Kerry WHITESIDE

Contact:

Courriel: kerry.whiteside@fandm.edu

Kerry Whiteside's research goes in two principal directions -- both in relation to political ecology. "Ecology" here refers to the growing recognition of the existence of natural resource limits, of large scale geo-bio-physical cycles necessary for the maintenance of life, and of values pertaining to the continued existence of physical and biological entities without direct, utilitarian significance to human beings. "Political ecology" then deals with new questions about social organization and legitimation that arise as societies see the need to protect these "ecological" goods.

Whiteside's first line of research investigates political ecology as a form of political theory. English-speaking, French and German theorists have all argued that ecological problems are destined to challenge ways of thinking that have prevailed in Western political thought for the last 2500 years. Traditional conceptions of value, human subjectivity, contractual obligation, and even scientific knowledge incorporate "pre-ecological" perspectives that must be revised in light of today's environmental problems. Whiteside studies, compares and engages in critical analysis of contemporary thinkers who develop this argument. In addition, he looks at both the potential and the limits of "pre-ecological" thinkers to contribute to political ecology.

In a second line of research, he studies efforts in the both European and American environmental politics to devise new norms and forms of social organization in response to ecological challenges. Thus his work includes articles on the French Green Party (Les Verts), on the inclusion of the "precautionary principle" into European law, and on France's constitutional charter. Essential to these institutional studies is careful, comparative attention to the cultural values that inflect environmental practices in different polities. Currently Prof. Whiteside is working with Dominique Bourg on a book examining how environmental questions favor deliberative rather than representative democratic forms.

Bradley R. Dewey Award for Outstanding Scholarship, Franklin & Marshall College, 2009

Clair R. McCollough Professor of Government at Franklin & Marshall College, 2002

Invited Guest Professor, Fondation Nationale des Sciences Politiques, Paris, 2002

Christian R. and Mary F. Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching, Franklin &

Marshall College, 1998.

Institute of European Studies, Paris: Associate, Fall 1995

National Endowment for the Humanities, Summer Stipend Award, 1990

Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst Scholarship, Goethe Institute, Mannheim, Summer 1987.

Charlotte Elizabeth Proctor Dissertation Fellowship, Princeton University, 1981-82.

Bourse d'études du gouvernement français, 1980-81.

French-American Foundation De Tocqueville Grant, 1980-81.

Fulbright-Hays Travel Award, 1980-81.

Social Science Research Council, International Doctoral Research Award: (Western European Studies, 1980-81).

Princeton University Committee for European Studies: Travel Grant, 1979.

Political Theory (Ancient, Modern, Contemporary, Ecological Theory)

Western European Politics (France, Great Britain, Germany, European Union).

Chair, Department of Government, Franklin & Marshall College, 1991-1994.

Professor, Dept. of Government, Franklin & Marshall College, 1983 to present.

Lecturer, Dept. of Politics, Princeton University, Spring 1980 and Spring 1983.

Books:

Merleau-Ponty and the Foundation of an Existential Politics, Princeton University Press, 1988, 329 pages.

Divided Natures: French Contributions to Political Ecology, MIT Press, 2002, 321 pages.

Precautionary Politics: Principle and Practice in Confronting Environmental Risk, MIT Press, 2006, 182 pages.
 

Articles:

"France’s Grenelle de l’Environnement: Openings and Closures in Ecological Democracy," with Daniel Boy and Dominique Bourg, Environmental Politics, forthcoming 2010.

"Pour une démocratie écologique"/"For an Ecological Democracy", with Dominique Bourg, La Vie des Idées (September 2009), 33 pages. Available at: http://www.laviedesidees.fr/Pour-une-democratie-ecologique.html

"Critical Dialogues: Reply to Barrett," Perspectives on Politics, 7:1 (March 2009), pp. 158-159.

"Precaution and Science-Based Environmental Risk Management: Complementary not Contradictory," in Urbano Fra, ed. Building Safer Communities: Risk Governance, Spatial Planning and Responses to Natural Hazards, Amsterdam, IOS Press: 2009.

"France's Charter for the Environment: Of Presidents, Principles and Environmental Protection," with Dominique Bourg, Modern and Contemporary France 15:2 (May 2007), pp. 117-133.

"Postface" in Pourquoi tardons-nous tant à devenir écologistes?: Limites de la postmodernité et société écologique, edited by Denis Duclos. Paris: L'Harmattan 2007.

"Une écologie humaniste, Les Natures difficiles: Une comparaison France-Amérique du Nord" in Le développement durable: Les Termes du débat, ed. Marie-Claude Smouts, Armand Colin, 2005, pp. 37-45, and discussion, pp. 50-51.

"Postface" in Le Futur écologique comme frontière de la pensée," edited by Denis Duclos. Paris: Le Passage, Forthcoming 2005.

"Beyond the Nature-Culture Dualism: The Ecology of Earth-Homeland," World Futures: The Journal of General Evolution 60:5-6(July-September 2004), pp. 357-369.

"Nouvelles technologies, peurs alimentaires et principe de précaution: analyse comparée des sensibilités européenne et américaine," Déméter 2005: Économies et Stratégie agricoles, pp. 173-191.

"Le principe de précaution: Un principe problématique mais nécessaire," with Dominique Bourg, Le Débat 129(mars-avril 2004), pp. 153-174

"Humanisme et Terroir: The Culture of Genetically Modified Crops in France," French Politics, Culture and Society 21:3(Fall 2003), pp. 73-90.

"French Regulatory Republicanism and the Risks of Genetically Modified Crops," French Politics 1(2003), pp. 153-174.

"Les penseurs français de l'écologie politique: Regards croisés franco-américains," The Tocqueville Review/La Revue Tocqueville XXIV:1 (2003), pp. 135-148, plus debate, pp. 149-160.

"The French Elections of 2002: Green Blues," Environmental Politics 12:1 (Spring 2003), pp. 241-245.

"Justice Uncertain: Judith Shklar on Liberalism, Skepticism and Equality," Polity 31:3(Spring 1999), pp. 501-524.

"Systems Theory and Humanism in Continental Ecologism," Policy Studies Journal 26:4(Winter 1998), pp. 636-656.

"Worldliness and Respect for Nature: An Ecological Application of Hannah Arendt's Conception of Culture," Environmental Values 7:1(February 1998), pp. 25-40.

"French Ecosocialism: From Utopia to Contract," Environmental Politics 6:3(Autumn 1997), pp. 99-124.

"René Dumont and the Fate of Political Ecology in France," Contemporary French Civilization XXI:1 (Winter/Spring 1997), pp. 1-17.

"Von der Natur zur Freiheit -- von der Freiheit zur Natur: Hannah Arendt über der Sorge zur Welt," in Hannah Arendt Nach dem Totalitarismus, ed. Daniel Ganzfried and Sebastian Hefti (Hamburg: Europäische Verlaganstalt, 1997), pp. 155-175.

"Regulation, Ecology, Ethics: The Red-Green Politics of Alain Lipietz," Capitalism, Nature, Socialism 7:3 (September, 1996), pp. 31-55.

"The Resurgence of Ecological Political Thought in France," French Politics and Society 13:2 (Spring, 1995), pp. 1-16.

"Hannah Arendt and Ecological Politics," Environmental Ethics (Winter, 1994), pp. 339-358.

"Malraux and the Problem of a Political Metaphysics," French Forum 18:2 (May, 1993), pp. 195-212.

"Urbanisation and the Genealogy of Freedom in Marx and Tocqueville," History of European Ideas, 15:4-6(1992), pp. 473-479.

"Merleau-Ponty and the Uses of Malraux's Writings," Revue André Malraux Review, 23:1/2(Spring/Fall, 1991), pp. 85-101.

"The Political Practice of the Verts," Modern and Contemporary France 48 (January 1992), pp. 14-21.

"Universality and Violence: Merleau-Ponty, Malraux, and the Moral Logic of Liberalism," Philosophy Today 35:4 (Winter 1991), pp. 372-389.

"Hobbes's 'Ultranominalist' Critique of Natural Right," Polity 20, no. 3 (Spring 1988), pp. 457-478.

"Nominalism and Conceptualism in Hobbes's Political Theory," Commonwealth 1(1987), pp. 1-25.

"Perspectivism and Historical Objectivity: Merleau-Ponty's Covert Debate with Raymond Aron," History and Theory 21: 2 (May 1986), pp. 132-151.

"The Merleau-Ponty Bibliography: Additions and Corrections," Journal of the History of Philosophy 21:2 (April 1983), pp. 195-201.
 

Book Reviews:

"Why Cooperate? The Incentive to Supply Global Public Goods, by Scott Barrett," Perspectives on Politics, 7:1 (March 2009), pp. 155-156.

"Denaturalizing Ecological Politics: Alienation from Nature from Rousseau to the Frankfurt School and Beyond, by Andrew Biro. " Perspectives on Politics (forthcoming).

"Citizenship and the Environment, by Andrew Dobson," Political Theory 33:6(December 2005), pp. 901-904.

" The Light-Green Society: Ecology and Technological Modernity in France, 1960-2000, by Michael Bess." Environmental Values 14:1(February 2005), pp. 138-140.

"Justice & Nature: Kantian Philosophy, Environmental Policy, & the Law, by John Martin Gillroy." American Political Science Review 96(September 2002), p. 638.

"Hobbes and Christianity: Reassessing the Bible in Leviathan, by Paul D. Cooke," American Political Science Review 91:3(September 1997), pp. 717-718.

"Enlightenment's Wake: Politics and Culture at the Close of the Modern Age, by John Gray," Journal of Politics 59:3( August 1997), pp. 959-961.

"Earth and Sky, by Galen Johnson," Philosophy of the Social Sciences 22:2 (June 1992), pp. 271-275.

"Situation and Human Existence, by Sonia Kruks," The Review of Politics 53:3 (1991), pp. 573-576.

"The Company of Critics, by Michael Walzer," Political Theory 17: 4 (November 1989), pp. 689-692.

"The Political Philosophy of Merleau-Ponty, by Sonia Kruks," American Political Science Review 76:4 (December 1982), p. 967.
 

Presentations at Professional Conferences:

"For a Deliberative Interpretation of the Precautionary Principle," Association for Political Theory, Colorado Springs, CO, October 29-31, 2004.

"Why Should Precaution Be Principled?", Western Political Science Association, Portland, OR, March 12, 2004.

"New and Recent Books in Environmental Politics: Divided Natures," Western Political Science Association, Long Beach, CA, March 22, 2002.

"Humanisme et Terroir: French Regulatory Republicanism and the Risks of Genetically Engineered Crops," American Political Science Association convention, San Francisco, August 30-September 2, 2001.

"Democratizing Nature in French Ecologism," International Political Science Association convention, Quebec, Canada, August 3-5, 2000.

"Personalizing Nature: 'Nature' and the Divided Psyche," Midwest Political Science Association, Chicago, IL, April 28, 2000.

"Ecologism Without Wilderness: Politicizing Nature in the Work of Michel Serres and Bruno Latour," Western Political Science Association meeting, Seattle, WA, March 27, 1999.

"Systems Theory and Humanism in Continental Ecologism," Midwestern Political Science Association Convention, April 1997.

"Backing into Liberalism: Cruelty, Equality and Limited Government according to Judith Shklar, American Political Science Association Convention, August 1996.

"From Nature to Freedom and Back: Arendt on Preserving the World," Hannah Arendt Tage, Zürich, Switzerland, June 20-22, 1996.

"The Resurgence of Ecological Political Thought in France," Western Political Science Association Convention, March 1994.

"Hannah Arendt's Phenomenology of Productivism: The Human Condition and Ecological Politics," Western Political Science Association Convention, March 1992.

"Urbanisation and the Genealogy of Freedom in Marx and Tocqueville," Conference of the International Society for the Study of European Ideas, Louvain, Belgium, 1990.

"Merleau-Ponty's 'New Liberalism' and Malraux's History of Art: Aesthetic Sources of French Liberalism in the 1950s," New England Political Science Association Convention, April 1990.

"Urbanisation and Revolution: Tocqueville and Marx on the Conditions of Political Transformation in 1789," American Political Science Association Annual Convention, September 1989.

"Paris in Political Reflection: Rousseau, Tocqueville, Marx," Northeastern Political Science Association, November 1988.

"Internal vs. External Political Theory," Northeastern Political Science Association, November 1987.

Discussant, Panel on "Community and Free Subjectivity," American Political Science Association Annual Convention, September 1987.

Discussant, Panel on "The Liberal Response to Communitarianism," Midwest Political Science Association, Annual Convention, April 1987.

"The Medieval Contribution to Political Theory," American Political Science Association Annual Convention, August 1986.

Commentator on J. Donald Moon's "The Moral Basis of the Democratic Welfare State," for Princeton University faculty seminar series on "Democracy and the Welfare State, November 14, 1985.

Discussant, Panel on "Aristotle: Problems, Interpretations, Comparisons," Northeastern Political Science Association, November 1985

"Nominalism and Natural Law," Pennsylvania Political Science Association, April 1985.

French (fluent);

German (reading & some speaking ability).