- Email: [email protected]
In the midst of change
Jourmtl off Env#'onmental Psychology (1987) 7, 331-336
IN THE M I D S T OF C H A N G E ROBERT W. KATES Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island 02912, U.S.A. Abstract It is characteristic to be in the midst of change and not to recognize it. In retrospect, 1970 72 at Clark University presaged a successful universalization of environmental perception, but it was a high point rather than a beginning in pursuit of the higher aspirations of the then-fledgling field. These aspirations--to solve practical problems, to develop a common methodology, to bridge the disciplines, and to develop or revise a theory have never been fully realized. Widely accepted today, enviromnental perception and behavior mirrors the everyday differences within and between disciplines and thus is divided by theoretical ideology, substantive focus and views as to what constitutes data. As with the individual disciplines, I have successfully integrated environmental perception into my own work, moving it from the exceptional to the everyday, and with some regret, from the magic of 1970-72 to the science of today. It is characteristic to be in the midst of change and not to recognize it. In retrospect 1970-72 at Clark was a celebration of success of an era past and the stillbirth of the next. The great coming-together marked the initiation of a slow falling-apart. In geography, at least, it marked the success of what has been variously called the cognitive-behavioral revolution (Bowden, 1984), the cognitive reformation (Burton, Kates and Kirkby, 1974) and the cognitive renaissance (Bowden, 1980). As with all such movements it changed its world profoundly and its practice is now widespread and commonplace. But as with many revolutions, it disappoints the higher aspirations of many of its initiators.
The Clark Mystique If memory serves, I met Jim Blaut and David Lowenthal in 1960 following a reception for geographer-attendees at the American Association of the Advancement of Science meeting in New York tendered by David's research institution (the American Geographical Society). Still a graduate student, having just given my first professional paper, I found myself at a table with them in a Chinese restaurant listening to them debate Kant and other things, most of which I couldn't follow. But I had read their papers on perception and it was no accident that a decade later we were together, if ever so briefly, at Clark. The Clark mystique had three central ingredients. It is the only university in the United States where psychology and geography are the major subjects. It is the smallest university of its type in the United States. It has a long tradition going back to the decade prior to the invitation to Freud in 1908 of reaching out to intellectual and scientific notables with new ideas (Koelsch, 1984). Given its size, discussion between geographers and psychologists about the newly emerging field was inevitable. And in reaching out it surely drew others in. There was for a few years, in the midst of the nation's travail and the universities' )272 4944/87/040331 + 06 $03.00/0
© 1987 Academic Press Limited
332
R.W. Kates
turmoil, a kind of intellectual excitement, even magic, exemplified by this newly developing interdisciplinary field. Magic by definition cannot last--the extraordinary is defined by the ordinary. The magic celebrated in 1970-72 would disappear slowly but inevitably, in part due to the competing pressures that bedevil small institutions and magnify the effects of individual personalities on their too-small stages. But in the main it would be larger events that would overtake that special time, events we might call success. Surviving Success
Environmental perception and behavior in geography is surely a success. In its achievement, however, it has taken on the coloration, traditions and classic conflicts of the sciences and arts in which it has become successfully embedded. We had higher hopes in 1970-72. This generalization can be documented by a recent volume entitled Envil'onmental Perception and Behavior." An Inventory and Prospect (Saarinen, Seamon and Sell, 1984) based on a 1982 symposium organized by Tom Saarinen of the University of Arizona. Saarinen documents the success of the field within geography in numbers and diversity of participants: 5% of geographers in the U.S. claim it as a specialty, 15% of Ph.D. dissertations employ its methods and approaches, as do upwards of 20% of the papers at annual professional meetings. Similar developments have occurred in psychology, architecture, landscape architecture and to a more limited degree in sociology. From microworlds to macroworlds, those who study the environments, places and spaces of human beings routinely use the methods and approaches of the cognitive reformation. The disappointments are recorded as well. In our higher aspirations we hoped to solve practical problems, to develop a kitbag of research tools and to know when to use them, to bridge disciplines and intellectual traditions, and to develop or revise existing theories of how people use environment, places and space by understanding how they perceive them. It is still not clear to what degree studies of environmental perception and behavior have contributed to the solution of practical problems. When Gilbert White (1984) raised this question at the 1982 symposium he was, as is his wont, cautiously sceptical while noting the contributions that had been made in the field of hazards that he knows so well. In the same commentary he questions what is known about the varied methods employed in perception studies. With the exception of widely-used surveys and questionnaires, consistent and replicated methodologies have not emerged despite the wealth of approaches used (Whyte, 1977). As Bowden (1984) noted, the study of the world inside peoples" heads is now divided study; the promising bridges between disciplines, between traditions in geography, and between humanistic and scientific approaches probably peaked in 1970 72 despite the subsequent creation of new institutional links, formal cooperation and research proglemena (Saarinen, 1984). Finally, there is no distinctive unifying theory of the world inside peoples' heads that has emerged from the promising conceptual evolution chronicled earlier (Burton et al., 1974). Revolution, reformatiom renaissance--the novel has run its course, successfully becoming part of the everyday science and art of our disciplines but lacking the wholeness we desperately sought. Why?
In the Midst of Change
333
The Natural History of Good Ideas
Thinking about the world inside peoples' heads is only a new idea for those who do not study the history of their ideas and disciplines. Bowden (1980) records at least two surges of interest in cognitive-perceptual themes in geography at 20-year intervals prior to the current one. In human studies (perhaps in all studies), good ideas come and go continuously, their fate being abandonment or universalization. Those abandoned prove on reflection, if not premature genius, then idiosyncratic perspective--but another blind man describing the elephant. The universalized, enter the conceptual and methodological equipment of most practitioners. Their wide diffusion, however, diminishes their cutting-edge as they are incorporated into varied studies and approaches. Thus environmental perception joins cost-benefit analysis, decision-making, systems analysis, and many others--all in common usage but with decreasing explanatory power. The universalization leads to wider acceptance within disciplines; this certainly is the case for both geography and psychology. In this more hospitable setting, the built-in tribal pulls of the disciplines triumph over the transdisciplinary relationships which provided comfort and stimulation in the pioneer period of development. Thus the 1970-1972 period at Clark celebrated previous collaboration rather than augured much future work together. Within the disciplines, vital differences of theory, method and fact further dismembered the intellectual bridge-building. Geography has four major traditions, each with differing substantive content: earth science, regional description, human environment and spatial science. With the exception of the first, each tradition developed its own cognitive direction. Studies of the cognition of space, location and locational decision-making became behavioral geography. Environmental perception studies in the human environment tradition were studies of built or natural landscapes, natural hazards, and to lesser extent, natural resources. Both of these traditions used survey research, hut the emphasis on space encouraged the use of maps and the development of mental maps; while the emphasis on landscape encouraged the use of visual imagery and projective tests. In between were studies of place, heirs to the regional description tradition. These emphasized the distinctive qualities of historical, personal, or group perceptions of places and used texts, narratives, personal observations or autobiographical materials for evidence. As psychogeographers and environmental psychologists retreated comfortably into their disciplines, other intellectual waves washed upon their shores. In psychology, stimulus-response types and transactionalists eyed each other uneasily across their familiar turf. In geography, philosophical and ideological differentiation suddenly appeared under the banners of positivism, phenomenology and Marxism. Thus the inventory and prospect volume (Saarinen et al., 1984) emphasizes positivist, phenomenological, and structural-Marxist approaches to environmental perception and behavior studies. Divided by theoretical ideology, substantive focus, and views of what constitutes data, environmental perception and behavior mirrors the everyday differences within and between disciplines. Gone is the heady eclecticism that involved David Lowenthal in factor analysis, Gilbert White in social psychology, or myself and Jim Blaut in studies of children. Gone too was the exciting learning, the pioneer sense, the respectful camaraderie, and most of all the promise. In its place however, are
334
R . W . Kates
routine attempts to chart the world inside peoples' heads--geographers talk to people, psychologists question their surroundings, architects observe the use of their buildings, and experts of all types give testimony on peoples' perceptions before Congress. Life Course
Natural histories of ideas intersect with life-courses of people and our editor has asked us to reflect on both. I write this on sabbatical, my main task writing a book on theories of the human environment. In it, I reflect briefly on my 25 years of professional life trying to discern the coherence, if any, therein. I perceive a somewhat surprising coherence and I wonder seeptically if it is but an artefact of reflection. I find myself problem-driven with a consistency to my central questions. In 1960 that question was: 'How is it that people survive and even prosper in areas of high recurrent natural hazard?' Twenty-five years later the question is similar but more general: 'What is and ought to be the human use of the earth?', along with a more specific corollary: 'In the human use of the earth, what should we worry about?' The pursuit o f these questions began on the floodplain of Big Creek in LaFollette, Tennessee (population then, 7,200), trying to understand its use by understanding the perception of flood and floodplain use in the minds of its inhabitants and how those perceptions related to their decisions (Kates, 1962). Intertwined were the three elements of scientific activity--theory, method and fact. I am an empiricist and this was a case study, I needed to know what was in people's minds in order to understand how they behaved. I tried to develop some methodological skills--how to ask good questions that would reveal something of the floodplain users' mindsets. And I needed to embed the enterprise into a broader setting of theory, and thus I explored theories of uncertainty, of attitude and behavior, and of choice and decisionmaking. Two qualities that were to continue were then in place. The quest is problem-not discipline-defined. Geography is a comfortable hearth and a jumping-off place--but what one learns is what one needs to know. There is a lively interplay between theory, method and fact. Basically I was a pursuer of fact, but always aware that facts change by the methods employed and receive meaning from the theories that guide. Three other qualities of work appeared in their formative stages that summer in LaFollette. The way I addressed the question, the methods I used, the theories I chose to relate to were my o w n - - t h e central question was not. It was my mentor's (Gilbert F. White) and his before him (Harlan H. Barrows). It was part of the manland tradition in geography, part of a broad front of inquiry into floodplain use, and part of a major direction in social science research (choice and decision-making). Also I was not alone in LaFollette that summer but worked with four student colleagues, puzzling together the many questions we encountered. Finally it was not by chance that we had come to LaFollette. We were there because the Tennessee Valley Authority, the regional water development agency, was a pioneer in trying to develop alternative ways to use floodplains while minimizing floodplain damage. Thus there was a social link to the work. It was basic research, but undertaken in order to advise a public institution how to use floodplains better.
In the Midst of Change
335
There were then five characteristics of professional life that are now familiar to me: a central problem that transcends discipline, that is related to a broad front of inquiry, that is basic research but on an applied question, that is collective and collegial and has implications for theory and method as well as empirical findings. No single piece of work necessarily displays all five characteristics but the mix usually does. I am currently working on three major projects and have several more in various stages of gestation. With colleagues Roger Kasperson and Chris Hohenemser, 1 am trying to learn how industry manages hazards. As part of the World Climate Program I have completed editing a handbook on climate impact assessment methods (Kates, 1985). As I noted I am working on a broad review of theories of the human environment. Among the future studies, I plan with colleagues from four institutions one that would use experienced climate anomalies as a natural experiment to provide empirical evidence of human perception of and response to climate change (Karl and Riebsame, 1984). The methodological path from LaFollette peaked at Clark in 1970-72 but what was learned is always with me. Interviews are central to our study of industrial hazard management. Perception is a major chapter in the climate impact assessment book (Whyte, 1985). The major focus of the C L I M P A X experiment (Climate Impact, Perception and Adjustment Experiment) is to identify perceptions and behaviors of climate change. Environmental behavior is a subset of h u m a n environment theory. At the same time, person, for me, has become a less significant category than nature, society or technology. Perception methodology has become a subset of the other methodologies that I have worked o n - - r i s k assessment and climate impact assessment. And questions of theory have begun to dominate issues of fact or method. As with the individual disciplines, I have successfully integrated environmental perception and behavior into my work, moving it from the exceptional to the everday. I miss the liveliness of 1970 72 but I look forward to other ideas and new things to learn. ~The world inside people's heads' was such a useful metaphor. W h a t about 'the world as in people's heads'? Noosphere, anybody? References
Bowden, M. J. (1980). Cognitive renaissance in american geography: the intellectual history of a movement, Organon, 14, 199. -(1984). Environmental perception in geography: a commentary. In T. F. Saarinen, D. Seamon and J. L. Sell (eds), Environmental Perception and Behavior: An Inventor)' and Pro,v~ect. Chicago: University of Chicago, Department of Geography Research Paper No. 209, 85 92. Burton, I., Kates, R. W. and Kirkby A. V. T. (1974). Geography. In A. E. Utton and D. H. Henning (eds), hTterdiseiplinao' EnvironmentalApproaches. Coata Mesa, Ca.: Educational Media Press, pp. 100-120. Karl, T. R. and W. E. Riebsame (1984). The identification of 10- to 20-year temperature and precipitation fluctuations in the contiguous United States. Journal of Climate and Applied Meteorolog.v, 23, 950 966. Kates, R. W. (1962). Hazard and Choice Perception in Flood Plain Management. Chicago: Univcrsity of Chicago, Department of Geography Research Paper No. 78. Kates, R. W., Ausabel, J. H. and Berberian, M. (eds) (1985). Climate Impact Assessment." Studies o[ the Interaction o[" Climate and SocieO'. Chichester, U.K.: John Wiley and Sons.
336
R . W . Kates
Koelsch, W. A. (1984). The 1909 Clark University conferences. Paper presented to the Symposium on The Psychology Conference at Clark, 1909. American Psychological Association, Toronto, Canada, August 26, 1984. Saarinen, T. F. (1984). Some reasons for optimism about environmental perception research. In T. F. Saarinen, D. Seamon and J. L. Sell (eds), Environmental Perception and Behavior: An hlrentory and Pro,s7)ect. Chicago: University of Chicago, Department of Geography Research Paper No. 209, pp. 13 24. Saarinen T. F., Seamon D. and Sell, J. L. (eds), (1984). Environnwntal Perception and Behavior: An hlventory and Pro.v~ect. Chicago: University of Chicago, Department of Geography Research paper No. 209. White, G. F. (1984). Environmental perception and its uses. In T. F. Saarinen, D. Seamon and J. L. Sell (eds), Environmental Perception and Behaviour. An h~ventm'v and Prospect. Chicago: University of Chicago, Department of Geography Research Paper No. 209, pp. 93-96. Whyte, A. V. T. (1977). Guidelines/or Field Sttufies in Environmental Perc~y~tion. Paris: UNESCO. Whytc, A. (1985). Perception. In R. W. Kates (ed), Climate httpact Assessnwnt: Studies t~/the hlteraction ~/ Climate and Society. Chichester, U. K.: John Wiley and Sons.
IN THE M I D S T OF C H A N G E ROBERT W. KATES Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island 02912, U.S.A. Abstract It is characteristic to be in the midst of change and not to recognize it. In retrospect, 1970 72 at Clark University presaged a successful universalization of environmental perception, but it was a high point rather than a beginning in pursuit of the higher aspirations of the then-fledgling field. These aspirations--to solve practical problems, to develop a common methodology, to bridge the disciplines, and to develop or revise a theory have never been fully realized. Widely accepted today, enviromnental perception and behavior mirrors the everyday differences within and between disciplines and thus is divided by theoretical ideology, substantive focus and views as to what constitutes data. As with the individual disciplines, I have successfully integrated environmental perception into my own work, moving it from the exceptional to the everyday, and with some regret, from the magic of 1970-72 to the science of today. It is characteristic to be in the midst of change and not to recognize it. In retrospect 1970-72 at Clark was a celebration of success of an era past and the stillbirth of the next. The great coming-together marked the initiation of a slow falling-apart. In geography, at least, it marked the success of what has been variously called the cognitive-behavioral revolution (Bowden, 1984), the cognitive reformation (Burton, Kates and Kirkby, 1974) and the cognitive renaissance (Bowden, 1980). As with all such movements it changed its world profoundly and its practice is now widespread and commonplace. But as with many revolutions, it disappoints the higher aspirations of many of its initiators.
The Clark Mystique If memory serves, I met Jim Blaut and David Lowenthal in 1960 following a reception for geographer-attendees at the American Association of the Advancement of Science meeting in New York tendered by David's research institution (the American Geographical Society). Still a graduate student, having just given my first professional paper, I found myself at a table with them in a Chinese restaurant listening to them debate Kant and other things, most of which I couldn't follow. But I had read their papers on perception and it was no accident that a decade later we were together, if ever so briefly, at Clark. The Clark mystique had three central ingredients. It is the only university in the United States where psychology and geography are the major subjects. It is the smallest university of its type in the United States. It has a long tradition going back to the decade prior to the invitation to Freud in 1908 of reaching out to intellectual and scientific notables with new ideas (Koelsch, 1984). Given its size, discussion between geographers and psychologists about the newly emerging field was inevitable. And in reaching out it surely drew others in. There was for a few years, in the midst of the nation's travail and the universities' )272 4944/87/040331 + 06 $03.00/0
© 1987 Academic Press Limited
332
R.W. Kates
turmoil, a kind of intellectual excitement, even magic, exemplified by this newly developing interdisciplinary field. Magic by definition cannot last--the extraordinary is defined by the ordinary. The magic celebrated in 1970-72 would disappear slowly but inevitably, in part due to the competing pressures that bedevil small institutions and magnify the effects of individual personalities on their too-small stages. But in the main it would be larger events that would overtake that special time, events we might call success. Surviving Success
Environmental perception and behavior in geography is surely a success. In its achievement, however, it has taken on the coloration, traditions and classic conflicts of the sciences and arts in which it has become successfully embedded. We had higher hopes in 1970-72. This generalization can be documented by a recent volume entitled Envil'onmental Perception and Behavior." An Inventory and Prospect (Saarinen, Seamon and Sell, 1984) based on a 1982 symposium organized by Tom Saarinen of the University of Arizona. Saarinen documents the success of the field within geography in numbers and diversity of participants: 5% of geographers in the U.S. claim it as a specialty, 15% of Ph.D. dissertations employ its methods and approaches, as do upwards of 20% of the papers at annual professional meetings. Similar developments have occurred in psychology, architecture, landscape architecture and to a more limited degree in sociology. From microworlds to macroworlds, those who study the environments, places and spaces of human beings routinely use the methods and approaches of the cognitive reformation. The disappointments are recorded as well. In our higher aspirations we hoped to solve practical problems, to develop a kitbag of research tools and to know when to use them, to bridge disciplines and intellectual traditions, and to develop or revise existing theories of how people use environment, places and space by understanding how they perceive them. It is still not clear to what degree studies of environmental perception and behavior have contributed to the solution of practical problems. When Gilbert White (1984) raised this question at the 1982 symposium he was, as is his wont, cautiously sceptical while noting the contributions that had been made in the field of hazards that he knows so well. In the same commentary he questions what is known about the varied methods employed in perception studies. With the exception of widely-used surveys and questionnaires, consistent and replicated methodologies have not emerged despite the wealth of approaches used (Whyte, 1977). As Bowden (1984) noted, the study of the world inside peoples" heads is now divided study; the promising bridges between disciplines, between traditions in geography, and between humanistic and scientific approaches probably peaked in 1970 72 despite the subsequent creation of new institutional links, formal cooperation and research proglemena (Saarinen, 1984). Finally, there is no distinctive unifying theory of the world inside peoples' heads that has emerged from the promising conceptual evolution chronicled earlier (Burton et al., 1974). Revolution, reformatiom renaissance--the novel has run its course, successfully becoming part of the everyday science and art of our disciplines but lacking the wholeness we desperately sought. Why?
In the Midst of Change
333
The Natural History of Good Ideas
Thinking about the world inside peoples' heads is only a new idea for those who do not study the history of their ideas and disciplines. Bowden (1980) records at least two surges of interest in cognitive-perceptual themes in geography at 20-year intervals prior to the current one. In human studies (perhaps in all studies), good ideas come and go continuously, their fate being abandonment or universalization. Those abandoned prove on reflection, if not premature genius, then idiosyncratic perspective--but another blind man describing the elephant. The universalized, enter the conceptual and methodological equipment of most practitioners. Their wide diffusion, however, diminishes their cutting-edge as they are incorporated into varied studies and approaches. Thus environmental perception joins cost-benefit analysis, decision-making, systems analysis, and many others--all in common usage but with decreasing explanatory power. The universalization leads to wider acceptance within disciplines; this certainly is the case for both geography and psychology. In this more hospitable setting, the built-in tribal pulls of the disciplines triumph over the transdisciplinary relationships which provided comfort and stimulation in the pioneer period of development. Thus the 1970-1972 period at Clark celebrated previous collaboration rather than augured much future work together. Within the disciplines, vital differences of theory, method and fact further dismembered the intellectual bridge-building. Geography has four major traditions, each with differing substantive content: earth science, regional description, human environment and spatial science. With the exception of the first, each tradition developed its own cognitive direction. Studies of the cognition of space, location and locational decision-making became behavioral geography. Environmental perception studies in the human environment tradition were studies of built or natural landscapes, natural hazards, and to lesser extent, natural resources. Both of these traditions used survey research, hut the emphasis on space encouraged the use of maps and the development of mental maps; while the emphasis on landscape encouraged the use of visual imagery and projective tests. In between were studies of place, heirs to the regional description tradition. These emphasized the distinctive qualities of historical, personal, or group perceptions of places and used texts, narratives, personal observations or autobiographical materials for evidence. As psychogeographers and environmental psychologists retreated comfortably into their disciplines, other intellectual waves washed upon their shores. In psychology, stimulus-response types and transactionalists eyed each other uneasily across their familiar turf. In geography, philosophical and ideological differentiation suddenly appeared under the banners of positivism, phenomenology and Marxism. Thus the inventory and prospect volume (Saarinen et al., 1984) emphasizes positivist, phenomenological, and structural-Marxist approaches to environmental perception and behavior studies. Divided by theoretical ideology, substantive focus, and views of what constitutes data, environmental perception and behavior mirrors the everyday differences within and between disciplines. Gone is the heady eclecticism that involved David Lowenthal in factor analysis, Gilbert White in social psychology, or myself and Jim Blaut in studies of children. Gone too was the exciting learning, the pioneer sense, the respectful camaraderie, and most of all the promise. In its place however, are
334
R . W . Kates
routine attempts to chart the world inside peoples' heads--geographers talk to people, psychologists question their surroundings, architects observe the use of their buildings, and experts of all types give testimony on peoples' perceptions before Congress. Life Course
Natural histories of ideas intersect with life-courses of people and our editor has asked us to reflect on both. I write this on sabbatical, my main task writing a book on theories of the human environment. In it, I reflect briefly on my 25 years of professional life trying to discern the coherence, if any, therein. I perceive a somewhat surprising coherence and I wonder seeptically if it is but an artefact of reflection. I find myself problem-driven with a consistency to my central questions. In 1960 that question was: 'How is it that people survive and even prosper in areas of high recurrent natural hazard?' Twenty-five years later the question is similar but more general: 'What is and ought to be the human use of the earth?', along with a more specific corollary: 'In the human use of the earth, what should we worry about?' The pursuit o f these questions began on the floodplain of Big Creek in LaFollette, Tennessee (population then, 7,200), trying to understand its use by understanding the perception of flood and floodplain use in the minds of its inhabitants and how those perceptions related to their decisions (Kates, 1962). Intertwined were the three elements of scientific activity--theory, method and fact. I am an empiricist and this was a case study, I needed to know what was in people's minds in order to understand how they behaved. I tried to develop some methodological skills--how to ask good questions that would reveal something of the floodplain users' mindsets. And I needed to embed the enterprise into a broader setting of theory, and thus I explored theories of uncertainty, of attitude and behavior, and of choice and decisionmaking. Two qualities that were to continue were then in place. The quest is problem-not discipline-defined. Geography is a comfortable hearth and a jumping-off place--but what one learns is what one needs to know. There is a lively interplay between theory, method and fact. Basically I was a pursuer of fact, but always aware that facts change by the methods employed and receive meaning from the theories that guide. Three other qualities of work appeared in their formative stages that summer in LaFollette. The way I addressed the question, the methods I used, the theories I chose to relate to were my o w n - - t h e central question was not. It was my mentor's (Gilbert F. White) and his before him (Harlan H. Barrows). It was part of the manland tradition in geography, part of a broad front of inquiry into floodplain use, and part of a major direction in social science research (choice and decision-making). Also I was not alone in LaFollette that summer but worked with four student colleagues, puzzling together the many questions we encountered. Finally it was not by chance that we had come to LaFollette. We were there because the Tennessee Valley Authority, the regional water development agency, was a pioneer in trying to develop alternative ways to use floodplains while minimizing floodplain damage. Thus there was a social link to the work. It was basic research, but undertaken in order to advise a public institution how to use floodplains better.
In the Midst of Change
335
There were then five characteristics of professional life that are now familiar to me: a central problem that transcends discipline, that is related to a broad front of inquiry, that is basic research but on an applied question, that is collective and collegial and has implications for theory and method as well as empirical findings. No single piece of work necessarily displays all five characteristics but the mix usually does. I am currently working on three major projects and have several more in various stages of gestation. With colleagues Roger Kasperson and Chris Hohenemser, 1 am trying to learn how industry manages hazards. As part of the World Climate Program I have completed editing a handbook on climate impact assessment methods (Kates, 1985). As I noted I am working on a broad review of theories of the human environment. Among the future studies, I plan with colleagues from four institutions one that would use experienced climate anomalies as a natural experiment to provide empirical evidence of human perception of and response to climate change (Karl and Riebsame, 1984). The methodological path from LaFollette peaked at Clark in 1970-72 but what was learned is always with me. Interviews are central to our study of industrial hazard management. Perception is a major chapter in the climate impact assessment book (Whyte, 1985). The major focus of the C L I M P A X experiment (Climate Impact, Perception and Adjustment Experiment) is to identify perceptions and behaviors of climate change. Environmental behavior is a subset of h u m a n environment theory. At the same time, person, for me, has become a less significant category than nature, society or technology. Perception methodology has become a subset of the other methodologies that I have worked o n - - r i s k assessment and climate impact assessment. And questions of theory have begun to dominate issues of fact or method. As with the individual disciplines, I have successfully integrated environmental perception and behavior into my work, moving it from the exceptional to the everday. I miss the liveliness of 1970 72 but I look forward to other ideas and new things to learn. ~The world inside people's heads' was such a useful metaphor. W h a t about 'the world as in people's heads'? Noosphere, anybody? References
Bowden, M. J. (1980). Cognitive renaissance in american geography: the intellectual history of a movement, Organon, 14, 199. -(1984). Environmental perception in geography: a commentary. In T. F. Saarinen, D. Seamon and J. L. Sell (eds), Environmental Perception and Behavior: An Inventor)' and Pro,v~ect. Chicago: University of Chicago, Department of Geography Research Paper No. 209, 85 92. Burton, I., Kates, R. W. and Kirkby A. V. T. (1974). Geography. In A. E. Utton and D. H. Henning (eds), hTterdiseiplinao' EnvironmentalApproaches. Coata Mesa, Ca.: Educational Media Press, pp. 100-120. Karl, T. R. and W. E. Riebsame (1984). The identification of 10- to 20-year temperature and precipitation fluctuations in the contiguous United States. Journal of Climate and Applied Meteorolog.v, 23, 950 966. Kates, R. W. (1962). Hazard and Choice Perception in Flood Plain Management. Chicago: Univcrsity of Chicago, Department of Geography Research Paper No. 78. Kates, R. W., Ausabel, J. H. and Berberian, M. (eds) (1985). Climate Impact Assessment." Studies o[ the Interaction o[" Climate and SocieO'. Chichester, U.K.: John Wiley and Sons.
336
R . W . Kates
Koelsch, W. A. (1984). The 1909 Clark University conferences. Paper presented to the Symposium on The Psychology Conference at Clark, 1909. American Psychological Association, Toronto, Canada, August 26, 1984. Saarinen, T. F. (1984). Some reasons for optimism about environmental perception research. In T. F. Saarinen, D. Seamon and J. L. Sell (eds), Environmental Perception and Behavior: An hlrentory and Pro,s7)ect. Chicago: University of Chicago, Department of Geography Research Paper No. 209, pp. 13 24. Saarinen T. F., Seamon D. and Sell, J. L. (eds), (1984). Environnwntal Perception and Behavior: An hlventory and Pro.v~ect. Chicago: University of Chicago, Department of Geography Research paper No. 209. White, G. F. (1984). Environmental perception and its uses. In T. F. Saarinen, D. Seamon and J. L. Sell (eds), Environmental Perception and Behaviour. An h~ventm'v and Prospect. Chicago: University of Chicago, Department of Geography Research Paper No. 209, pp. 93-96. Whyte, A. V. T. (1977). Guidelines/or Field Sttufies in Environmental Perc~y~tion. Paris: UNESCO. Whytc, A. (1985). Perception. In R. W. Kates (ed), Climate httpact Assessnwnt: Studies t~/the hlteraction ~/ Climate and Society. Chichester, U. K.: John Wiley and Sons.