International Trade, the Environment, and Networks: Building Relational Understandings of Global Environmental Problems

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Date

2024-08-07

Authors

Theis, Nicholas

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University of Oregon

Abstract

This dissertation uses social network analysis to integrate the relationality of nation-states more fully into quantitative macro-environmental sociology. Specifically, I am interested in the following questions: How can social network analysis help develop more relational understandings of global environmental problems? And, how does global trade network position and integration provide meaningful contexts for better understanding relationships between domestic economic and technological factors and emissions? I answer these questions by conducting empirical investigations of case studies such as global end-of-life vessel exchanges; global crude oil extraction, trade position, and oil-related emissions; and the effects of global economic integration for renewable energy effectiveness in reducing emissions. I argue that methodological approaches incorporating network methods have important substantive implications for macro-environmental sociological questions. For ecologically unequal exchange theory, use of network simulations shifts the focus from value of commodities exchange to tie centralization, potentially a useful approach for understanding the global organization of disposal-side trade relations, which may involve only a few sites. Moreover, and perhaps more importantly, operationalizing the theory using network methods to classify countries based on trade position emphasizes extractive sites through trade relationships, more in line with the underlying theoretical foci relative to conventional approaches emphasizing national income bifurcations and export intensity to high income nations. For research on the economy-environment relationship, I depart from the vast majority of work that focuses on domestic measures, most significantly economic development. By employing network methods, a relational measure of international trade integration is produced, centering the research design not on the expansionary tendencies of capital, but rather on national integration into its global expansion. In this way, a novel conceptualization is applied to the question of the circumstances or contexts in which renewable energies reduce emissions. The use of network methods innovates research designs within quantitative macro-environmental sociology, more fully integrating the relationality of nation-states in the global economy and expanding the research space to ask questions surrounding how national positionality in trade networks modifies the effect of social, economic, and technological factors on environmental change.

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