To cherish what remains of the Earth and to foster its renewal is our only legitimate hope of survival.

Wendell Berry

Program Highlights: Social Responsibility Initiative

• Introduction
• Projects and Activities
• Hosted Events
• Outreach and Engagement

Hosted Events

End of Suburbia? SRI hosted and cosponsored a special screening of Peak Oil: The End of Suburbia for the Ohio State and Columbus community. Some 90 persons attended this screening on Aug. 5, 2005 on the OSU campus.

Social Impact Assessment SRI hosted and sponsored a workshop on Social Impact Assessment (SIA) on Nov. 3, 2005. Rabel Burdge, a professor in the Department of Sociology and Huxley College of the Environment at Western Washington University in Bellingham, Wash., conducted a one-day workshop on “Understanding Social Impact Assessment for Resource Management and Community Development.”

Some 25 faculty, staff, and students attended the workshop. Workshop participant evaluation of the event was positive, with most participants indicating they were very satisfied with the workshop. Professor Burdge also met with HCRD faculty, OSUE’s community development group, and rural sociology graduate students during his visit.

Seminar on the Environment The Social Responsibility Initiative hosted a seminar on “The Globalization of Citizen Concern for the Environment: Results from Cross-National Surveys” in April 2006. The talk on globalization was presented by Riley E. Dunlap, professor of sociology at Oklahoma State University.

While here, he consulted with the SRI group working on the Ohio Survey, the group working on animal welfare issues, and the SRI environment working group leader and a student during his visit.