Louise Fortmann

• Louise Fortmann
• Professor of Natural Resource Sociology
• Rudy Grah Chair in Forestry and Sustainable Development
• Physical Location: 121 Giannini Hall
• Phone: 510-642-7018
• Email fortmann@nature.berkeley.edu
• Fax 510-642-1815 (not always reliable)
• Mailing address: Department of ESPM
• 137 Mulford Hall
• University of California at Berkeley
• Berkeley, CA 94720-3114
• USA

I am a rural sociologist. I grew up in central Pennsylvania and received a BA in political science from Penn State in 1968. I received an MS from Cornell in rural sociology in 1970 after which I worked for a year as a VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America, the domestic equivalent of the Peace Corps) Volunteer in Cattaraugus County, NY as a welfare rights organizer. I did my dissertation research on delivery of legal services to the rural poor in Cattaraugus County. In 1973 I earned a PhD in development sociology from Cornell. I have spent eleven years living and doing research on agriculture and natural resource management in east and southern Africa. I came to UC Berkeley as an assistant professor in the Department of Forestry and Resource Management in 1984.

For my resume, click here.

Courses

I regularly teach courses on conservation and environment in sub-Saharan Africa, political ecology, property, and science. The syllabi and course requirements for recently taught courses are available below.

• ESPM 155: Natural Resources: A Political Ecology Approach
• ESPM 255: Property and Natural Resources

Research

My students and I study the outcomes of natural resource use and management for individuals and for communities. My own research is located in northern California and southern Africa. My students work all over the world. Our combined research addresses five interrelated questions:

1. gender- how do women and men differ in their access to, control of, management of and responsibility for providing natural resources and natural resource products. What are the social and ecological results of these differences.
2. property-how are property rights and claims to natural resources structured and distributed and how does this affect people/communities dependent on natural resources for their livelihoods?
3. poverty--what is the extent, nature and distribution of poverty among natural resource dependent households and communities and what causes it?
4. community control of natural resources- what factors facilitate or impede community control and management of natural resources? What are the social and ecological outcomes of community control and management of natural resources?
5. knowledge production- under what conditions are participatory research methods effective? What social structures and processes facilitate successful collaboration between professional and civil scientists

Publications

I have published on poverty, property, gender, community management of natural resources, and, most recently, on democratizing science. For a pdf listing of all my publications, click here.

Selected Publication

• What We Need is a Community Bambi: The Perils and Possibilities of Powerful Symbols (2005)
• Whose Landscape?: A Political Ecology of the "Exurban" Sierra 2003
• Sustaining Natural and Human Capital: Villagers and Scientists (1999)
• Fruits of their Labors: Gender, Property Rights and Tree Planting in Two Zimbabwe Villages (1997)
• Talking Claims: Discursive Strategies in Contesting Property (1995)

Public Service

• 1992-1995 Member, Board of Trustees, Centre for International Forestry Research
• 2004-present Member, Board of Trustees, International Center for Tropical Agriculture
• Editorial Boards: Journal of Forestry, *Journal of Rural Studies, *Journal of the Commons (* current member)
• Cantare Children's Choirs of Oakland: volunteer adult mentor and fundraiser

For Potential Graduate Students

If you are thinking about applying to ESPM in order to work with me, please read this first.

1. I am particularly interested in students who want to do a dissertation in one of these areas:
   1. Students who want to do interdisciplinary research with me and a professor in a biophysical science as co-chairs of your guiding and dissertation committees
   2. Students who are interested in doing research on the democratization of science
   3. Students who are interested in doing research on gender and property
2. I do not accept masters students