OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY
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With a grant from the National Institute for Civil Discourse, a national research team of political scientists designed a survey that was sent to every single registered state legislative lobbyist in the U.S. The survey asked questions such as years of experience, perceptions of legislative civility in recent years, ideas about how to create more civil legislative discourse, etc. This research culminated in an edited book with Washington State University Press using the data and to outreach efforts to citizen groups and universities.
Leanne Giordono, Brent S. Steel and Claire McMorris, “State Economic Inequality and Incivility,” Chapter 6 in N.P. Lovrich, F. Benjamin, W. Schreckhise, and J.C. Pierce, eds., Outside Looking In: Lobbyists’ Views on Civil Discourse in U.S. State Legislatures. Pullman, WA: Washington State University Press, 2021.
Claire McMorris, Brent S. Steel and Leanne Giordono, “The Rural-Urban Divide and Political Incivility in State Legislatures,” Chapter 7 in N.P. Lovrich, F. Benjamin, W. Schreckhise, and J.C. Pierce, eds., Outside Looking In: Lobbyists’ Views on Civil Discourse in U.S. State Legislatures. Pullman, WA: Washington State University Press, 2021.
A second survey was designed and implemented in 2023 based on the previous findings of the first survey.
Working with researchers from Portland State University, the University of Oregon, and Oregon State University, the project explores how individuals, communities, groups, and organizations in fire-prone regions change and reorganize relationships to become better able to cope with increasingly large and intense wildfires.Through collaborative engagement with students, educators, stakeholders, policymakers, and resource managers, lessons and outcomes will be shared and made accessible to create communities and landscapes that are resilient in the face of increasing future wildfires. T
Brent S. Steel, Nicholas P. Lovrich and John C. Pierce, “Cultural Theory, Wildfire Information Source, and Agency Public Trust: A Central Oregon Case Study,” Environmental Management, November, 2023. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-023-01909-7
Rural local governments currently face many ongoing and numerous new challenges that complicate their task of sustaining current public services and programs. How government officials adapt to these changes will affect the long-term viability of virtually every local government in both the U.S. and Canadian contexts. This project will examine the presence of plans, policies, or programs in rural local governments in the “Cascadia” region of Canada and the U.S. (British Columbia, Oregon and Washington) that promote institutional, social, ecological and economic sustainability. Correlates of policy adoption will be examined, including cultural, demographic, economic, and political factors. The study will include documenting community efforts to prepare and plan for climate change effects including sea level rise in coastal communities, wildfire for communities in the wildland-urban interface, and drought in agricultural communities. The project is sponsored by the University of Victoria with support from the Fulbright Commission Canada.