Gillespie Jr, Gilbert W.
Senior Lecturer
My recent work has centered on more fully understanding both aspects of the current food and agriculture system and effective strategies for improving this to better serve society. This work has involved a variety of research projects and formal and informal teaching. Important to understanding the food and agriculture system is the interrelations between society and ecosystems, perhaps properly conceived together and termed socio-ecosystems. My future goals are to be involved in research and education projects that contribute to the social scientific literature, foster humane development, and help citizens of New York and elsewhere better their situations.
research
research and scholarship focus
My main research focus is on developing community capacity through a variety of means: indicators for agricultural viability, decision-making for viability of local enterprises, and organizations supporting local food system elements.
primary investigator of
research areas
- community development | collaborative research area (CALS)
- development sociology | collaborative research area (CALS)
- entrepreneurship | collaborative research area (CALS)
- food system and/or policy | collaborative research area (CALS)
- land use | collaborative research area (CALS)
- risk analysis and assessment | collaborative research area (CALS)
- rural development | collaborative research area (CALS)
- sustainable agriculture | collaborative research area (CALS)
- value-added agriculture | collaborative research area (CALS)
submitted impact statement
- Community, Food, and Agriculture Program | 2006 Impact statement
- Community, Food, and Agriculture Program | 2005 Impact statement
- Community, Food, and Agriculture Program | 2004 Impact statement
affiliations
academic staff in
- Development Sociology (D SOC) | Cornell department
other Cornell affiliations
- Cornell Organic Working Group | working group
teaching
teaching focus
The core foci of my teaching effort are understanding the connections between the biophysical and social worlds (ecosystems and society) and cultivating understanding of and means for dealing with food- and environment-related social issues.
teaches
- DSOC 3400 - Agriculture, Food & Society (MWF 11:15:AM-12:05:PM) | fall 2009 class
- DSOC 4970 - Independent Study in Development Sociology (TBA -) | fall 2009 class
- DSOC 3240 - Environment and Society (TR 02:55:PM-04:10:PM) | spring 2009 class
- DSOC 4970 - Independent Study in Development Sociology (TBA -) | spring 2009 class
- SOC 3240 - Environment and Society (TR 02:55:PM-04:10:PM) | spring 2009 class
- STS 3241 - Environment and Society (TR 02:55:PM-04:10:PM) | spring 2009 class
- DSOC 3400 - Agriculture, Food & Society (MWF 11:15:AM-12:05:PM) | fall 2008 class
- DSOC 3700 - Comparative Social Inequalities (TR 01:25:PM-02:40:PM) | fall 2008 class
- SOC 3710 - Comparative Social Inequalities (TR 01:25:PM-02:40:PM) | fall 2008 class
background
educational background
- B.A., Iowa State Univ, 1967
- M.A., Univ of Nebraska-Omaha, 1977
- M.A., Cornell University, 1981
- Ph.D., Cornell University, 1987
featured in
- Agriculture's impact far more than economic, study says | Cornell Chronicle feature
publications
selected publications (listing in progress)
- Gillespie AH and Gillespie GW. 2006. Generating Grounded Theory with Community Partners. Journal of Community Nutrition 8(1):16-23. 2006
- Douglas Jackson-Smith and Gilbert W. Gillespie Jr. "Impacts of Farm Structural Change on Farmers' Social Ties. " Society and Natural Resources 18(3): 215-240. 2005
- C. Clare Hinrichs, Gilbert W. Gillespie Jr., and Gail Feenstra. "Social Learning and Entrepreneurial Development at Retail Farmers' Markets. " Rural Sociology 69(1): 31-58. 2004
- Gail Feenstra, Christopher Lewis, Gilbert W. Gillespie, and Duncan Hilchey. "Entrepreneurial Outcomes and Enterprise Size in U.S. Retail Farmers Markets. " American Journal of Alternative Agriculture 18(1): 46-55. 2003
- Thomas A. Lyson, Amy E. Guptill, and Gilbert W. Gillespie Jr. "Community Engagement and Dairy Farm Performance: A Study of Farm Operators in Upstate New York. " Research in Rural Sociology and Development 8:309-323. 2000
- Gilbert W. Gillespie Jr. and Peter R. Sinclair. "Shelves and Bins: Varieties of Qualitative Sociology in Rural Studies. " Rural Sociology 65(2): 180-193. 2000
speaker at Cornell event
Keywords: agriculture, communication, community, community development, development, entrepreneurship, environment, food system, policy, sociology of agriculture, sociology of agriculture and food systems, sociology of food systems