Framing and reframing the emerging “planetary crisis”: a plea to avoid, and for increasing critique of, neoenvironmental determinism

2013 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 230-246
Author(s):  
Stephen McGrail
Keyword(s):  
Science And Technology Studies ◽  
Global Environmental Change ◽  
Human Environment ◽  
Content Type ◽  
New Concepts ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
Positive Reframing ◽  
Barriers And Opportunities ◽  
Environmental Limits

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to take up and contribute to understanding an important emerging theme in recent literature on global environmental change and socio‐ecological issues (including Slaughter's The Biggest Wake‐up Call in History): “positive reframing”. The paper also aims to deepen consideration of the potential for “overshoot and collapse” futures and related concerns by foresight practitioners.Design/methodology/approachThe paper is based on, and presents, a thematic analytical literature review.FindingsIn total, four underlying drivers of increased reframing and four central themes in positive reframes are identified; mental “frames” informing and limiting foresight work need to be openly communicated and reflected on – such practitioner reflexivity is often missing in foresight work, such as in The Biggest Wake‐up Call in History by Richard Slaughter.Practical implicationsThe paper includes discussion of the implications for futures practice, including the role of mental frames and reframing. The author suggests futures practitioners can play important new roles in challenging the recent re‐emergence of influential forms of environmental determinism and foresight practitioners need to be more wary of the potential for “narrative bias”.Social implicationsFutures assessment is increasingly needed to guide policy and action in improving human‐environment relations. Barriers and opportunities to fulfilling this societal need must be understood.Originality/valueThe paper helps to deepen the consideration of “re‐framing” and environmental limits by foresight practitioners and theorists. In doing so, the paper also brings in new concepts from other fields (such as cognitive psychology and Science and Technology Studies) into the foresight/futures field.

Political Consumerism for Sustainable Tourism

2018 ◽  
pp. 348-366
Author(s):  
Machiel Lamers ◽  
Jeroen Nawijn ◽  
Eke Eijgelaar
Keyword(s):  
Nature Conservation ◽  
Environmental Change ◽  
Social Theory ◽  
Environmental Effects ◽  
Sustainable Tourism ◽  
Global Environmental Change ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Political Consumerism ◽  
Global Environmental

Over the last decades a substantial and growing societal and academic interest has emerged for the development of sustainable tourism. Scholars have highlighted the contribution of tourism to global environmental change and to local, detrimental social and environmental effects as well as to ways in which tourism contributes to nature conservation. Nevertheless the role of tourist consumers in driving sustainable tourism has remained unconvincing and inconsistent. This chapter reviews the constraints and opportunities of political consumerism for sustainable tourism. The discussion covers stronger pockets and a key weak pocket of political consumerism for sustainable tourism and also highlights inconsistencies in sustainable tourism consumption by drawing on a range of social theory arguments and possible solutions. The chapter concludes with an agenda for future research on this topic.

scholarly journals Environmental issues and international relations, a new global (dis)order - the role of International Relations in promoting a concerted international system

2015 ◽  
Vol 58 (1) ◽  
pp. 191-209 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joana Castro Pereira
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Natural Resources ◽  
State Of The Art ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
International System ◽  
Global Environmental Change ◽  
Environmental Issues ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
The Subject

Is it possible to talk about the rise of a new global (dis)order founded on the challenges posed by environmental issues? Through the review of the state of the art on the subject, this article analyzes the growing importance of the environment, and natural resources in particular, in international relations; and aims to raise awareness among International Relations scholars to the potential positive impact of the development of the discipline in integration with global environmental change studies.

Let the buyer beware: how network structure can enable (and prevent) supply chain fraud

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Scott DuHadway ◽  
Carlos Mena ◽  
Lisa Marie Ellram
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chain ◽  
Network Structure ◽  
Structural Characteristics ◽  
Case Study Research ◽  
Structural Holes ◽  
Content Type ◽  
New Concepts ◽  
Bridge Collapse ◽  
Multiple Case

PurposeSupply chain fraud is a significant global concern for firms, consumers and governments. Evidence of major fraud events suggests the role of supply chain structures in enabling and facilitating fraud, as they often involve several parties in complicated networks designed to obfuscate the fraud. This paper identifies how the structural characteristics of supply chains can play an important role in enabling, facilitating and preventing fraud.Design/methodology/approachThe research follows a theory elaboration approach. The authors build on structural holes theory in conjunction with a multiple case study research design to identify new concepts and develop propositions regarding the role of network structure on supply chain fraud.FindingsThis research shows how structural holes in a supply chain can create advantages for unscrupulous firms, a role we call tertius fraudans, or the cheating third. This situation is exacerbated by structural ignorance, which refers to the lack of knowledge about structural connections in the network. Both structural holes and structural ignorance can create information gaps that facilitate fraud, and the authors propose solutions to detect and prevent this kind of fraud.Originality/valueThis paper extends structural holes theory into the domain of fraud. Novel concepts including tertius fraudans, structural ignorance and bridge collapse are offered, alongside a series of propositions that can help understand and manage structural supply chain fraud.

The Human Dimensions of Global Change

2004 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diana Liverman ◽  
Brent Yarnal
Keyword(s):  
Global Change ◽  
Environmental Change ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Information Science ◽  
Global Environmental Change ◽  
Human Dimensions ◽  
Water Diversion ◽  
Human Environment ◽  
Natural Systems ◽  
Global Environmental

The human–environment condition has emerged as one of the central issues of the new millennium, especially as it has become apparent that human activity is transforming nature at a global scale in both systemic and cumulative ways. Originating with concerns about potential climate warming, the global environmental change agenda rapidly enlarged to include changes in structure and function of the earth’s natural systems, notably those systems critical for life, and the policy implications of these changes, especially focused on the coupled human–environment system. Recognition of the unprecedented pace, magnitude, and spatial scale of global change, and of the pivotal role of humankind in creating and responding to it, has led to the emergence of a worldwide, interdisciplinary effort to understand the human dimensions of global change. The term “global change” now encompasses a range of research issues including those relating to economic, political, and cultural globalization, but in this chapter we limit our focus to global environmental change and to the field that has become formally known as the human dimensions of global (or global environmental) change. We also focus mainly on the work of geographers rather than attempting to review the whole human dimensions research community. Intellectually, geography is well positioned to contribute to global environmental change research (Liverman 1999). The large-scale human transformation of the planet through activities such as agriculture, deforestation, water diversion, fossil fuel use, and urbanization, and the impacts of these on living conditions through changes in, for example, climate and biodiversity, has highlighted the importance of scholarship that analyzes the human–environmental relationship and can inform policy. Geography is one of the few disciplines that has historically claimed human–environment relationships as a definitional component of itself (Glacken 1967; Marsh 1864) and has fostered a belief in and reward system for engaging integrative approaches to problem solving (Golledge 2002; Turner 2002). Moreover, global environmental change is intimately spatial and draws upon geography-led remote sensing and geographic information science (Liverman et al. 1998). Geographers anticipated the emergence of current global change concerns (Thomas et al. 1956; Burton et al. 1978) and were seminal in the development of the multidisciplinary programs of study into the human dimensions of global change.

The Archaeology of Global Environment Change

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carole L. Crumley
Keyword(s):  
Human Activity ◽  
Global Environmental Change ◽  
Earth System ◽  
Human Environment ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
Urgent Task ◽  
The Two Cultures ◽  
Non Linear System

Recent, widely recognized changes in the Earth system are, in effect, changes in the coupled human–environment system. We have entered the Anthropocene, when human activity—along with solar forcing, volcanic activity, precession, and the like—must be considered a component (a ‘driver’) of global environmental change (Crutzen and Stoermer 2000; Levin 1998). The dynamic non-linear system in which we live is not in equilibrium and does not act in a predictable manner (see Fairhead, chapter 16 this volume for further discussion of non-equilibrium ecology). If humankind is to continue to thrive, it is of utmost importance that we identify the ideas and practices that nurture the planet as well as our species. Our best laboratory for this is the past, where long-, medium-, and short-term variables can be identified and their roles evaluated. Perhaps the past is our only laboratory: experimentation requires time we no longer have. Thus the integration of our understanding of human history with that of the Earth system is a timely and urgent task. Archaeologists bring two particularly useful sets of skills to this enterprise: how to collaborate, and how to learn from the past. Archaeology enjoys a long tradition of collaboration with colleagues in both the biophysical sciences and in the humanities to investigate human activity in all planetary environments. Archaeologists work alongside one another in the field, live together in difficult conditions, welcome collaboration with colleagues in other disciplines—and listen to them carefully—and tell compelling stories to an interested public. All are rare skills and precious opportunities. Until recently few practitioners of biophysical, social science, and humanities disciplines had experience in cross-disciplinary collaboration. Many scholars who should be deeply engaged in collaboration to avert disaster (for example, specialists in tropical medicine with their counterparts in land use change) still speak different professional ‘languages’ and have very different traditions of producing information. C. P. Snow, in The Two Cultures (1993 [1959]), was among the first to warn that the very structure of academia was leading to this serious, if unintended, outcome.

Applied Archaeology in the Americas

2016 ◽  
pp. 440-458 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jago Cooper ◽  
Lindsay Duncan
Keyword(s):  
Social Practice ◽  
Global Environmental Change ◽  
Extreme Weather Events ◽  
Practical Application ◽  
Sea Level Changes ◽  
The Public ◽  
Weather Events ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
The Caribbean

This chapter considers the role of archaeology in creating solutions for coping with the impacts of global environmental change, illustrated by cases from Latin America. Past examples of the practical application of pre-Columbian innovations and techniques are considered, and the key themes of social practice and community engagement discussed. These principles are then applied to the islands of the Caribbean where archaeology can play an important role in accessing and illuminating pre-Columbian lifeways in the region. The comparative resilience of past and present lifeways to the hazards created by extreme weather events, precipitation variability, and sea level changes are discussed, and the role of archaeology as a means of engaging the public, stimulating discussion, and informing debate is considered.

Multiple objectivity: an anti‐relativist approach to situated knowledge

Kybernetes ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 40 (7/8) ◽  
pp. 995-1003 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ron Eglash
Keyword(s):  
Science And Technology Studies ◽  
Alternative Form ◽  
Situated Knowledge ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Requisite Variety ◽  
Law Of Requisite Variety ◽  
Relativist Approach ◽  
Epistemological Relativism ◽  
Cybernetic Concept

PurposeThe paper aims to describe the inadequate nature of both “mono‐objectivist” approaches, which deny any role of social influence in science, and relativist social constructions, which fail to distinguish between science and pseudoscience. It outlines an alternative conceptual framework that allows for the possibility of social construction of science, while preventing epistemological relativism.Design/methodology/approachThe study utilizes the cybernetic concept of recursion to show how science can bend back on itself, investigating its own foundations, without undermining its ability to improve our empirical understanding of the world. The paper makes use of several case studies to define specific mechanisms that show how the process of knowledge production in science can steer a course between reduction to a single “right answer,” and fragmentation into subjective interpretations.FindingsThe paper concludes by showing how the cybernetic recursion of multiple objectivity can also be applied to cybernetics itself. In particular, it suggests that such recursive investigations allow us to reconsider the Law of Requisite Variety, and envision an alternative form that can better account for the complexity that arises in self‐generating systems.Research limitations/implicationsThe research is unlikely to be of use to scientists looking for epistemological proof of singular right answers, or social constructivists looking for proof of epistemological relativism.Practical implicationsThe paper suggests that researchers in constructivism need not limit their work for fear that it will lead to relativist conclusions.Originality/valueThis paper fulfils an identified need to offer an alternative to current developments in the field of science and technology studies.

The Biological Impacts of Globalization of Agriculture

2019 ◽  
pp. 108-125
Author(s):  
Nicola P. Randall ◽  
Barbara Smith
Keyword(s):  
Global Environmental Change ◽  
Intensive Agriculture ◽  
Pest Species ◽  
Modern Agriculture ◽  
Local Resources ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
Biological Impacts ◽  
Global Drivers ◽  
Traditional Crops

While pre-modern agriculture tended to use local resources, modern (often intensive) agriculture uses resources from a much wider area—even global in some cases. This chapter discusses the role of agriculture as a driver of global environmental change, together with issues and opportunities associated with the globalization of agriculture. The topics explored include the introduction and spread of invasive and pest species; reductions in genetic diversity; changes in the type of commodities demanded locally and globally; and loss of traditional crops. The implications of these changes for wider ecosystems are explored. The potential for some of these global drivers to act synergistically with each other and with other drivers (e.g. climate change) to impact on biological systems is also explored.

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