Edward Weber

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Edward Weber

Ulysses Dubach Professor - Political Science
School of Public Policy

Bexell Hall 410
2251 SW Campus Way
Corvallis, OR 97331
United States

Edward P. Weber received his B.A. in Political Science (1978) from Colorado State University, and his M.A. (1991) and Ph.D. (1996) in political science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.  Between 1978 and 1989, he worked in the private sector as a Project Manager and then CEO/owner of a small business.  In 1996, Weber joined Washington State University as an assistant professor of Political Science, where he rose to the rank of Full Professor and in 2007 was named the College of Liberal Arts Edward R. Meyer Distinguished Professor of Public Administration and Policy.  While at WSU, Weber also was the Director of the Thomas S. Foley Institute for Public Policy and Public Service for eight years (2001-2008).  In addition, he served as an Affiliated Professor in the joint WSU-University of Washington William Ruckelshaus Center for Policy Consensus, a Faculty Associate at the WSU Center for Integrated Biotechnology, and an Affiliated Professor in WSU’s Program in Environmental Science. From 2009 – 2012 Weber served as Professor and Director of the School of Environmental and Public Affairs at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

Weber specializes in American political institutions, regulation, bureaucracy, and public policy.  His research focuses on the role of bureaucracy and regulation in a democracy, and recent attempts to reinvent government and bring society back into the governing process, particularly the growing use of innovative regulatory programs, new ways to organize and control bureaucracy, and collaborative governance frameworks.  Virtually all of these endeavors focus on the field of environmental/ natural resource policy, especially water resource policy, watershed governance, and sustainability.

Weber is the author of Bringing Society Back In: Grass-Roots Ecosystem Management, Accountability, and Sustainable Communities (MIT Press 2003) and Pluralism by the Rules: Conflict and Cooperation in Environmental Regulation (Georgetown University Press 1998).  He has also published over 40 refereed journal articles and book chapters in outlets such as Public Administration Review, Administration and Society, Society and Natural Resources, Policy Studies Journal, American Review of Public Administration, International Journal of Organization Theory and Behavior, Political Science, The Journal of Natural Resource Policy Research, Journal of Environmental Policy and Planning, Small-Scale Forestry, Journal of Forestry, Global Environmental Change, and Environment.

From 2003 to 2005, Weber was Director of the WSU-International Christian University (Tokyo, Japan) Peace and Security Research Partnership, and in 2006 he completed a large ($650,000) 4-year project in Central Asia sponsored by the U.S. State Department.  The project developed problem solving capacity for natural resource and agriculture-based problems using workshops, student and faculty exchanges, and field research. Weber was co-principal investigator and led a 12-member, multi-disciplinary team of economists, social scientists, and engineers from WSU and the Tashkent (Uzbekistan) Institute of Irrigation and Melioration through an extensive field research effort focused on new collaborative water user associations in Uzbekistan and their relationship, if any, to achieving the dual policy goals of environmental sustainability and improved agricultural productivity.  From 2006 – 2008, he and two colleagues at the University of Washington led a $100,000 research effort on salmon recovery efforts in the Puget Sound (Washington) region for the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Weber also served as a science advisor and program evaluator for the Ash Institute for Democratic Governance and Innovation of Harvard University’s JFK School of Government.  The work focused on the Institute’s national Innovations in American Government awards program. In 2003-2004, he was a member of the federal Northwest Straits Marine Conservation scientific review committee chaired by former U.S. EPA Administrator, William Ruckelshaus, and in 2004-2005 served as Senior Science Advisor to Shared Strategy for Puget Sound, a Northwest U.S. regional, state and federal collaborative initiative to restore historic salmon runs and the broader ecological health of the Puget Sound Area of Washington State.  In addition, he is a Fulbright Senior Specialist in Public Administration and Environmental Policy, having served in this role at the University of Ljubljana (Slovenia) in November 2010.  From 2010 – 2012 Weber served as the academic representative for the U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s Mojave-Southern Great Basin Resource Advisory Council.

Weber has been a visiting lecturer and fellow at numerous universities around the world, including Nihon University Law School (Tokyo, Japan), the University of Canterbury (New Zealand), Lincoln University (New Zealand), the University of Bordeaux (France), the School of Environmental and Public Affairs at Indiana University, the University of California at Davis, the University of Colorado at Denver, Chatham House in the United Kingdom, the University of Montana Law School, Virginia Tech, Vanderbilt University, Utah State University, Colorado State University (in 1998 and 2010), Pereyaslav State University (Ukraine), Chernihiv State Institute (Ukraine), and the Tashkent (Uzbekistan) Institute of Irrigation and Melioration.  In October of 2006, Weber was a visiting Japan-International Christian University Foundation (JICUF) scholar at International Christian University in Tokyo, Japan.

He also has done consulting work for the U.S. Department of Energy, NOAA Fisheries, the U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO), the regional government of the Canterbury region in New Zealand (Environment Canterbury), the Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife, the Washington State Department of Transportation, and non-profit organizations in the western U.S.

Research/Career Interests

Policy Areas: Environmental politics and policy, public administration, science and politics.

PhD: University of Wisconsin, Madison

Additional Information

 

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit.
Aristotle

True happiness is not attained through self gratification, but through fidelity to a worthy purpose.
Helen Keller

Teaching 

 

Research Interests

  • Affiliate Faculty, Water Resource Management & Policy, OSU
  • Editorial Board member, Society and Natural Resources
  • Editorial Board member, Administration and Society
  • Editorial Board member, State Politics and Policy Quarterly
  • Member, Universities Consortium on Columbia River Governance
  • Fanatic flyfisherman, downhill skier, and whitewater rafter. Is also known to hike and drink wine, especially red (but usually not both at the same time). As an ex-rugger, my team is the New Zealand All Blacks.

 

Curriculum Vitae

 

Brief Vita

EDUCATION

  • B. A.: Colorado State University, 1978 (Political Science)
  • M. A.: University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1991 (Political Science) Ph.D.: University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1996 (Political Science)

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

  • 2012- Ulysses Dubach Professor of Political Science, School of Public Policy, Oregon State University
  • 2010 Fulbright Senior Specialist, Public Administration and Environmental Policy, University of Ljubljana (Slovenia), Faculty of Social Sciences
  • 2010-2012 Academic representative, field of natural resources, U.S. Bureau of Land Management, Mojave-Southern Great Basin Resource Advisory Council
  • 2009-2012 Director and Professor, School of Environmental and Public Affairs, Greenspun College of Urban Affairs, University of Nevada-Las Vegas
  • 2007-2009 Edward R. Meyer Distinguished Professor of Public Administration and Policy, College of Liberal Arts, Washington State University
  • 2007-2009 Professor of Public Administration and Public Policy, Department of Political Science, Washington State University
  • 2007 Interim Chair, Department of Political Science, Washington State University
  • 2006-2009 Affiliated Professor, William Ruckelshaus Center for Policy Consensus at Washington State University and the University of Washington
  • 2003-2005 Director, WSU-International Christian University (Japan) Peace and Security Studies Research Partnership, Washington State University
  • 2002-2006 Co-Director, 4-year U.S. State Department NISCUPP research and capacity building project in “Water and Environmental Policy Analysis for Uzbekistan and Central Asia.”
  • 2001-2008 Director, Thomas S. Foley Institute for Public Policy and Public Service, Washington State University
  • 2002-2007 Associate Professor of Public Administration and Public Policy, Department of Political Science, Washington State University
  • 1996-2002 Assistant Professor of Public Administration and Public Policy, Department of Political Science, Washington State University
  • 1995-1996 Visiting Lecturer, Dept. of Political Science, Vanderbilt University

GRANTS & FUNDRAISING

  • 2011 Leader of campus-wide effort to develop new UNLV Solar and Renewable Energy graduate certificate program. NV Energy awarded us program support in the amount of $500,000
  • 2009 Field research/travel grant, Lincoln Ventures and Lincoln University (Lincoln, New Zealand), for research into watershed scale integrated, sustainable water resource management. (March 2009)  $7,000.
  • 2006-07 PI, NOAA Fisheries, U.S. Department of Commerce, grant for “Assessing Grass Roots Responses to ESA Listings: Seeking Sustainable and Practical ESA Recovery Plans: The Puget Sound Example,” $100,000 (with Jon Brock and Tom Leschine of the University of Washington).
  • 2003 Principal Investigator, NOAA Fisheries, U.S. Department of Commerce, grant for pre-evaluation of the Upper Yakima Endangered Fish Habitat Protection Effort.  $70,000   (with Nicholas Lovrich and Michael Gaff
  • 2002-2006 Co-Director and Principal Investigator, U.S. State Department-funded NISCUPP grant, “Educational Capacity Building in Water and Environmental Policy Analysis for Uzbekistan and Central Asia,” with the Tashkent Institute of Irrigation and Melioration, Uzbekistan. $650,000
  • 2001-2002 Principal Investigator, U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service and Washington Division of Fish and Wildlife grant for evaluation of “Walla Walla Endangered Species Act Collaborative Enforcement Process.”   $29,000   (with Nicholas Lovrich and Michael Gaffney).
  • 2000-2001 Principal Investigator, U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service and Washington Division of Fish and Wildlife grant for evaluation of “Methow Valley Endangered Species Act Collaborative Enforcement Process.”   $42,000   (with Nicholas Lovrich and Michael Gaffney)
  • 1998 Principal investigator, Washington State Department of Transportation grant for “Worksite Transportation Demand Management Programs: Benefits and Costs to Employees and Employers,”   $40,000   (with Nicholas Lovrich and David Nice)

BOOKS

  • 2017 New Strategies for Wicked Problems: Science and Problem Solving in the 21st Century. Edited, with Denise Lach and Brent S. Steel. Corvallis, OR: Oregon State University Press.
  • 2016 Changing Philosophies and Policies: Endangered Species Across the Years. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO. 2003 Bringing Society Back In: Grassroots Ecosystem Management, Accountability, and Sustainable Communities.  Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. 1998 Pluralism by the Rules: Conflict and Cooperation in Environmental Regulation. Washington, D. C.: Georgetown University Press.

RECENT PUBLICATIONS (YEAR 2005 FORWARD)

  • Forthcoming “Environmental Policy in Washington State: Leadership, Forests, and Climate Change,” w/ Ellen Rogers, in C. Clayton and N. Lovrich, Eds., Washington State Politics and Policy. Pullman, WA: Washington State University Press.
  • Forthcoming “Energy Policy: Fracking, Coal, and the Water-Energy Nexus,” with David Bernell, Hilary Boudet, and Paty Fernandez, in N. Vig and M. Kraft, Eds., Environmental Policy. 10th ed., Washington, D.C.: CQ Press. Forthcoming “Collaborative Approaches in Environmental and Natural Resource Management,” with Anna P. Stevenson and Leanne Giordono, in Alka Sapat, Ed., Handbook on Environmental Governance. New York: Routledge.
  • 2017 “[Introduction] Science and Problem Solving for Wicked Problems: Challenges and Responses,” w/ Denise Lach and Brent Steel, in New Strategies for Wicked Problems: Science and Problem Solving in the 21st Century. Eds., E. Weber, D. Lach, and B. Steel. Corvallis, OR: Oregon State University Press.

  • 2017 “Collaborative Governance, Science, and Policy Outcomes,” w/ Anna P. Stevenson, in New Strategies for Wicked Problems: Science and Problem Solving in the 21st Century. Eds., E. Weber, D. Lach, and B. Steel. Corvallis, OR: Oregon State University Press.

  • 2017 “Wicked Problem Settings: A New and Expanded Contract for Scientists and Policy Implementation?” w/ Denise Lach and Brent Steel, in New Strategies for Wicked Problems: Science and Problem Solving in the 21stCentury. Eds., E. Weber, D. Lach, and B. Steel. Corvallis, OR: Oregon State University Press.

  • 2017 “Integrated Hydro-Irrigation-Restoration Systems: Resolving a Wicked Problem in the Whychus Creek Watershed,” Journal of Sustainable Development 10 (2) (November).

  • 2016 “Politicians and Collaborative Governance: The New Logic of Support,” in Richard D. Margerum and Cathy Robinson, Eds., The Challenges of Collaboration in Environmental Governance: Barriers and Responses. Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar Publishing: 223-245.

  • 2015 “The Adaptive Venue Shopping Framework: How Emergent Groups Choose Environmental Policymaking Venues,” with Aaron Ley (lead), Environmental Politics 24 (5): 703 – 722.

  • 2015 “Energy Policy: Oil, Gas and Renewables,” with David Bernell and Hilary Boudet, in N. Vig and M. Kraft, Eds., Environmental Policy. 9th ed., Washington, D.C.: CQ Press: 172 – 193.

  • 2014 “The U.S. Department of Interior: From Grazing and Grasslands to Renewables and Beyond,” with Aaron Ley, in S. Fairfax and E. Russell, Eds., U.S. Environmental Policy. Washington, D.C: SAGE Publishing and CQ Press: 189 – 201.

  • 2014 “The Value of Practice-Based Knowledge,” with Jill Belsky, Denise Lach, and Antony Cheng, Society and Natural Resources 27 (10): 1074 – 1088.

  • 2014 “Policy Change and Venue Choice: Field Burning in Idaho and Washington,” with Aaron Ley (lead), Society and Natural Resources 27 (5): 645 – 655.

  • 2014 “Science, Regulation and Politics,” with Ian Davidson, in Brent S. Steel (ed.), Science and Politics: An A to Z Guide to Issues and Controversies. Los Angeles, CA: Sage/CQ Press.

  • 2012 “Unleashing the Potential of Collaborative Governance Arrangements: Getting to Robust Durability in the Blackfoot Valley,” Journal of Sustainable Development.

  • 2012 “Governing Transboundary Resources in the Face of Uncertainty,” with Matt McKinney, in B. Cosens, Ed., The Columbia River Treaty Revisited: Transboundary River Governance in the Face of Uncertainty. Corvallis, OR: Oregon State University Press. (A Project of the Universities Consortium on Columbia River Governance.)

  • 2012 “Regulation, Knowledge Transfer, and Forestry Policy Implementation: Different Strokes for Different Folks?” with Roje Gootee (lead), Keith Blatner, Matt Carroll, and David Baumgartner, Sustainable Agriculture Research, 1 (1) (February): 55 – 65.

  • 2011 “Getting to Resilience in a Climate Protected Community: Early Problem Solving Choices, Ideas, and Governance Philosophy,” in Bruce Goldstein, ed., Collaborative Resilience: Moving through Crisis to Opportunity. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.

  • 2011 “New Choices and Challenges for Regulated Private Forests: The “Alternate Plan” Option,” with Roje Gootee (lead), Keith Blatner, Matt Carroll, and David Baumgartner, The Journal of Forestry.

  • 2011 “Equitable Regulation of Private Forests,” with Roje Gootee (lead), Keith Blatner, Matt Carroll, and David Baumgartner, Small-Scale Forestry, 10 (4): 457 – 472.

  • 2011 “Choosing What to Believe about Forests,” with Roje Gootee (lead), Keith Blatner, Matt Carroll, and David Baumgartner, Small-Scale Forestry. 10 (2): 137 – 152.

  • 2011 “Science, Society, and Water Resources in New Zealand: Recognizing and Overcoming a Societal Impasse,” with Ali Memon and Brett Painter, Journal of Environmental Policy and Planning, 13(1):49-70.

  • 2010 “Thinking Harder about Outcomes for Collaborative Governance Arrangements,” with Ellen Rogers (lead), American Review of Public Administration, 40 (5) (September): 546 -567.

  • 2010 “Civic Science and Salmon Recovery Planning in Puget Sound,” with Thomas M. Leschine and Jon Brock, Policy Studies Journal, 38 (2) (May): 235-256.

  • 2010 “Overcoming Obstacles to Collaborative Water Governance: Moving toward Sustainability in New Zealand,” with Ali Memon (lead), The Journal of Natural Resource Policy Research, 2 (2) (April): 103-116.

  • 2010 “Enhancing Potential for Integrated Catchment Management in New Zealand: A Multi-Scalar, Strategic Perspective,” with Ali Memon and Brett Painter, Australasian Journal of Environmental Management, 17 (March): 35 – 44.

  • 2009 “How to Harness the Full Potential of Integrated Catchment Management as a Pathway to Sustainability,” with Ali Memon and Brett Painter, Lincoln Planning Review Journal (1)

  • 2009 “Explaining Institutional Change in Tough Cases of Collaboration: ‘Ideas’ in the Blackfoot Watershed,” Public Administration Review 69 (2) (March/April): 314-327.

  • 2009 “Climate Change as a Governance Issue: Piecing the Puzzle Together,” in B. Hayward, ed., Nowhere Far from the Sea: The Politics of Climate Change: Issues for New Zealand and Small Pacific Islands. Wellington, New Zealand: Dunmore Publishing. 2008 “Managing Collaborative Processes:  Common Practices, Uncommon Circumstances,” with Anne M. Khademian, Administration and Society 40 (5): 431-464.

  • 2008 “Facing and Managing Climate Change: Assumptions, Science, and Governance Responses,” Political Science 60 (1) (June): 133-150.

  • 2008 “Reality and Better Mousetraps: The Case of New Environmental Governance Institutions,” Society and Natural Resources 21 (2) (February): 91-94.

  • 2008 “Wicked Problems, Knowledge Challenges, and Collaborative Capacity Builders in Network Settings,” with Anne M. Khademian, Public Administration Review 68 (2) (March-April): 334-349.

  • 2007 “Assessing Collaborative Capacity in a Multidimensional World,” with Nicholas Lovrich and Michael Gaffney, Administration & Society 39 (2) (April): 194-220.

  • 2007 “Getting Agricultural Productivity and Environmental Sustainability at the Same Time: What Matters, What Doesn’t?” with Madina Khalmirzaeva, Mark Stephan, Tetyana Lysak, and Ilhom Esanov, in D. Rahm, K. V. Thai, and J. Coggburn, eds. The Handbook of Globalization and the Environment. New York: CRC Press: 335-358.

  • 2007 “Collaboration and Endangered Species: Approaching Regulatory Compliance from a New Angle,” with Nicholas Lovrich, Michael Gaffney, and Mike Bireley, in D. Rahm, K. V. Thai, and J. Coggburn, eds. The Handbook of Globalization and the Environment. CRC Press: 401-432.

  • 2006 “Water User Institutions, Social Capital, and Technology Transfer in Central Asia,” with John Pierce, Mark Stephan, Madina Khalmirzaeva, Nicholas Lovrich, and Hakim Salokhiddinov, Comparative Technology Transfer and Society 4 (3) (December): 287-304.

  • 2005 “Collaboration, Enforcement, and Endangered Species: A Framework for Assessing Collaborative Problem Solving Capacity,” with Nicholas Lovrich and Michael Gaffney, Society and Natural Resources 18 (8) (September): 677-698.

  • 2005 “Scaling Down the Search for Peace and Security: Lessons Learned from the Emergence of Sub-National Collaboratives,” in Shin Chiba and Noriko Kawamura, eds., Towards a Peaceable Future: Rethinking Peace, Security and Kyosei from a Multidisciplinary Perspective. Pullman, WA: Washington State University Press and the Thomas S. Foley Institute for Public Policy and Public Service: 87-100.

  • 2005 “Interagency Collaborative Approaches to Endangered Species Act Compliance and Salmon Recovery in the Pacific Northwest,” with Nicholas Lovrich and Michael Gaffney, International Journal of Organization Theory and Behavior 8(2): 237-273.

AWARDS

  • 2008-09 Outstanding Professor of the Year (as voted by the PhD students), Department of Political Science, Washington State University
  • 2006-07 and 2007-08 Winner, Arete Award for Outstanding Faculty Member, Washington State University.
  • 2006-2010 J. William Fulbright Foreign Senior Specialist, Environmental Policy and Public Administration roster
  • 1998 Teaching award, awarded honorary membership in the Golden Key National Honor Society for excellence in teaching and the maintenance of high academic standards.