SOCIOENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS AND DEVELOPMENT POLICY - UNDERSTANDING OPPOSITION AND SUPPORT FOR OFFSHORE OIL

One of the difficulties of integrating environmental variables into so ciological analyses is that societies have a dualistic relationship wi th the biophysical environment. Humans are like other species in depen ding on the environment, yet humans are also unique among all species in the potential for altering and sometimes evading environmental cons traints. A second and related difficulty results from the degree to wh ich humans incorporate the environment into their everyday views of re ality; the process often seems so automatic that the biophysical reali ties can be forgotten, taken for granted, or ignored, both by resident s and by those who study them. This problem is particularly significan t for studies that fail to be sufficiently comparative to be able to o bserve significant variations in environmental and technological facto rs. The problem is illustrated with a study that deals with a relative ly traditional social-psychological dependent variable-attitudes towar d a proposed development. The focus is on the apparent paradox of a fo rm of industrial development that has been welcomed with open arms in one area of the country while virtually opening armed warfare in anoth er, namely drilling for offshore oil. To explain the marked difference s across regions, it is necessary to understand the influence of bioph ysical and technological variables, as well as the social and historic al differences across the regions. Implications for further research a re discussed.