scholarly journals Managing the Complexity of Climate Change

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shann Turnbull
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Complex Systems ◽  
Political Science ◽  
Common Good ◽  
Institutional Analysis ◽  
Tax Incentives ◽  
Individual Behaviour ◽  
Unit Of Analysis ◽  
Natural Systems ◽  
Ecological Governance

This paper indicates how the knowledge of complex systems can be put into practice to counter climate change. A contribution of the paper is to show how individual behaviour, institutional analysis, political science and management can be grounded and integrated into the complexity of natural systems to introduce mutual sustainability. Bytes are used as the unit of analysis to explain how nature governs complexity on a more reliable and comprehensive basis than can be achieved by humans using markets and hierarchies. Tax incentives are described to increase revenues while encouraging organisations to adopt elements of ecological governance found in nature and in some social organisations identified by Ostrom and the author. Ecological corporations provide benefits for all stakeholders. This makes them a common good to promote global common goods like enriching democracy from the bottom up while countering: climate change, pollution, and inequalities in power, wealth and income.

Beyond Wickedness: Managing Complex Systems and Climate Change

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan M. Gilligan ◽  
Michael P. Vandenbergh
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Complex Systems

Contributions of Contemporary Political Science to an Understanding of the Common Good

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
S.J. Matthew Carnes
Keyword(s):  
Political Science ◽  
Common Good ◽  
Scientific Theory ◽  
Theory Building ◽  
Catholic Theology ◽  
Politics And Government ◽  
The Common Good ◽  
The Common ◽  
Nature And Society

The transformation of political science in recent decades opens the door for a new but so far poorly cultivated examination of the common good. Four significant “turns” characterize the modern study of politics and government. Each is rooted in the discipline’s increased emphasis on empirical rigor, with its attendant scientific theory-building, measurement, and hypothesis testing. Together, these new orientations allow political science to enrich our understanding of causality, our basic definitions of the common good, and our view of human nature and society. In particular, the chapter suggests that traditional descriptions of the common good in Catholic theology have been overly irenic and not sufficiently appreciative of the role of contention in daily life, on both a national and international scale.

Transformation

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen J. Esler ◽  
Anna L. Jacobsen ◽  
R. Brandon Pratt
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Fire Regimes ◽  
Human Populations ◽  
Land Use Land Cover ◽  
Mountainous Areas ◽  
Drivers Of Change ◽  
Natural Systems ◽  
Natural Landscapes ◽  
Habitat Conversion ◽  
Residential Use

Extensive habitat loss and habitat conversion has occurred across all mediterranean-type climate (MTC) regions, driven by increasing human populations who have converted large tracts of land to production, transport, and residential use (land-use, land-cover change) while simultaneously introducing novel forms of disturbance to natural landscapes. Remaining habitat, often fragmented and in isolated or remote (mountainous) areas, is threatened and degraded by altered fire regimes, introduction of invasive species, nutrient enrichment, and climate change. The types and impacts of these threats vary across MTC regions, but overall these drivers of change show little signs of abatement and many have the potential to interact with MTC region natural systems in complex ways.

scholarly journals Global evidence of constraints and limits to human adaptation

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Adelle Thomas ◽  
Emily Theokritoff ◽  
Alexandra Lesnikowski ◽  
Diana Reckien ◽  
Kripa Jagannathan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Systematic Review ◽  
Behavioral Adaptation ◽  
Human Adaptation ◽  
Small Islands ◽  
Intergovernmental Panel ◽  
Natural Systems ◽  
Adaptation Response ◽  
Cultural Constraints ◽  
Global Evidence

AbstractConstraints and limits to adaptation are critical to understanding the extent to which human and natural systems can successfully adapt to climate change. We conduct a systematic review of 1,682 academic studies on human adaptation responses to identify patterns in constraints and limits to adaptation for different regions, sectors, hazards, adaptation response types, and actors. Using definitions of constraints and limits provided by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), we find that most literature identifies constraints to adaptation but that there is limited literature focused on limits to adaptation. Central and South America and Small Islands generally report greater constraints and both hard and soft limits to adaptation. Technological, infrastructural, and ecosystem-based adaptation suggest more evidence of constraints and hard limits than other types of responses. Individuals and households face economic and socio-cultural constraints which also inhibit behavioral adaptation responses and may lead to limits. Finance, governance, institutional, and policy constraints are most prevalent globally. These findings provide early signposts for boundaries of human adaptation and are of high relevance for guiding proactive adaptation financing and governance from local to global scales.

scholarly journals SELF-ORGANIZATION IN COMPLEX SYSTEMS AS DECISION MAKING

2014 ◽  
Vol 17 (03n04) ◽  
pp. 1450016 ◽  
Author(s):  
V. I. YUKALOV ◽  
D. SORNETTE
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Complex Systems ◽  
Mathematical Formulation ◽  
Conditional Entropy ◽  
Self Organization ◽  
Entropy Maximization ◽  
Natural Systems ◽  
Macroscopic States ◽  
System States ◽  
Statistical Systems

The idea is advanced that self-organization in complex systems can be treated as decision making (as it is performed by humans) and, vice versa, decision making is nothing but a kind of self-organization in the decision maker nervous systems. A mathematical formulation is suggested based on the definition of probabilities of system states, whose particular cases characterize the probabilities of structures, patterns, scenarios, or prospects. In this general framework, it is shown that the mathematical structures of self-organization and of decision making are identical. This makes it clear how self-organization can be seen as an endogenous decision making process and, reciprocally, decision making occurs via an endogenous self-organization. The approach is illustrated by phase transitions in large statistical systems, crossovers in small statistical systems, evolutions and revolutions in social and biological systems, structural self-organization in dynamical systems, and by the probabilistic formulation of classical and behavioral decision theories. In all these cases, self-organization is described as the process of evaluating the probabilities of macroscopic states or prospects in the search for a state with the largest probability. The general way of deriving the probability measure for classical systems is the principle of minimal information, that is, the conditional entropy maximization under given constraints. Behavioral biases of decision makers can be characterized in the same way as analogous to quantum fluctuations in natural systems.

Towards Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation

2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 138-158
Author(s):  
Umer Khayyam ◽  
Rida Bano ◽  
Shahzad Alvi
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Capital City ◽  
Mitigation Measures ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
Adaptation Measures ◽  
Natural Systems ◽  
Mitigation And Adaptation ◽  
Level Of Motivation ◽  
The University

Abstract Global climate change is one of the main threats facing humanity and the impacts on natural systems as well as humans are expected to be severe. People can take action against these threats through two approaches: mitigation and adaptation. However, mitigations and adaptations are contingent on the level of motivation and awareness, as well as socio-economic and environmental conditions. This study examined personal perception and motivation to mitigate and adapt to climate change among the university students in the capital city of Pakistan. We divided the respondents into social sciences, applied sciences and natural sciences, using logistic regression analysis. The results indicated that students who perceive severity, benefits from preparation, and have more information about climate change were 1.57, 4.98 and 1.63 times more likely to take mitigation and 1.47, 1.14 and 1.17 times more likely to take adaptation measures, respectively. Students who perceived self-efficacy, obstacles to protect from the negative consequences of climate change and who belonged to affluent families were more likely to take mitigation measures and less likely to take adaptation strategies. However, mitigation and adaptation were unaffected by age, gender and study discipline.

scholarly journals Over the horizon: Exploring the conditions of a post-growth world

2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 117-141 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy Crownshaw ◽  
Caitlin Morgan ◽  
Alison Adams ◽  
Martin Sers ◽  
Natália Britto dos Santos ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Global Economy ◽  
Growth Conditions ◽  
Ecological Impacts ◽  
Paradigm Change ◽  
Limits To Growth ◽  
Economic Discourse ◽  
Natural Systems ◽  
Steady Growth ◽  
Economic Paradigm

Maintaining steady growth remains the central goal of economic policy in most nations. However, as evidenced by the advent of the Anthropocene, the global economy has expanded to a point where limits to growth are appearing. Facing the end of growth requires a careful re-examination of plausible future conditions. We draw on a diverse literature to present an interdisciplinary exploration of post-growth conditions in the areas of climate change, ecological impacts, governance, and education, finding that such conditions may invalidate many prevalent assumptions regarding the future. The post-growth world, while subject to significant uncertainty and heterogeneity, will be characterized by profound hazards and discontinuities for both human and natural systems. Furthermore, we argue that an economic paradigm change will be predicated on an involuntary and unplanned cessation of growth. This implies a necessary strategic expansion of the heterodox economic discourse to formulate appropriate responses in view of likely post-growth realities.

scholarly journals A review of the complexity approach to the study human (society)-nature interactions

2010 ◽  
Vol 90 (2) ◽  
pp. 109-137 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dragana Miljanovic
Keyword(s):  
Complex Systems ◽  
Complexity Theory ◽  
Complex Dynamics ◽  
Traditional Approach ◽  
Human Society ◽  
Natural Systems ◽  
Two Systems

Traditional approach to the study of society-nature interactions based on reductionism and linear causality is no longer fully capable of explaining complex dynamics of integrated socio-economic and natural systems. For this reason demands for complexity theory is growing. Understanding interactions between society and nature, human and their environment must come from the examination of how the two systems operate together, and not from examination of those systems themselves in isolation. Since our geographical community is not familiar enough with complexity theory, first part of article is devoted to outlining shift from reductionism to holism and complexity theory. In the second part, features of complex systems as it is human (society)-environment system are discussed. .

scholarly journals Sociological institutionalism as a direction of the new institutionalism of political science: methodology and its implementation in Ukrainian political science research

2020 ◽  
Vol 23 (9) ◽  
pp. 5-14
Author(s):  
Oksana Bashtannyk
Keyword(s):  
Political Science ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
New Institutionalism ◽  
Institutional Analysis ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Research Strategy ◽  
The Political ◽  
Research Strategies ◽  
Sociological Institutionalism ◽  
Political Processes

The relevance of this study is explained by the need to find out the heuristic parameters of one of the segments of the institutional analysis of Ukrainian political science - sociological institutionalism. At the present stage of world development of institutional research in politics, it is no longer enough to turn to the formalized aspects of the essence of political institutions, which is still a fairly common approach - in contrast to the general theory of the new institutionalism. Also, there is a widespread view that the latest models of research strategies can be offered only by foreign political science and it is among its developments that the necessary analytical tools should be sought. Due to certain historical aspects of the political development of our country, political science research has not been able to develop synchronously with global trends for a long time, but it is possible to assume that today this situation is gradually changing. Therefore, the purpose of our study was to concretize in domestic political science the analytical field of such research areas of the new institutionalism as sociological institutionalism and systematize the main parameters of its research strategy. As a result of the study, it was found that the provisions of sociological institutionalism of political science are based on more normative-formalized approaches compared to other types of institutionalism because its formation was significantly influenced by the theory of organizations. Most Ukrainian scholars use the methodological tools of this area of institutionalism for a comprehensive analysis of the nature of the political institution as a research unit, which is close in its characteristics to the latest world examples and requires an appropriate research methodology. The group of specific issues considered by domestic scholars on the basis of the provisions of sociological institutionalism is opened by the normative aspects of the functioning of international politics (for example, humanization), which in this dimension is in the center of attention of foreign scholars as well. A more interesting area of research is the peculiarities of the process of European integration, the analysis of which also begins in the works of foreign scholars, but we are interested in this question given Ukraine's European ambitions - whether its regulatory Europeanization will have appropriate prospects. Another important aspect of research using the methodology of this area of institutional analysis, and again - important for our country, are the socio-political processes in transition societies, where democratization has begun, but the achievements in this way are difficult to call sustainable.

Postgenocide

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Political Science ◽  
Entire Period ◽  
Mass Killing ◽  
Resource Exploitation ◽  
Political Responses

This volume deepens and broadens considerations of genocide’s aftermath. It conceives postgenocide as an approach to study genocide effects after mass killing has ended. In line with an interconnected understanding of past and future, the ‘post’ in postgenocide signifies the entire period following the inception of genocide. Postgenocide implies that the era following genocidal killing is shaped by genocide; hence the necessity of understanding and explaining effects of genocide in moulding realities of societies subjected to cruelty of this heinous crime. Effects given attention in the contributions in this volume vary from various permutations of genocide harms, and legal recourse, after the fact; to scrutiny of the efficacy of the genocide law and prospects of its enforcement; to socio-political responses to genocide—including efforts to recovery and reconciliation; to genocide’s impacts on the victims’ communities and their efforts for recognition and redress; to genocide’s effect on the communities of perpetrators and their attempts to denial and revisionism; to the (re)construction of genocide narratives via the display of victims’ objects in museums, galleries, and archives; to impact of intersections of geopolitical order, climate change, warlordism, and resource exploitation on the re/occurrence of genocide. In doing so, some formerly opaque and overlooked themes and cases are analysed from the standing of several disciplines—such as law, political science, sociology, and ethnography—in the process exploring what these disciplines bring to bear on genocide scholarship and the rethinking of the existing assumptions in the field.

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