Frederick Howard Buttel (October 15, 1948, Freeport, Illinois – January 14, 2005, Madison, Wisconsin) was the William H. Sewell Professor of Rural Sociology at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. A prominent scholar of the sociology of agriculture, Buttel was well known also for his contributions to environmental sociology.
Early life
Buttel was "born on a dairy farm [in northwestern Illinois] to Heye R. and Marian (Highbarger) Buttel". His father was a farmer, his mother a school teacher.
Education and career
Buttel earned his B.S. (1970) and M.S. in Sociology (1972) degrees at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, his master's degree in forestry and environmental studies at Yale University and his Ph.D. in sociology at the University of Wisconsin. Prior to returning as a faculty member to Wisconsin, he served as a member of the faculty at Michigan State University and Cornell University. At the latter, he directed the Biology and Society Program.
Buttel was editor of the journal, Research in Rural Sociology and Development, and co-editor of Society & Natural Resources. Buttel was a scholar in rural sociology whose research focused on four major areas of study: the sociology of agriculture, environmental sociology, technological change in agriculture, and national and global activism relating to environmental and agricultural policies.
Offices and awards
Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1987
President, Rural Sociological Society, 1990–1991
Excellence in Research Award, Rural Sociology Society, 1993
Distinguished Contribution to Environmental Sociology Award, Section on Environment and Technology, American Sociological Association, 1994 Chair, Department of Rural Sociology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1998–2002 President, Agriculture, Food and Human Values Society, 1998–1999 President, Research Committee on Environment and Society (RC24), International Sociological Association, 1998–2002 Merit Award, Natural Resources Research Group, Rural Sociology Society, 1999 Spitz Land-Grant Faculty Award, College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2004 Distinguished Rural Sociologist Award, Rural Sociology Society, 2004 Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation Professor, University of Wisconsin, 2004
Recognition
After his death, the Research Committee on Environment and Society (RC24) of the International Sociological Association established in his honor the Frederick H. Buttel International Award for Distinguished Scholarship in Environmental Sociology. Recognizing his contributions to the field, the Section on Environment and Technology of the American Sociological Association also renamed its Distinguished Contributions Award for him. The endowed chair he held at the University of Wisconsin was renamed the Buttel-Sewell Professorship.
Co-authored books
Rural Sociology of the Advanced Societies (1980) Labor and the Environment (1984) The Sociology of Agriculture (1990) Toward a New Political Economy of Agriculture (1991) Hungry for Profit: The Agribusiness Threat to Farmers, Food, and the Environment (2000) Environment and Global Modernity (2000) Environment, Energy, and Society: A New Synthesis (2001) Sociological Theory and Environment (2002) New Directions in the Sociology of Global Development, Volume 11 (2005) Governing Environmental Flows: Global Challenges to Social Theory (2006)
See also
List of Cornell University faculty
List of Michigan State University people
List of Michigan writers
List of sociologists
List of University of Wisconsin–Madison people
List of Yale University people
References
External links
"Father's Advice Proved Dependable to Professor," University of Wisconsin-Madison News, November 2, 2004 "Four Faculty Receive Hilldale Awards," University of Wisconsin-Madison News, April 29, 2002
1948 births
2005 deaths
20th-century social scientists
21st-century social scientists
Academic journal editors
American print editors
American sociologists
Environmental sociologists
Cornell University faculty
Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
Michigan State University faculty
University of Wisconsin–Madison College of Letters and Science alumni
University of Wisconsin–Madison faculty
Writers from Michigan
Writers from New York (state) Writers from Wisconsin Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies alumni People from Freeport, Illinois Rural sociologists