geograph…
Disaster Research and Hurricane Katrina
Secondary Trauma or Secondary Disaster? Insights From Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina is destined to become one of the most studied disasters in U.S. history. This manuscript offers a sociology of disaster framework in which to situate past, on-going, and future research on this event. By examining Katrina on a continuum of natural and technological disasters, we are able to gain insights into the different paths of impact and recovery taken by New Orleans and the rest of the disaster-stricken region. Specificall…
Social Capital Theory as an Integrating Theoretical Framework in Technological Disaster Research
Conceptual and empirical research on technological disasters has produced a number of seminal contributions including concepts of recreancy, collective trauma, lifestyle and lifescape change, corrosive community, secondary trauma, and the ecological-symbolic perspective. This article presents social capital theory as a comprehensive framework that incorporates and integrates these key conceptual elements and theories. After presenting fundamental…
Does the Tanf Work-First Initiative Help Low-Income Families Make Successful Welfare-to-Work Transitions
A general argument is how states implement their TANF policy and the extent to which states build partnerships with local communities might affect the chances for low-income families to make a successful welfare-to-work transition. Using data gathered through a key-informant procedure, we find that many low-income families in Mississippi left the TANF rolls because the state implemented “front and back door” policy aimed at reducing caseloads rat…
Disaster, Litigation, and the Corrosive Community
Disaster researchers have debated the utility of distinguishing “natural” from “technological” catastrophes. We suggest that litigation serves as a source of chronic stress for victims of human-caused disasters involved in court deliberations for damages. Data from the Exxon Valdez oil spill are used to evaluate a social structural model of disaster impacts three and one-half years after the event. Results suggest that the status of litigant and …
Technological disaster and chronic community stress
This research examines chronic community stress associated with technological disasters using data from three case studies in the United States: a train derailment and toxic spill, a community contaminated by a superfund hazardous waste site, and an oil spill. Technological disasters are distinguished from natural diasters in terms of community impacts and recovery. Sociological and psychological research suggests that long‐term disruption and st…
The Exxon Valdez and BP Oil Spills
The 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill and the 2010 BP oil spill were the largest and most ecologically damaging releases of oil in North American history. This research provides a comparison of the social and mental health impacts of these two major technological disasters. Random samples of residents of Cordova, Alaska, and south Mobile County, Alabama, were collected 5 months after each event. A standardized indicator of event-related stress was used…
Social Capital Theory as an Integrating Theoretical Framework in Technological Disaster Research
Conceptual and empirical research on technological disasters has produced a number of seminal contributions including concepts of recreancy, collective trauma, lifestyle and lifescape change, corrosive community, secondary trauma, and the ecological-symbolic perspective. This article presents social capital theory as a comprehensive framework that incorporates and integrates these key conceptual elements and theories. After presenting fundamental…
Tanf Participation Rates
A general criticism of the 1996 Welfare Reform Act is that it is primarily the result of an urban political agenda, and it may hurt rather than help the rural poor. Under the new welfare system, the rural poor that are most likely to be affected are those who live in socially, economically, and spatially disadvantaged communities. More residents in these communities are likely to need TANF, clients in these communities are least likely to leave T…
Recreancy Revisited
In 1993, Freudenburg suggested the term “recreancy” to refer to behaviors associated with institutional failures, which he distinguished from the consequences of such failures. This article revisits issues related to recreancy associated with the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill. Using qualitative data collected in Cordova, Alaska, between 2002 and 2010, we examine notions about recreancy and technological disasters. Findings highlight perceptions of …
Secondary Trauma or Secondary Disaster? Insights From Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina is destined to become one of the most studied disasters in U.S. history. This manuscript offers a sociology of disaster framework in which to situate past, on-going, and future research on this event. By examining Katrina on a continuum of natural and technological disasters, we are able to gain insights into the different paths of impact and recovery taken by New Orleans and the rest of the disaster-stricken region. Specificall…
Mitigating Litigating
During the past four decades, a number of social science scholars have conceptualized technological disasters as a social problem. More specifically, research in this arena has identified individual and collective stress as a secondary trauma of processes intended to provide compensation and economic relief from disasters in general and, more specifically, technological disasters. Based on data from a 2013 household telephone survey of 1,216 resi…
Cultivating disaster resilience in rural Oklahoma
Social disruption and the Valdez oil spill
This study presents a conceptual model for examining the social impacts of the Valdez oil spill on natural resource‐dependent communities. Data on social and subsistence disruption experienced by Alaskan natives are analyzed for two time periods: 1989 and 1990. The results reveal substantial uncertainty and disruption, with indications of changing patterns for long‐term social impacts. The study concludes with recommendations for restoration and …
Units of Analysis and the Environmental Justice Hypothesis
Objective . In environmental justice research, different‐sized units of analysis have generated mixed results, begging the question of what constitutes the most appropriate unit of analysis. Grappling with this question raises both conceptual and methodological issues. In this article, it is argued that, conceptually, community should be the most important unit of analysis and that, methodologically, units should be selected through an appropriat…
Civic Responsibility and the Environment
In this article, we examine the extent to which variations in local social, economic, and spatial conditions might account for variation in community environmental activeness across 208 communities falling within nonmetropolitan areas in Mississippi. We use GIS technology to identify community boundaries, and use key informant and census data to measure community attributes. The findings indicate that community environmental activeness tends to b…
Sociocultural and psychosocial impacts of the exxon valdez oil spill
Citizen perceptions of fracking-related earthquakes
Promoting Environmental Democracy Using GIS as a Means to Integrate Community into the EPA-Basins Approach
This article presents a GIS-based methodology to integrate community into the Environmental Protection Agency's Better Assessment Science Integrating Point and Nonpoint Sources (BASINS). The proposed methodology was used for the identification, measurement, and comparison of community areas within and between the upstream and downstream watersheds of the Upper Pearl River Basin in Mississippi. Drawing on various sources of data, the communities s…
Community Concentration of Poverty and Its Consequences on Nonmetro County Persistence of Poverty in Mississippi
In this article we examine differences in the spatial distribution of poverty within nonmetro counties in Mississippi, and the extent to which such differences might be related to the probability that a nonmetro county might be classified as persistently poor. This study contributes to the current literature by dividing the low-income population of the county between those residing in open territory and those within urban and rural census defined…
Considering Covid-19 through the Lens of Hazard and Disaster Research
Decades of social science research have taught us much about how individuals, groups, and communities respond to disasters. The findings of this research have helped inform emergency management practices, including disaster preparedness, response, recovery, and mitigation. In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, most of us-researchers or not-have attempted or are attempting to make sense of what is going on around us. In this article, we assert …
Factors influencing stress response avoidance behaviors following technological disasters
Building upon the growing body of empirical social science research examining psychosocial stress following natural, technological, and human-caused disasters, this article presents new research findings specifically regarding stress response avoidance behaviours. In this article, we present a conceptual model of factors contributing to such avoidance behaviours as measured by the Impact of Event Scale (IES) Avoidance subscale. We empirically tes…
Politics, climate change, and earthquakes
Does the Tanf Work-First Initiative Help Low-Income Families Make Successful Welfare-to-Work Transitions
A general argument is how states implement their TANF policy and the extent to which states build partnerships with local communities might affect the chances for low-income families to make a successful welfare-to-work transition. Using data gathered through a key-informant procedure, we find that many low-income families in Mississippi left the TANF rolls because the state implemented “front and back door” policy aimed at reducing caseloads rat…
Considering Cumulative Social Effects of Technological Hazards and Disasters
This article describes research designs utilized to study cumulative sociocultural and psychosocial effects of technological hazards and disasters. We apply these designs to two cases: (a) the Exxon Valdez disaster with a focus on Cordova, Alaska, and (b) the Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline project with a focus on the Gitga'at First Nation in Hartley Bay, British Columbia, Canada. The Exxon Valdez oil spill began in 1989 with the grounding of …
The Selendang Ayu Shipwreck and Oil Spill
On December 8, 2004, the Selendang Ayu, a Malaysian-flagged freighter, ran aground off Unalaska Island in Alaska's Aleutian chain. Despite rescue efforts by the United States Coast Guard, six of the Selendang Ayu's crew members died. In addition to the deaths, more than 300,000 gallons of heavy bulk fuel oil spilled into the sea. Much of the oil washed onto the island's shores, into areas providing cultural, recreational, subsistence, and commerc…
Social disruption and the Valdez oil spill
This study presents a conceptual model for examining the social impacts of the Valdez oil spill on natural resource‐dependent communities. Data on social and subsistence disruption experienced by Alaskan natives are analyzed for two time periods: 1989 and 1990. The results reveal substantial uncertainty and disruption, with indications of changing patterns for long‐term social impacts. The study concludes with recommendations for restoration and …
Technological disaster and chronic community stress
This research examines chronic community stress associated with technological disasters using data from three case studies in the United States: a train derailment and toxic spill, a community contaminated by a superfund hazardous waste site, and an oil spill. Technological disasters are distinguished from natural diasters in terms of community impacts and recovery. Sociological and psychological research suggests that long‐term disruption and st…
Units of Analysis and the Environmental Justice Hypothesis
Objective . In environmental justice research, different‐sized units of analysis have generated mixed results, begging the question of what constitutes the most appropriate unit of analysis. Grappling with this question raises both conceptual and methodological issues. In this article, it is argued that, conceptually, community should be the most important unit of analysis and that, methodologically, units should be selected through an appropriat…
Promoting Environmental Democracy Using GIS as a Means to Integrate Community into the EPA-Basins Approach
This article presents a GIS-based methodology to integrate community into the Environmental Protection Agency's Better Assessment Science Integrating Point and Nonpoint Sources (BASINS). The proposed methodology was used for the identification, measurement, and comparison of community areas within and between the upstream and downstream watersheds of the Upper Pearl River Basin in Mississippi. Drawing on various sources of data, the communities s…
Tanf Participation Rates
A general criticism of the 1996 Welfare Reform Act is that it is primarily the result of an urban political agenda, and it may hurt rather than help the rural poor. Under the new welfare system, the rural poor that are most likely to be affected are those who live in socially, economically, and spatially disadvantaged communities. More residents in these communities are likely to need TANF, clients in these communities are least likely to leave T…
Civic Responsibility and the Environment
In this article, we examine the extent to which variations in local social, economic, and spatial conditions might account for variation in community environmental activeness across 208 communities falling within nonmetropolitan areas in Mississippi. We use GIS technology to identify community boundaries, and use key informant and census data to measure community attributes. The findings indicate that community environmental activeness tends to b…
Disaster, Litigation, and the Corrosive Community
Disaster researchers have debated the utility of distinguishing “natural” from “technological” catastrophes. We suggest that litigation serves as a source of chronic stress for victims of human-caused disasters involved in court deliberations for damages. Data from the Exxon Valdez oil spill are used to evaluate a social structural model of disaster impacts three and one-half years after the event. Results suggest that the status of litigant and …
Does the Tanf Work-First Initiative Help Low-Income Families Make Successful Welfare-to-Work Transitions
A general argument is how states implement their TANF policy and the extent to which states build partnerships with local communities might affect the chances for low-income families to make a successful welfare-to-work transition. Using data gathered through a key-informant procedure, we find that many low-income families in Mississippi left the TANF rolls because the state implemented “front and back door” policy aimed at reducing caseloads rat…
Community Concentration of Poverty and Its Consequences on Nonmetro County Persistence of Poverty in Mississippi
In this article we examine differences in the spatial distribution of poverty within nonmetro counties in Mississippi, and the extent to which such differences might be related to the probability that a nonmetro county might be classified as persistently poor. This study contributes to the current literature by dividing the low-income population of the county between those residing in open territory and those within urban and rural census defined…
Post-Katrina Guiding Principles of Disaster Social Science Research
A Katrina Summit was held November 18–19 at Mississippi State University's Social Science Research Center (SSRC). Major funding was provided by the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station (MIS–605270). Duane Gill, SSRC Associate Director for Research on Society and Environment and Coordinator of the Societal Risk Unit, organized and presided over the Summit. The Summit included eighteen invited scholars (anthropologists, geograph…
Disaster Research and Hurricane Katrina
Secondary Trauma or Secondary Disaster? Insights From Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina is destined to become one of the most studied disasters in U.S. history. This manuscript offers a sociology of disaster framework in which to situate past, on-going, and future research on this event. By examining Katrina on a continuum of natural and technological disasters, we are able to gain insights into the different paths of impact and recovery taken by New Orleans and the rest of the disaster-stricken region. Specificall…
Social Capital Theory as an Integrating Theoretical Framework in Technological Disaster Research
Conceptual and empirical research on technological disasters has produced a number of seminal contributions including concepts of recreancy, collective trauma, lifestyle and lifescape change, corrosive community, secondary trauma, and the ecological-symbolic perspective. This article presents social capital theory as a comprehensive framework that incorporates and integrates these key conceptual elements and theories. After presenting fundamental…
The Selendang Ayu Shipwreck and Oil Spill
On December 8, 2004, the Selendang Ayu, a Malaysian-flagged freighter, ran aground off Unalaska Island in Alaska's Aleutian chain. Despite rescue efforts by the United States Coast Guard, six of the Selendang Ayu's crew members died. In addition to the deaths, more than 300,000 gallons of heavy bulk fuel oil spilled into the sea. Much of the oil washed onto the island's shores, into areas providing cultural, recreational, subsistence, and commerc…
Managing Tsunami Risk
This article describes the testing of a model that proposes that people's beliefs regarding the effectiveness of hazard preparedness interact with social context factors (community participation, collective efficacy, empowerment and trust) to influence levels of hazard preparedness. Using data obtained from people living in coastal communities in Alaska and Oregon that are susceptible to experiencing tsunami, structural equation modelling analyse…
Recreancy Revisited
In 1993, Freudenburg suggested the term “recreancy” to refer to behaviors associated with institutional failures, which he distinguished from the consequences of such failures. This article revisits issues related to recreancy associated with the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill. Using qualitative data collected in Cordova, Alaska, between 2002 and 2010, we examine notions about recreancy and technological disasters. Findings highlight perceptions of …
The Exxon Valdez and BP Oil Spills
The 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill and the 2010 BP oil spill were the largest and most ecologically damaging releases of oil in North American history. This research provides a comparison of the social and mental health impacts of these two major technological disasters. Random samples of residents of Cordova, Alaska, and south Mobile County, Alabama, were collected 5 months after each event. A standardized indicator of event-related stress was used…
Sociocultural and psychosocial impacts of the exxon valdez oil spill
Tracking Drought Perspectives
Rural towns are especially susceptible to the effects of drought because their economies are dependent on natural resources. However, they are also resilient in many ways to natural hazards because they are rich in civic engagement and social capital. Because of the diverse nature of drought’s impacts, understanding its complex dynamics and its effects requires a multidisciplinary approach. To study these dynamics, this research combines apprecia…
Mitigating Litigating
During the past four decades, a number of social science scholars have conceptualized technological disasters as a social problem. More specifically, research in this arena has identified individual and collective stress as a secondary trauma of processes intended to provide compensation and economic relief from disasters in general and, more specifically, technological disasters. Based on data from a 2013 household telephone survey of 1,216 resi…
Freudenburg, William R. (1951–2010)
William R. Freudenburg was a pathbreaking environmental sociologist who made major contributions to understanding the impacts of resource extraction and technological disasters on communities, the sociopolitical dimensions of risk, and the disproportionate impact of environmental hazards, among other topics. His work was notable for its use of innovative methodologies and development of keen theoretical insights
Analogies and Natural Cycles in Climate Change Skepticism
This paper examines the “natural cycles” explanation of climate change skepticism found among some Oklahomans. Natural cycles skepticism rejects the anthropogenic cause of climate change and asserts that observed weather changes are the result of the Earth's natural cycles. This explanation is a folk model, a type of cultural model, of the climate that makes analogic comparisons between present and past weather patterns. In this paper, we use ins…
Politics, climate change, and earthquakes
Factors influencing stress response avoidance behaviors following technological disasters
Building upon the growing body of empirical social science research examining psychosocial stress following natural, technological, and human-caused disasters, this article presents new research findings specifically regarding stress response avoidance behaviours. In this article, we present a conceptual model of factors contributing to such avoidance behaviours as measured by the Impact of Event Scale (IES) Avoidance subscale. We empirically tes…
Cultivating disaster resilience in rural Oklahoma
Geography (21 works) · Sociology (20 works) · Psychology (16 works) · Disaster Management and Resilience (15 works) · Political science (15 works) · Risk Perception and Management (15 works) · Economics (9 works) · Engineering (9 works) · Business (7 works) · Environmental resource management (7 works)