Eric Bonds
Biographic Data
| ID | 288968 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Eric Bonds |
| GIVEN NAMES | Eric |
| FAMILY NAME | Bonds |
| SIGNATURE | BONDS E |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Mary Washington |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-6690-6663 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 18 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 55 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 18 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2007 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2021 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Historical Environmental Injustice Excavation
There is a growing desire across our country to understand the ways that historical injustices in America's racist past set the groundwork for today's racial inequalities. Scholars, students, and activists might meet this moment by conducting historical environmental injustice excavation. To demonstrate the multiple benefits of this straightforward and accessible case-study method, I present research on Hopewell, a small industrial city in Virgin…
Callous Cruelty and Counterinsurgency
Randall Collins coined the term callous cruelty to refer to the bureaucratic development and application of violence, which frequently results in widespread civilian impacts even when unintended. The U.S. military itself identified such outcomes as a major obstacle to success in counterinsurgency warfare during its occupation of Iraq, and consequently sought to more carefully target insurgents in ways that avoid or minimize civilian harm by furth…
Humanitized violence
Based on a qualitative content analysis of human rights reports, US military statements, and newspaper accounts, this article describes the ascendency of 'humanitized violence,' which characterizes airstrikes in the US war against the Islamic State (2014-2017). This hyper-rationalized violence utilizes precision weaponry, technical and administrative procedures to limit civilian deaths, and calculations to achieve goals in 'proportionality.' This…
U.S. sociology and the Iraq War
The 2003 U.S. invasion and subsequent occupation of Iraq had profound consequences for the people living in that nation. In this essay, I provide a brief overview of the dramatic changes that transpired in Iraq due to the war. I then move on to highlight the contributions U.S. sociologists have made in studies regarding the conflict, based on a review of articles published from 2003–2016 in ten generalist U.S.‐based journals. My review shows that…
Upending Climate Violence Research
There is a high-profile body of work asserting a link between anthropogenic climate change and increased rates of violence. There is also an expanding literature that is highly skeptical of this research. Critics point out that (1) this research has so far produced widely divergent findings, and that there is no consensus on a causal link between climate and the incidence of conflict. Critics also argue that much climate violence research (2) dra…
Treating People Like Pollution
Achieving environmental justice does not only require the provision of clean air and water in all the places where people carry out their lives, it also necessitates access to the very spaces of the urban environment. Through our research based on interview and archival data in a small U.S. city, we demonstrate that homeless persons are often viewed as a kind of environmental contaminant that should be cleaned up or kept out, either through the p…
Losing the Arctic
Global warming is transforming the Arctic. This study presents an analysis of prominent think tank and U.S. national security strategy documents in order to explore how both the corporate community and the U.S. government are responding to changes in the region. While sociologists have paid a great deal of attention to think tanks and climate denialism, this study introduces the term climate opportunism to describe how important segments within t…
Beyond Denialism
Sociologists have done important research documenting the key role that think tanks play in the climate change denialism movement in the United States, which has sought to mislead the American public about the realities of global warming. Sociologists have not, however, assessed the full range of ways that think tanks are responding to – or planning for – global environmental change. This article proposes a typology of elite responses to global w…
Legitimating the environmental injustices of war
During the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, the US Department of Defense burned the majority of its solid waste in open-air pits or trenches, producing large amounts of potentially hazardous emissions. While journalists have covered stories of US service members who link their illnesses to these fumes, they have almost entirely ignored potential civilian impacts. However, satellite images demonstrate that pollution from open-air trash burning on US bas…
Challenging Global Warming's New “Security Threat” Status
Our particular historical era is beset by monumental challenges, one of the foremost of which is climate change. Certainly it poses an existential threat to many of the world's great cities. And gl
Terrorizing Violence and the Iraq War
The extent to which global humanitarian norms can matter in terms of nation-state behavior is a much-debated topic among those who study the international order. This article argues that even long-standing and deeply held norms outlawing the targeting of civilians in war have not stopped the United States from regularly using such violence. In particular, this article examines two instances of what is described as terrorizing violence—targeting c…
Hegemony and Humanitarian Norms
Despite widespread beliefs that the United States has not used chemical weapons since the distant past of World War I, this study suggests a more complicated history by examining U.S. use of herbicides and incapacitating gases in the Vietnam War and its use of herbicides in the "War on Drugs." This article places such use of toxic violence within a context of U.S. hegemony, by which U.S. officials have used contested forms of violence to secure g…
Assessing the Oil Motive After the U.S. War in Iraq
Much opposition to the U.S. invasion of Iraq was based on the idea that it had little or nothing to do with threats to national security, but was instead motivated by a U.S. drive to control or at
Green Technology and Ecologically Unequal Exchange
This paper contributes to understandings of ecologically unequal exchange within the world-systems perspective by offering a series of case studies of ecological modernization in the automobile industry. The case studies demonstrate that green technologies developed and instituted in core nations often require specific raw materials that are extracted from the periphery and semi-periphery. Extraction of such natural resources causes significant e…
The Knowledge-Shaping Process
Both using and contributing to power structure research, this article presents evidence that corporate and military elites form networks and mobilize resources to influence the development of environmental policy. This influence may be achieved when elites form and utilize knowledge-shaping processes, which involve four principle exercises of power. First, elites suppress information that may threaten their interests. Second, elites organize and …
Natural Resource Extraction, Armed Violence, and Environmental Degradation
The goal of this article is to demonstrate that environmental sociologists cannot fully explain the relationship between humans and the natural world without theorizing a link between natural resource extraction, armed violence, and environmental degradation. The authors begin by arguing that armed violence is one of several overlapping mechanisms that provide powerful actors with the means to (a) prevail over others in conflicts over natural res…
Strategic Role Taking and Political Struggle
U.S. and Canadian peace activists traveled to Iraq as a social movement tactic, in the buildup to the war and during the war itself, in an attempt to sustain or increase peace activism at home. Based on interviews with fourteen peace activists, this study analyzes how the presence of antiwar activists in Iraq serves two social movement goals. First, their presence in Iraq bestowed activists increased access to media, bolstering their ability to r…
Environmental Review as Battleground
Environmental reviews are required in the United States to determine in what ways and to what extent a proposed industrial development will affect the natural environment and human health. In this study, the author considers environmental reviews within the context of the treadmill of production and contributes to the empirical literature on the Treadmill of Production Model. The author does so by closely examining how power was exercised within …
Green Technology and Ecologically Unequal Exchange
This paper contributes to understandings of ecologically unequal exchange within the world-systems perspective by offering a series of case studies of ecological modernization in the automobile industry. The case studies demonstrate that green technologies developed and instituted in core nations often require specific raw materials that are extracted from the periphery and semi-periphery. Extraction of such natural resources causes significant e…
The Knowledge-Shaping Process
Both using and contributing to power structure research, this article presents evidence that corporate and military elites form networks and mobilize resources to influence the development of environmental policy. This influence may be achieved when elites form and utilize knowledge-shaping processes, which involve four principle exercises of power. First, elites suppress information that may threaten their interests. Second, elites organize and …
Beyond Denialism
Sociologists have done important research documenting the key role that think tanks play in the climate change denialism movement in the United States, which has sought to mislead the American public about the realities of global warming. Sociologists have not, however, assessed the full range of ways that think tanks are responding to – or planning for – global environmental change. This article proposes a typology of elite responses to global w…
Hegemony and Humanitarian Norms
Despite widespread beliefs that the United States has not used chemical weapons since the distant past of World War I, this study suggests a more complicated history by examining U.S. use of herbicides and incapacitating gases in the Vietnam War and its use of herbicides in the "War on Drugs." This article places such use of toxic violence within a context of U.S. hegemony, by which U.S. officials have used contested forms of violence to secure g…
Legitimating the environmental injustices of war
During the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, the US Department of Defense burned the majority of its solid waste in open-air pits or trenches, producing large amounts of potentially hazardous emissions. While journalists have covered stories of US service members who link their illnesses to these fumes, they have almost entirely ignored potential civilian impacts. However, satellite images demonstrate that pollution from open-air trash burning on US bas…
Challenging Global Warming's New “Security Threat” Status
Our particular historical era is beset by monumental challenges, one of the foremost of which is climate change. Certainly it poses an existential threat to many of the world's great cities. And gl
Losing the Arctic
Global warming is transforming the Arctic. This study presents an analysis of prominent think tank and U.S. national security strategy documents in order to explore how both the corporate community and the U.S. government are responding to changes in the region. While sociologists have paid a great deal of attention to think tanks and climate denialism, this study introduces the term climate opportunism to describe how important segments within t…
Strategic Role Taking and Political Struggle
U.S. and Canadian peace activists traveled to Iraq as a social movement tactic, in the buildup to the war and during the war itself, in an attempt to sustain or increase peace activism at home. Based on interviews with fourteen peace activists, this study analyzes how the presence of antiwar activists in Iraq serves two social movement goals. First, their presence in Iraq bestowed activists increased access to media, bolstering their ability to r…
U.S. sociology and the Iraq War
The 2003 U.S. invasion and subsequent occupation of Iraq had profound consequences for the people living in that nation. In this essay, I provide a brief overview of the dramatic changes that transpired in Iraq due to the war. I then move on to highlight the contributions U.S. sociologists have made in studies regarding the conflict, based on a review of articles published from 2003–2016 in ten generalist U.S.‐based journals. My review shows that…
Terrorizing Violence and the Iraq War
The extent to which global humanitarian norms can matter in terms of nation-state behavior is a much-debated topic among those who study the international order. This article argues that even long-standing and deeply held norms outlawing the targeting of civilians in war have not stopped the United States from regularly using such violence. In particular, this article examines two instances of what is described as terrorizing violence—targeting c…
Assessing the Oil Motive After the U.S. War in Iraq
Much opposition to the U.S. invasion of Iraq was based on the idea that it had little or nothing to do with threats to national security, but was instead motivated by a U.S. drive to control or at
Environmental Review as Battleground
Environmental reviews are required in the United States to determine in what ways and to what extent a proposed industrial development will affect the natural environment and human health. In this study, the author considers environmental reviews within the context of the treadmill of production and contributes to the empirical literature on the Treadmill of Production Model. The author does so by closely examining how power was exercised within …
Strategic Role Taking and Political Struggle
U.S. and Canadian peace activists traveled to Iraq as a social movement tactic, in the buildup to the war and during the war itself, in an attempt to sustain or increase peace activism at home. Based on interviews with fourteen peace activists, this study analyzes how the presence of antiwar activists in Iraq serves two social movement goals. First, their presence in Iraq bestowed activists increased access to media, bolstering their ability to r…
Natural Resource Extraction, Armed Violence, and Environmental Degradation
The goal of this article is to demonstrate that environmental sociologists cannot fully explain the relationship between humans and the natural world without theorizing a link between natural resource extraction, armed violence, and environmental degradation. The authors begin by arguing that armed violence is one of several overlapping mechanisms that provide powerful actors with the means to (a) prevail over others in conflicts over natural res…
The Knowledge-Shaping Process
Both using and contributing to power structure research, this article presents evidence that corporate and military elites form networks and mobilize resources to influence the development of environmental policy. This influence may be achieved when elites form and utilize knowledge-shaping processes, which involve four principle exercises of power. First, elites suppress information that may threaten their interests. Second, elites organize and …
Green Technology and Ecologically Unequal Exchange
This paper contributes to understandings of ecologically unequal exchange within the world-systems perspective by offering a series of case studies of ecological modernization in the automobile industry. The case studies demonstrate that green technologies developed and instituted in core nations often require specific raw materials that are extracted from the periphery and semi-periphery. Extraction of such natural resources causes significant e…
Hegemony and Humanitarian Norms
Despite widespread beliefs that the United States has not used chemical weapons since the distant past of World War I, this study suggests a more complicated history by examining U.S. use of herbicides and incapacitating gases in the Vietnam War and its use of herbicides in the "War on Drugs." This article places such use of toxic violence within a context of U.S. hegemony, by which U.S. officials have used contested forms of violence to secure g…
Assessing the Oil Motive After the U.S. War in Iraq
Much opposition to the U.S. invasion of Iraq was based on the idea that it had little or nothing to do with threats to national security, but was instead motivated by a U.S. drive to control or at
Terrorizing Violence and the Iraq War
The extent to which global humanitarian norms can matter in terms of nation-state behavior is a much-debated topic among those who study the international order. This article argues that even long-standing and deeply held norms outlawing the targeting of civilians in war have not stopped the United States from regularly using such violence. In particular, this article examines two instances of what is described as terrorizing violence—targeting c…
Challenging Global Warming's New “Security Threat” Status
Our particular historical era is beset by monumental challenges, one of the foremost of which is climate change. Certainly it poses an existential threat to many of the world's great cities. And gl
Upending Climate Violence Research
There is a high-profile body of work asserting a link between anthropogenic climate change and increased rates of violence. There is also an expanding literature that is highly skeptical of this research. Critics point out that (1) this research has so far produced widely divergent findings, and that there is no consensus on a causal link between climate and the incidence of conflict. Critics also argue that much climate violence research (2) dra…
Treating People Like Pollution
Achieving environmental justice does not only require the provision of clean air and water in all the places where people carry out their lives, it also necessitates access to the very spaces of the urban environment. Through our research based on interview and archival data in a small U.S. city, we demonstrate that homeless persons are often viewed as a kind of environmental contaminant that should be cleaned up or kept out, either through the p…
Losing the Arctic
Global warming is transforming the Arctic. This study presents an analysis of prominent think tank and U.S. national security strategy documents in order to explore how both the corporate community and the U.S. government are responding to changes in the region. While sociologists have paid a great deal of attention to think tanks and climate denialism, this study introduces the term climate opportunism to describe how important segments within t…
Beyond Denialism
Sociologists have done important research documenting the key role that think tanks play in the climate change denialism movement in the United States, which has sought to mislead the American public about the realities of global warming. Sociologists have not, however, assessed the full range of ways that think tanks are responding to – or planning for – global environmental change. This article proposes a typology of elite responses to global w…
Legitimating the environmental injustices of war
During the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, the US Department of Defense burned the majority of its solid waste in open-air pits or trenches, producing large amounts of potentially hazardous emissions. While journalists have covered stories of US service members who link their illnesses to these fumes, they have almost entirely ignored potential civilian impacts. However, satellite images demonstrate that pollution from open-air trash burning on US bas…
U.S. sociology and the Iraq War
The 2003 U.S. invasion and subsequent occupation of Iraq had profound consequences for the people living in that nation. In this essay, I provide a brief overview of the dramatic changes that transpired in Iraq due to the war. I then move on to highlight the contributions U.S. sociologists have made in studies regarding the conflict, based on a review of articles published from 2003–2016 in ten generalist U.S.‐based journals. My review shows that…
Callous Cruelty and Counterinsurgency
Randall Collins coined the term callous cruelty to refer to the bureaucratic development and application of violence, which frequently results in widespread civilian impacts even when unintended. The U.S. military itself identified such outcomes as a major obstacle to success in counterinsurgency warfare during its occupation of Iraq, and consequently sought to more carefully target insurgents in ways that avoid or minimize civilian harm by furth…
Humanitized violence
Based on a qualitative content analysis of human rights reports, US military statements, and newspaper accounts, this article describes the ascendency of 'humanitized violence,' which characterizes airstrikes in the US war against the Islamic State (2014-2017). This hyper-rationalized violence utilizes precision weaponry, technical and administrative procedures to limit civilian deaths, and calculations to achieve goals in 'proportionality.' This…
Historical Environmental Injustice Excavation
There is a growing desire across our country to understand the ways that historical injustices in America's racist past set the groundwork for today's racial inequalities. Scholars, students, and activists might meet this moment by conducting historical environmental injustice excavation. To demonstrate the multiple benefits of this straightforward and accessible case-study method, I present research on Hopewell, a small industrial city in Virgin…
Political science (17 works) · Law (15 works) · Sociology (12 works) · Law (10 works) · Criminology (8 works) · Politics (8 works) · Ecology (5 works) · Economics (5 works) · Health and Conflict Studies (5 works) · Climate change (4 works)