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WORK TITLE: Superstorm Sandy
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE:
CITY:
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https://sociology.tcnj.edu/faculty-profiles/dr-diane-bates/ * https://hss.tcnj.edu/2016/04/08/dr-diane-bates-releases-first-book-superstorm-sandy/
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Female.
EDUCATION:Humboldt State University, B.A., 1992; Rutgers University, M.A., 1997; Ph.D, 2000.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Sociologist, educator, researcher, and writer. The College of New Jersey, Trenton, 2003–, sociology professor, coordinator for the Environmental Studies Interdisciplinary Concentration, faculty advisor for the sociology honor society Alpha Kappa Delta. Also serves as the lead writer and academic consultant for the Trenton Prevention Policy Board.
WRITINGS
Contributor to books, including Victimizing Vulnerable Groups: Images of Uniquely High-Risk Crime Targets, edited by Charisse T.M. Coston, Praeger Publishers, 2004; Energy Metropolis: An Environmental History of Houston and the Gulf Coast, edited by Martin Melosi and Joseph A. Pratt. University of Pittsburgh Press, 2006; Twenty Lessons in Environmental Sociology, edited by Kenneth Alan Gould and Tammy Lewis, Oxford University Press, 2009; Twenty Lessons in Environmental Sociology, 2nd edition, edited by Kenneth Alan Gould and Tammy Lewis, Oxford University Pres, 2009; and Advances in Gender Research Volume 19: Gender Transformation in the Academy, edited by Catherine White Berheide, Vasilikie Demos, and Marcia Texler Segal, Emerald Publishing, 2014. Contributor to periodicals, including Annals of the Association of American Geographers, Human Organization, Latin American Perspectives, Latin American Research Review, Polymath, Population and Environment, Rural Sociology, Society and Animals, Society and Natural Resources, Unasylva, and Undergraduate Journal of Service Learning and Community-Based Research.
SIDELIGHTS
Diane C. Bates is a sociologist whose primary research interest is in environmental sociology with dual research projects centered on development in Latin America and in New Jersey. She contributes articles to professional journals that primarily document the social impacts of environmental change in the Ecuadorian Amazon and examine environmental controversies in New Jersey. She also works with her students on local environmental issues in New Jersey, including how the state’s communities and organizations are recovering from SuperStorm Sandy.
In her first book, Superstorm Sandy: The Inevitable Destruction and Reconstruction of the Jersey Shore, Bates provides a look at the Jersey Shore prior to and after Hurricane Sandy, which was the second costliest hurricane in U.S. history after Hurricane Katrina. “Given the classes I’m teaching, Superstorm Sandy was an obvious extension,” Bates told the told College of New Jersey School of Humanities & Social Sciences Web site contributor Kimberly Ilkowski concerning her interest in Superstorm Sandy, adding: “This book isn’t really about the disaster (though) — it’s really about living in an environment where disasters happen.”
Hurricane Sandy hit the Jersey Shore in October 2012. In addition to causing massive damage to structures and flooding, the hurricane was responsible for 117 deaths. Drawing from her expertise in environmental sociology, Bates begins by examining the various factors that led to the population of such a vulnerable coastal region. In the process, she discusses what makes the Jersey Shore an iconic place to the citizens of New Jersey.
Bates examines the social impact of Hurricane Sandy, providing a socioeconomic history of the region in the process. In this discussion, Bates explores the various socioeconomic classes in New Jersey and recounts long-held tensions between the state’s year-round residents, who are primarily blue-collar workers, and wealthy tourists from out of state. These tensions exist despite the fact that tourism brings in significant revenue to the Jersey Shore in the form of resorts, vacation homes, and spending on the boardwalk. Drawing from various data sets, Bates also delves into ethnic migrations into the region and the appearance of casinos.
Overall, Bates explores the importance of the Jersey Shore to the state’s residents, She explains that the shore serves as a type of cultural touchstone in a state where no shared central identity has been formed in relation to a major city or major sports team. Bates goes on to examine the response to Hurricane Sandy in terms of federal, state, and local efforts. In the process, Bates asks why the area was rebuilt with almost everything from homes and businesses to boardwalks placed in the same locations that are vulnerable to major storms.
Among the reasons for the rapid rebuilding of the Jersey Shore, according to Bates, is the need for tourism revenues. In addition, real estate developers were seeking to reap significant profits. “This is big business, it’s not just my memories, there’s real money involved,” Bates told College of New Jersey School of Humanities & Social Sciences Web site contributor Ilkowski “We want to rebuild because we love the shore and then the people that are making money want to rebuild cause they’re making money off of it.”
Bates ends Superstorm Sandy with a chapter focusing on an area in sociology that studies the concept of a risk society and people living with risk. Bates notes that, despite the fact that people willingly live with risks that can severely damage the infrastructure of their communities and potentially risk their lives, they are willing to do so because they often choose not to think about these issues. The big question, according to Bates, is why people accept certain risks. Bates also addresses the issue of climate change and the likliehood that the area will face other disasters as a result. The final chapter also discusses her own family’s experience with Hurricane Sandy. “Though aimed at an academic audience, Superstorm Sandy is highly readable and has the potential for broad appeal,” wrote Foreword Reviews Online contributor Anna Call, who went on to note the book’s last chapter “places the previous, more cerebral chapters into immediate context.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Choice, June, 2016, E.L. Hirsch, review of Superstorm Sandy: The Inevitable Destruction and Reconstruction of the Jersey Shore, p. 1507.
ONLINE
College of New Jersey School of Humanities & Social Sciences Web site, (April 8, 2016), Kimberly Ilkowski, “Diane Bats Releases First Book, Superstorm Sandy;” (April 28, 2017), author faculty profile.
Foreword Reviews Online, https://www.forewordreviews.com/ (May 27, 2016), Anna Call, review of Superstorm Sandy.*
Dr. Diane Bates
Bates 2 Phone: (609) 771-3176
Email: bates@tcnj.edu
Office: Social Science Building 317
Office Hours for Spring 2017:
Fridays 2:00pm – 4:50pm
Degrees Earned
Ph.D. 2000 Rutgers University, Sociology
M.A. 1997 Rutgers University, Sociology
B.A. 1992 Humboldt State University, Sociology
Courses Taught
FSP 122: The Vanishing Amazon
FSP 124: New Jersey’s Urban Environment
SOC 101: Introduction to Sociology
SOC 227: Political and Historic Sociology
SOC 302: Quantitative Research Methods
SOC/ANT 340: Social Change in Latin America
SOC 345: Inequality, Pollution, and Environment
SOC 402: Survey Research Methods
SOC 403: Socio-Spatial Analysis
Recent Research and Activities
Dr. Bates has primary research interests in environmental sociology with dual research projects centered on development in Latin America and in New Jersey. She has published multiple articles that document the social impacts of environmental change in the Ecuadorian Amazon, and on environmental controversies in New Jersey.
She is also one of the principal investigators involved in the NSF-funded TCNJ Advancement Program (TAP), which has studied gender equity across disciplines at TCNJ. Research from this project is featured by the Association for Women in Science. Dr. Bates is currently working with colleagues at TCNJ and nationwide to determine if work-family balance and/or the promotion process varies by gender, discipline, or cohort.
She has served as the lead writer and academic consultant for the Trenton Prevention Policy Board, which seeks community-based solutions to curb juvenile delinquency. She serves as the academic consultant for the health working group.
Research work with TCNJ students has focused on local environmental issues, including how the state’s communities and organizations are recovering from SuperStorm Sandy.
Dr. Bates is a strong advocate of community engaged learning, and has worked for the many years to establish programs that engage students in the Trenton metropolitan area, such as the Community and Environmental Transitions program, funded by the National Council for Undergraduate Research (NCUR), and the Bonner Summer Fellows Program.
Dr. Bates currently serves as the Coordinator for the Environmental Studies Interdisciplinary Concentration at TCNJ and as the Faculty Advisor for the Sociology Honor Society, Alpha Kappa Delta.
Publications
Bates, Diane C. Forthcoming [Fall/Winter 2015]. Superstorm Sandy: The Inevitable Destruction and Reconstruction of the Jersey Shore. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
Malerba, Holly and Diane C. Bates. 2014. “Does Participation in Enrichment Activities Affect Overall Performance of Elementary and Middle School students?: An Evaluation of the Relationships between TCNJ Bonner Center and Hedgepeth-Williams K-8 School.” Undergraduate Journal of Service Learning and Community-Based Research 3.
Borland, Elizabeth and Diane C. Bates. 2014. “Emerging Gender Parity and Persistent Differences: Cultural Shifts among Faculty Cohorts at a Primarily Undergraduate Institution.” Pp. 109-129 in Advances in Gender Research Volume 19: Gender Transformation in the Academy, ed by Catherine White Berheide, Vasilikie Demos, and Marcia Texler Segal. Bingley, UK: Emerald Publishing.
Bates, Diane C. and Elizabeth Borland. 2014. “Fitting in and Stalling Out: Collegiality, Mentoring and Role Strain among Professors in the Sciences at a Primarily Undergraduate Institution”. Polymath: An Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences Journal 4, 2: 50-68.
Bates, Diane C. 2014 [2009]. “Population, Demography, and the Environment.” Pp. 107-124 in Twenty Lessons in Environmental Sociology, 2nd ed. by Kenneth Alan Gould and Tammy Lewis. New York: Oxford University Press.
Bates, Diane C. 2009. “Population, Demography, and the Environment.” Pp. 107-124 in Twenty Lessons in Environmental Sociology, ed. by Kenneth Alan Gould and Tammy Lewis. New York: Oxford University Press.
Harker, Dave and Diane C. Bates. 2007. “The Black Bear Hunt in New Jersey: A Constructionist Analysis of an Intractable Conflict.”Society and Animals: Journal of Human-Animal Studies 15, 4: 329-352.
Bates, Diane C. 2007. “The Barbecho Crisis, la Plaga del Banco, and International Migration: Structural Adjustment in Ecuador’s Southern Amazon.” Latin American Perspectives 34,3: 108-122.
Bates, Diane C. 2006. “Urban Sprawl and the Piney Woods: Deforestation in the San Jacinto Watershed.” Pp. 173-184 in Energy Metropolis: An Environmental History of Houston and the Gulf Coast, ed. By Martin Melosi and Joseph A. Pratt. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press.
Rudel, Thomas K., Diane C. Bates, and Susan L. Golbeck. 2006. “How do Poor, Remote, Rural Places get Child Care Centers?: Patriarchy, Out-Migration, and Political Opportunities in the Ecuadorian Amazon.” Human Organization 65, 1: 1-7.
Bates, Diane C. and Thomas K. Rudel. 2004. “Ascendiendo en la ‘escala agricola’: movilidad social y motivaciones migratorias.” Ecuador Debate Diciembre: 103-120.
Bates, Diane C. and Thomas K. Rudel. 2004. “Climbing the ‘Agricultural Ladder’: Social Mobility and Motivations for Migration in an Ecuadorian Colonist Community.” Rural Sociology 69, 1: 59-75.
Bates, Diane C. and Joanne Ardovini. 2004. “Victims in Developing Countries.” Pp. 194-208 in Victimizing Vulnerable Groups: Images of Uniquely High-Risk Crime Targets, ed. by Charisse T.M. Coston. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers.
Bates, Diane C. 2002. “Environmental Refugees?: Classifying Human Migration caused by Environmental Change.” Population and Environment: A Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies 23,5: 465-477.
Rudel, Thomas K., Diane C. Bates, and Rafael Machinguiashi. 2002. “Ecologically Noble Amerindians?: Cattle Ranching and Cash Cropping among Shuar and Colonist Smallholders in Ecuador.” Latin American Research Review 37, 1: 144-159
Rudel, Thomas K., Diane C. Bates, and Rafael Machinguiashi. 2002. “A Tropical Forest Transition?: Agricultural Change, Out-migration, and Secondary Forests in the Ecuadorian Amazon.” Annals of the Association of American Geographers 92,1: 87-102.
Bates, Diane C. and Thomas K. Rudel. 2000. “The Political Ecology of Conserving Tropical Rain Forests: A Cross-national Analysis.” Society and Natural Resources 13: 619-634.
Rudel, T.K., K. Flesher, D. Bates, S. Baptista, and P. Homgren. 2000. “The tropical deforestation literature: historical and geographical patterns.” Unasylva 203,51: 11-18.
Diane Bates releases first book, “Superstorm Sandy”
Posted on April 8, 2016
As an environmental sociologist and professor at the College, Dr. Diane Bates has committed her professional career to trying to understand people and how they live and interact with the nonhuman environment.
Last fall, Bates released her first book entitled, “Superstorm Sandy: The Inevitable Destruction and Reconstruction of the Jersey Shore” on Rutgers University Press.
Bates began teaching at the College in 2003 and has taught classes on urban, as well as environmental, sociology. What was discussed in the classroom had a clear influence on her writing process.
“Given the classes I’m teaching, Superstorm Sandy was an obvious extension,” Bates said on her interest in the topic. “This book isn’t really about the disaster (though) — it’s really about living in an environment where disasters happen.”
Her book is divided into six chapters, each exploring different aspects of Sandy’s aftermath.
The book’s second chapter makes an effort to explain to those outside of the state what makes the Jersey shore so iconic.
“(The shore is) one of the defining characteristics of people living in New Jersey — it’s an important part of who New Jersey is.” Bates said. “You grew up going to the shore, you grew up going to the boardwalks. Only people in New Jersey get it.”
The book’s remaining chapters move away from the social impact and begin to highlight the technical side of things, such as the thriving tourism economy, the oddity of the suburbanization of shore counties and the means of government involvement and aid for those affected.
“This is big business, it’s not just my memories, there’s real money involved,” Bates said. “We want to rebuild because we love the shore and then the people that are making money want to rebuild cause they’re making money off of it.”
In its final chapter, “Superstorm Sandy” addresses the subfield of sociology focused on the study of living with risk and the concept of a risk society.
“The basic argument is that in modern societies, we are so dependent on systems that are inherently risky that we don’t control and we don’t understand,” Bates said. “We drive, and what happened after Sandy? There was no gas. We depend on electricity, (and) after Sandy people were out for weeks.”
Bates said that people are comfortable with these risk systems because they don’t commonly reveal their true risky nature.
“We tend to background that risk, for the most part, those systems function on a day-to-day basis and we don’t have to think about them,” Bates said. “But then what happens when you have a disruption to those systems? It sort of calls to the forefront that we’re really in a precarious position and so we try and sort of tamp all that back down and get back to normal as soon as possible.”
When it comes to the longtime residents of these shore towns, there’s no surprise about what may be in store for them each hurricane season.
“People know the risk of living at the shore. Every single person I’ve talked to that lived through Sandy knew absolutely what was going to happen (and) they know it’s going happen again,” Bates said. “There’s no question about not understanding the risk. The bigger question is why we accept those risks and how do we background them so that we can continue to live in a system that we accept is risky.”
This final chapter functions as a kind of thought exercise about these abstract ideas.
“Sandy was one of those times when all those background systems came to the foreground,” Bates said.
Bates has previously written academic journal articles and book chapters, but this is her first time writing a full book. The process proved to be much different than what she was accustomed to in academic writing.
“The audience for your dissertation is a committee, so it’s other PhD.’s that you’re trying to prove yourself to,” Bates said. “(For) journal articles and book chapters, your target audience is largely other sociologists who are working in your field, (so it’s) speaking scientist to scientist. (The book is) targeted to people who knew the shore and undergraduate students. It’s not designed for the small academic audience I’m used to writing for.
Although it was certainly a change of pace, it was nevertheless a rewarding experience.
In February, a student reader panel was held where some of the best students in the major and minor came together after reading “Superstorm Sandy” to discuss and ask questions with Bates.
One of the concepts readers were intrigued by was, “does it make sense to build in these places?” Bates believes it all depends on the logic you use when thinking about the problem.
“In terms of engineering logic, no, it probably doesn’t make sense. But that assumes that people think like engineers, and we don’t,” Bates said. “People who want to live there, want to live there in spite of the risk. People who want to go there for vacation, want to go there even if it’s just a day trip.”
Congratulations on your new book Dr. Bates!
Congratulations on your new book Dr. Bates!
Interview and story by Kimberly Ilkowski
Photo by Kathleen Fox
Bates, Diane C.: Superstorm Sandy: the inevitable destruction and reconstruction of the Jersey Shore
E.L. Hirsch
53.10 (June 2016): p1507.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2016 American Library Association CHOICE
http://www.ala.org/acrl/choice/about
Bates, Diane C. Superstorm Sandy: the inevitable destruction and reconstruction of the Jersey Shore. Rutgers, 2016. 166p bibl index afp ISBN 9780813573403 cloth, $80.00; ISBN 9780813573397 ebook, $27.95; ISBN 9780813573410 ebook, 27.95
53-4422
HT393
2015-12450 CIP
Sociologist Bates (College of New Jersey, Ewing) has written a comprehensive analysis of the New Jersey shore and the impact of Superstorm Sandy from the perspective of environmental sociology. She focuses on the reality of climate change and the associated likelihood of additional severe flood and wind damage from future storms. Bates asks why New Jersey and its residents would rebuild boardwalks, businesses, and residences in the same locations, given their vulnerability. One answer, drawing on cultural sociology, is that the shore has a prominent place in the memories of all the families who have vacationed there over generations. She also argues in a comprehensive economic analysis that the rebuilding of shore resort and vacation homes was likely due to the need to quickly restore crucial tourism revenues and to gain potential real estate developer profits. These factors motivated state officials and residents to create and support the "Stronger than the Storm" and "Jersey Strong" slogans used to rationalize the rebuilding effort. Bates also analyzes the serious issues with the federal and state response to the destruction caused by Sandy. Summing Up: ** Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above.--E. L. Hirsch, Providence College
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Hirsch, E.L. "Bates, Diane C.: Superstorm Sandy: the inevitable destruction and reconstruction of the Jersey Shore." CHOICE: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries, June 2016, p. 1507+. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA454942833&it=r&asid=5b3688260bc4d2fdffb7ace9902dd609. Accessed 25 Mar. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A454942833
Superstorm Sandy
The Inevitable Destruction and Reconstruction of the Jersey Shore
Reviewed by Anna Call
May 27, 2016
In a concise but meaningful way, Superstorm Sandy summarizes the state of New Jersey’s response to 2012’s devastating Hurricane Sandy. To do this, the book examines the state from historical, political, and several socio-economic perspectives to determine how its circumstances impacted its response.
The book references climate change in its conclusion, but primarily focuses on the sociological fallout of Superstorm Sandy along the New Jersey shore. It also references the recent rise of tandem environmental and sociological areas of study. Analysis of storm resiliency between different classes features prominently throughout the book, especially highlighting the historic tension between New Jersey’s blue collar year-round residents, who produced the likes of Bruce Springsteen, and the wealthier tourists from out-of-state who make the resorts, vacation homes, and boardwalks such a success. In examining the roots of New Jersey’s storm response, Bates tracks historical data sets, including ethnic migrations and the rise of casinos, to provide a framework for the community-level response to Sandy. The result is a comprehensive view of the entire state from its foundation to the modern day. While the book is useful as an examination of the roots of the federal, state, and local reaction to Sandy, it could almost stand alone as a quick socioeconomic history of the entire state of New Jersey.
Though aimed at an academic audience, Superstorm Sandy is highly readable and has the potential for broad appeal. The final chapter, where the author discusses her family’s experience with the storm, is especially useful in that it places the previous, more cerebral chapters into immediate context. Highly recommended for policymakers, local governments, and active citizens working in any disaster-prone coastal area.
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The author of this book provided free copies of the book to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. No fee was paid by the author for this review. Foreword Reviews only recommends books that we love. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.