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James D. Proctor

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Jim Proctor
BornDecember 27, 1957
Canyonville, Oregon
EducationUniversity of Oregon

University of New Mexico

UC Berkeley (PhD)
Occupation(s)Professor Environmental Studies, Lewis and Clark College

James "Jim" D. Proctor (December 27, 1957) is an American geographer, the editor and author of numerous books and articles, and professor of environmental studies at Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Oregon (2005–2024). Before coming to Lewis and Clark College, he teaches in the department of geography at the University of California, Santa Barbara (1992–2005). In 2002, Proctor founded the Alder Creek Community Forest educational nonprofit in his birthplace of Canyonville, Oregon.[1] Proctor was also a senior fellow at the Breakthrough Institute.

Career

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Proctor's scholarship in environmental theory has gone through three main phases. Following his PhD thesis on the ethics and ideology of the Pacific Northwest spotted owl debate,[2] Proctor primarily published on concepts of nature in contemporary American environmentalism.[3][4] He next explored science and religion,[5] again in the context of human/biophysical nature and recent environmental movements.[6] Most recently,[when?] Proctor has published in conjunction with his work in environmental studies,[7] including theory, pedagogy, and their interweaving in environmental engagement across ideological difference.[8]

Proctor is known as a critic of many key concepts that inform contemporary American environmentalism, including nature, sustainability, and even environment—"...at least in the sense that environment is generally understood today."[9] His approach could be called "post-naturalism," especially as articulated via the longtime influence of Bruno Latour, in works such as Politics of Nature[10] and We Have Never Been Modern.[11] As with Latour, Proctor's post-naturalism is less a rejection of environmental concern than a repudiation of certain binary assumptions it has inherited from modernity ("counting to two"), as well as common holistic solutions ("counting to one").[12] Proctor's publications replace these options with counting beneath two,[13] involving more dynamic, relational approaches to nature and environment.[14]

More recently,[when?] Proctor has published on environmental engagement,[15] building in part on his biography as an urban Oregonian with longstanding roots in rural Oregon, and responding to U.S. political trends suggesting increasing polarization.[15] Proctor has argued for engagement as a third way beyond simple agreement or disagreement among people who differ on issues of environment, one marked by "creative tension," an embrace of paradox as deep environmental truths come into productive conflict with each other[16]

Proctor launched EcoTypes, an educational and research initiative, in 2017. EcoTypes is a free, anonymous online survey with associated resources designed for participants to explore their environmental worldviews, or EcoTypes, and to explore the possibility that many care, just differently. EcoTypes starts with a broad range of fundamental environmental differences known as axes (12 total), which have yielded three statistically-derived themes called Place, Knowledge, and Action; EcoTypes are patterns in these themes.[17] As of summer 2023, the EcoTypes survey has been completed over 10,000 times, with cross-national collaboration and a related scholarly project underway on environmental frameworks and imaginaries.

References

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  1. ^ "History and Mission". Alder Creek Community Forest.
  2. ^ Proctor, James D. (1992). "The owl, the forest, and the trees: Eco-Ideological conflict in the Pacific Northwest.” Ph.D. dissertation, Berkeley, CA: University of California, Berkeley.
  3. ^ Proctor, James D. (September 1, 1998). "The Social Construction of Nature: Relativist Accusations, Pragmatist and Critical Realist Responses". Annals of the Association of American Geographers. 88 (3): 352–376. doi:10.1111/0004-5608.00105. ISSN 0004-5608.
  4. ^ Proctor, James D (1995). "Whose nature? The contested moral terrain of ancient forests". Uncommon Ground: Toward Reinventing Nature. New York.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  5. ^ Proctor, James D. (2005). Science, Religion, and the Human Experience. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  6. ^ Proctor, Jim (2006). "Religion as Trust in Authority: Theocracy and Ecology in the United States". Annals of the Association of American Geographers. 96: 188–96. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8306.2006.00508.x. S2CID 27048405.
  7. ^ Proctor, James D.; Bernstein, Jennifer; Wallace, Richard L. (June 1, 2015). "Introduction: unsettling the ESS curriculum". Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences. 5 (2): 195–199. doi:10.1007/s13412-015-0253-9. ISSN 2190-6491. S2CID 67761406.
  8. ^ Proctor, James D. (June 1, 2020). "Introduction: the value of environmental disagreement". Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences. 10 (2): 156–159. doi:10.1007/s13412-020-00591-z. ISSN 2190-6491. S2CID 213441413.
  9. ^ Proctor, James (2009). "Environment After Nature: time for a new vision". Envisioning Nature, Science, and Religion: 293–311 – via The Breakthrough Institute.
  10. ^ Latour, Bruno (2004). Politics of Nature: How to Bring the Sciences into Democracy. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.
  11. ^ Latour, Bruno (1993). We Have Never Been Modern. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.
  12. ^ Proctor, James D. (December 1, 2016). "Replacing nature in environmental studies and sciences". Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences. 6 (4): 748–752. doi:10.1007/s13412-015-0259-3. ISSN 2190-6491. S2CID 142425322.
  13. ^ Proctor, James D. (1998). "Geography, Paradox and Environmental Ethics". Progress in Human Geography. 22 (2): 234–55. doi:10.1191/030913298667632852. S2CID 54620151.
  14. ^ Proctor, James D. (2001). Castree, Noel; Braun, Bruce (eds.). Solid Rock and Shifting Sands: The Moral Paradox of Saving a Socially-Constructed Nature. Malden, Mass: Blackwell Publishers. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  15. ^ a b Proctor, James D.; Bernstein, Jennifer; Brick, Philip; Brush, Emma; Caplow, Susan; Foster, Kenneth (September 1, 2018). "Environmental engagement in troubled times: a manifesto". Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences. 8 (3): 362–367. doi:10.1007/s13412-018-0484-7. ISSN 2190-6491. S2CID 158543663.
  16. ^ Proctor, James D. "EcoTypes: Exploring Environmental Ideas, Discovering Deep Difference.” Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences 10, no. 2 (June 2020): 178–88. doi:10.1007/s13412-020-00592-y.
  17. ^ Proctor, James D. (June 1, 2020). "EcoTypes: exploring environmental ideas, discovering deep difference". Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences. 10 (2): 178–188. doi:10.1007/s13412-020-00592-y. ISSN 2190-6491. S2CID 214366564.
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