Environment, Migration and Movement

MSU sociologists engaged in scholarship on the Environment, Migration and Movement focus on a wide range of topics including, but not limited to, climate change, agriculture and food systems, animal studies, and water resources.  We also examine the social psychology of environmental concern, public opinion, political economy, and the role of institutions in shaping human-environment interactions.  A core group of MSU faculty studies how science and technology mediate the relationship between humans and the environment, especially regarding the perception, management, and change of environmental phenomena.  In addition, many MSU faculty regularly engage in interdisciplinary research projects.

Humans affect and are affected by the environment in myriad ways.  We change ecosystems and even the biosphere by our food and energy production, our waste disposal, our use of land, and our interactions with other species.  We are in turn affected by climate change, pollution, and changes in ecosystem structure and function and in the ecosystem on which we depend.  In recent decades, sociologists have come to systematically investigate human-environment intersections, examining how humans (individually, in organizations, or in larger social groups) affect the biophysical environment and how the biophysical environment influences social phenomena.

The MSU faculty who study the environment have considerable expertise and conduct research in the following areas:

  • agricultural land management, sustainability, and decision-making
  • bioenergy development
  • coupled human and natural systems
  • domestic and international public opinion on the environment
  • environmental social movements
  • global environmental change
  • human-animal interactions
  • risk
  • sustainability
  • water quality and management

More than 215 million people (3% of the world population) live outside their country of origin, a number projected to double by 2050.  Close to 1 billion people (13% of world population) have crossed administrative geo-boundaries at least once. Migration involves the transference of ideologies, identities, religion, political, and other social, economic, and cultural traits and practices. The MSU Department of Sociology is a recognized center of expertise and excellence in research, teaching and outreach on migration, transnationalism and diaspora. MSU Department of Sociology faculty critically examines not only the forces behind human movement, but also the diversity of the populations involved and the impact that they have in sending and receiving communities. MSU migration scholars apply the full range of sociological methods, from visual sociology and cultural studies, to historical analysis, ethnography, demography, and census analysis and survey research. Faculty research on migration has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, and the Social Science Research Council, and various Foundations and has been reported in national and international media.

The MSU faculty who study migration have considerable expertise and conduct research in the following areas:

  • the African Diaspora
  • the demography of migration
  • development and migration
  • the environment and migration
  • gender and migration
  • health and migration
  • migrant ethnic entrepreneurship, communities, and conflict
  • migrant integration
  • migration, race, and refugees
  • migration research methods

Research