Moving Beyond Disciplinary Boundaries to Respond to Climate Change

2020 ◽  
pp. 187-197
Author(s):  
Margaret Jolly
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Disciplinary Boundaries

Social and epistemic disparities of the precariat.

2020 ◽  
pp. 163-178
Author(s):  
Hester du Plessis
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Environmental Degradation ◽  
Global Network ◽  
Disciplinary Boundaries

We are facing two major challenges in present times. The first challenge is the global mass migrations of people due to war, climate change and environmental degradation, who are forced to work in precarious situations, often leading to socio-political disruptions. The second challenge lies in technology that provides a global network for the migration of ideas, liberating knowledge from its geographical and disciplinary boundaries and challenging our perceptions of human exceptionality. To bring together these challenges might seem impossible, but when one looks at the uncertainties emerging around humanity’s future, this is possibly a necessary task. In this chapter I would like to initiate some thinking in that direction.

scholarly journals Game of Cruxes: co-designing a game for scientists and stakeholders for identifying joint problems

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Salliou Nicolas ◽  
Enora Bruley ◽  
Tobias Luthe ◽  
Victor Blanco ◽  
Sandra Lavorel ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Complex Issue ◽  
Disciplinary Boundaries ◽  
Stakeholder Interests ◽  
Alpine Regions ◽  
Participatory Processes ◽  
Local Stakeholders ◽  
Joint Problem ◽  
Early Use ◽  
Practical Impact

AbstractScientists increasingly cross their disciplinary boundaries and connect with local stakeholders to jointly solve complex problems. Working with stakeholders means higher legitimacy and supports practical impact of research. Games provide a tool to achieve such transdisciplinary collaboration. In this paper, we explore the use of a game in a participatory project where scientists and local stakeholders are seeking and defining a joint problem. The literature is clear that this step is essential but remains short on concrete methods. Here, we explore this potential in practice. We conducted parallel participatory processes in two alpine regions considered as socio-ecological system (SES) in Switzerland and France, both vulnerable to global change. Based on these two case studies, we co-constructed a game, integrating scientific concerns about key land use, climate change and socio-economic elements of a mountain SES (tourism, agriculture, housing and demography). With the game, we assessed the existence of joint problems connecting scientific and local interests. The game successfully engaged participants at both sites over 11 game sessions, showing potential of use in other transdisciplinary settings. By covering a wide array of issues, the game created a discussion space for listing problems and identifying where scientist and stakeholder interests overlap. In Switzerland, the game revealed no pressing joint problem to be addressed. In France, game sessions revealed, among other problems, an enduring and complex issue regarding the co-existence of inhabitants and powerful institutions. Having demonstrated the capacity of this game for joint-problem assessment, we believe other participatory research in similar SES could benefit from an early use of such an approach to frame the potential for collaboration.

Book Reviews

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 164-181
Author(s):  
Bret Gustafson ◽  
Francesco Carpanini ◽  
Martin Kalb ◽  
James Giblin ◽  
Sarah Besky ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
New York ◽  
South African ◽  
Navajo Nation ◽  
Power Politics ◽  
University Of Texas ◽  
Disciplinary Boundaries ◽  
Rooibos Tea ◽  
Duke University ◽  
Creative Self

Cepek, Michael. 2018. Life in Oil: Cofán Survival in the Petroleum Fields of Amazonia. Austin: University of Texas Press. 302 pp. ISBN 978-1477315088.Choné, Aurélie, Isabelle Hajek, and Philippe Hamman, eds. 2017. Rethinking Nature: Challenging Disciplinary Boundaries. Abingdon; New York: Routledge. xiv + 268 pp. (Paperback) ISBN 978-1-138-21493-4.Davis, Diana K. 2016. The Arid Lands: History, Power, Knowledge. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. 271 pp. ISBN 978-0262034524.Gissibl, Berhard. 2016. The Nature of German Imperialism: Conservation and the Politics of Wildlife in Colonial East Africa. New York: Berghahn Books, 2016. 374 pp. ISBN 978-1-78533-175-6.Ives, Sarah. 2017. Steeped in Heritage: The Racial Politics of South African Rooibos Tea. NC: Duke University Press. 272 pp. ISBN 978-0-8223-6986-8.Martínez-Reyes, José. Moral Ecology of a Forest: The Nature Industry and Maya Post-Conservation. Tucson: University of Arizona Press. 216 pp. ISBN 978-0816531370.Powell, Dana E. 2017. Landscapes of Power: Politics of Energy in the Navajo Nation. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. 336 pp. ISBN 978-0822369943.Raygorodetsky, Gleb. 2017. The Archipelago of Hope: Wisdom and Resilience from the Edge of Climate Change. New York: Pegasus Books. 336 pp. ISBN: 978-1681775326.Wright, Christopher, and Daniel Nyberg. 2015. Climate Change, Capitalism, and Corporations: Processes of Creative Self-Destruction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 254 pp. ISBN 978-1107435131.

scholarly journals Challenges and Issues in the Next Decade: A Proactive Role for Agricultural and Resource Economists

2009 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Walter J. Armbruster
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Public Policy ◽  
Private Sector ◽  
Global Economy ◽  
Price Volatility ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Resource Base ◽  
Disciplinary Boundaries ◽  
Societal Issues ◽  
Proactive Communication

Economic and environmental challenges in the global economy raise significant issues that require public policy and private sector attention over the next decade. Price volatility, invasive species, sustainable biofuels production, and climate change all affect our agricultural and resource base and its future. Agricultural and resource economists must provide analyses of public policy and private sector strategies based on innovative research that integrates insights across disciplinary boundaries. Proactive communication of the results to decision makers can make a difference in how these important societal issues are addressed and help to shape the future.

Symbols of harm, literacies of hope

Human Affairs ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Roy Fox
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Critical Thinking ◽  
Critical Analysis ◽  
Electronic Media ◽  
Symbol Systems ◽  
Disciplinary Boundaries ◽  
Human Survival ◽  
Common Problems ◽  
Private Corporations

AbstractThe author argues that our best hope for addressing world problems (from climate change to violence, to poverty) is to teach critical thinking through the study of language and all symbol systems. This means removing disciplinary boundaries so that we can focus more effectively on solving common problems. Human survival also depends upon our critical analysis of electronic media and our wise uses of technology. Critical thinking via all symbol systems is more likely to generate humane actions. Therefore, education—not governments or armies or institutions or private corporations—is our best hope.

The wicked problem of climate change and interdisciplinary research: Tracking management scholarship's contribution

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Franz Wohlgezogen ◽  
Angela McCabe ◽  
Tom Osegowitsch ◽  
Joeri Mol
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Interdisciplinary Research ◽  
Wicked Problem ◽  
Sustainable Development Goal ◽  
Climate Change Research ◽  
Disciplinary Boundaries ◽  
Interdisciplinary Knowledge ◽  
Combat Climate Change ◽  
Management Scholarship ◽  
Urgent Action

Abstract Taking urgent action to combat climate change is a pivotal Sustainable Development Goal (SDG). Since it is closely intertwined with the other 16 goals, it is frequently characterized as a ‘wicked problem par excellence.’ Interdisciplinary research, i.e., research crossing disciplinary boundaries, offers promise for grappling with wicked problems, but also entails significant challenges to researchers. In this study, we use bibliometric methods to understand how management scholars have, over the course of four decades, straddled disciplinary boundaries and what impact their efforts have had on top-tier climate change research appearing in Science and Nature. We find that management scholarship on climate change (1) has grown significantly since the mid-2000s, (2) features substantial engagement with an interdisciplinary knowledge base, and (3) fails to attract the attention of climate change research within top-tier interdisciplinary journals. We discuss these findings with reference to the ongoing discourse on raising management scholarship's relevance and impact.

Averting robo-bees: why free-flying robotic bees are a bad idea

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (6) ◽  
pp. 723-729
Author(s):  
Roslyn Gleadow ◽  
Jim Hanan ◽  
Alan Dorin
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Computer Simulation ◽  
Food Security ◽  
European Countries ◽  
Plant Interactions ◽  
Plant Insect Interactions ◽  
Native Habitat ◽  
Insect Pollinators ◽  
Insect Interactions

Food security and the sustainability of native ecosystems depends on plant-insect interactions in countless ways. Recently reported rapid and immense declines in insect numbers due to climate change, the use of pesticides and herbicides, the introduction of agricultural monocultures, and the destruction of insect native habitat, are all potential contributors to this grave situation. Some researchers are working towards a future where natural insect pollinators might be replaced with free-flying robotic bees, an ecologically problematic proposal. We argue instead that creating environments that are friendly to bees and exploring the use of other species for pollination and bio-control, particularly in non-European countries, are more ecologically sound approaches. The computer simulation of insect-plant interactions is a far more measured application of technology that may assist in managing, or averting, ‘Insect Armageddon' from both practical and ethical viewpoints.

Modelling ecosystem adaptation and dangerous rates of global warming

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 221-231 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca Millington ◽  
Peter M. Cox ◽  
Jonathan R. Moore ◽  
Gabriel Yvon-Durocher
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Global Warming ◽  
Diffusion Rate ◽  
Individual Species ◽  
Genetic Evolution ◽  
Rates Of Change ◽  
Rapid Climate Change ◽  
Warming Climate ◽  
Intraspecies Competition ◽  
High Trait

Abstract We are in a period of relatively rapid climate change. This poses challenges for individual species and threatens the ecosystem services that humanity relies upon. Temperature is a key stressor. In a warming climate, individual organisms may be able to shift their thermal optima through phenotypic plasticity. However, such plasticity is unlikely to be sufficient over the coming centuries. Resilience to warming will also depend on how fast the distribution of traits that define a species can adapt through other methods, in particular through redistribution of the abundance of variants within the population and through genetic evolution. In this paper, we use a simple theoretical ‘trait diffusion’ model to explore how the resilience of a given species to climate change depends on the initial trait diversity (biodiversity), the trait diffusion rate (mutation rate), and the lifetime of the organism. We estimate theoretical dangerous rates of continuous global warming that would exceed the ability of a species to adapt through trait diffusion, and therefore lead to a collapse in the overall productivity of the species. As the rate of adaptation through intraspecies competition and genetic evolution decreases with species lifetime, we find critical rates of change that also depend fundamentally on lifetime. Dangerous rates of warming vary from 1°C per lifetime (at low trait diffusion rate) to 8°C per lifetime (at high trait diffusion rate). We conclude that rapid climate change is liable to favour short-lived organisms (e.g. microbes) rather than longer-lived organisms (e.g. trees).

Climate change and breeding success: decline of the capercaillie in Scotland

2001 ◽  
Vol 70 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-61 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Moss ◽  
James Oswald ◽  
David Baines
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Breeding Success
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