Marla Pérez-Lugo

• PhD Sociology
• Professor at University of Puerto Rico System

Es de conocimiento común entender que habitamos dentro de un ecosistema dinámico que, por definición, implica interacciones constantes entre sus componentes vivos y no vivos, y que no es estático, sino que evoluciona junto con los organismos que habitan en él. Este póster presenta una metáfora de evolución que centra su enfoque en un acueducto comu...

To learn from the past is to improve our future. Here, we consider a metaphor of the evolution of both a sociotechnical system (STS), as the focus organism, and its ecosystem, stating that they do not only hold a response-relationship, as it’s perceived with an environment’s analysis, but also interact with one another. This poster displays histori...

We present a reliability and resilience (RR) compound index that incorporates both technical and social aspects. The index serves as a metric for quantifying the RR [1] introduced by a community based management as opposed to traditional market or state [2]. We have conceptualized our framework on the RR of community power systems within a sociotec...

Puerto Rico’s fossil fuel-dependent electricity system was crippled by an unprecedented socio-technical landscape shock: the passage of its worst hurricane. In this paper, an overview of post-Hurricane María regime-niche dynamics and developments in the Puerto Rican energy transition is provided to assess the prospect of a window of opportunity ope...

Electric microgrids, due to their distributed and decentralized infrastructure, allows for generation with renewables and the distribution of electricity among households and communal infrastructure even in the collapse of the main grid. However, research on business continuity during disasters suggests that resilience requires more than just a rob...

Transitioning to an infrastructure that integrates a more substantial portion of renewable energy sources into the larger energy portfolio is not effortless or without sacrifice; it has economic, technical as well as social challenges related to the decisions, choices and consequences in trying to establish new energy systems. Those decisions, choi...

The World's dependence on fossil fuels and the need to move to more beneficial energy alternatives pose daunting challenges to humanity. Historically, economic and political rationality has driven the exploration, development and management of natural resources in the search for stable energy supplies. The insistence on continuing the unsustainable...

Many of the problems the World faces are managed from a mostly technical or economical perspective, even though problems also have social and environmental dimensions and could be better managed with a more integrative, global perspective. A common trait of these global issues is their interdisciplinary nature, which makes them complex problems dif...

During the past 50 years forests have recolonized extensive areas of Puerto Rico. Between 1950 and 1990 forest cover increased from 9% to 37% of the island's land area. In proportional terms more land has reverted to forest in Puerto Rico than anywhere else on earth during the second half of the twentieth century. This paper explores the geography...

Smoking restrictions provide opportunities to modify smoking behavior. A large insurance company implemented a smoke-free grounds policy at two of their office complexes in January, 2000. This cohort study evaluated the impact of the smoke-free grounds policy on abstinence among 128 employees who participated in a tobacco dependence treatment progr...

The media, in the sociology of natural disasters, are mainly viewed as management tools used to influence people's preparedness and response to natural disasters. As a consequence, research in this area has been limited to the warning, preparedness, and recovery phases. Through interviews with residents of eight communities in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico...

Presentation format can influence the way target audiences understand risk-related information. Brochures or fish fact sheets are the methods traditionally used by state agencies to inform the public about fish consumption advisories and the risks from consuming fish. This study examines the efficacy of presenting information about the risks from c...

Smoking markedly increases the risk of asbestos-related lung cancer. We conducted a randomized pilot trial of a telephone-based smoking cessation intervention in asbestos workers. Fifty-nine smokers were assigned to either a control or telephone-based smoking cessation treatment group and were followed-up at 6 months. Intent-to-treat analysis revea...

Most of the literature about disasters assumes that the media are the most important mitigation tool for manager officials because its content creates disaster and risk awareness. This assumption proposes only three actors in the process of effective disaster management: the government officials that generate disaster information, the media that tr...