Environmental Social Science offers a new synthesis of environmental studies, defining the nature of human-environment interactions and providing the foundation for a new cross-disciplinary enterprise that will make critical theories and research methods accessible across the natural and social sciences.
- Makes key theories and methods of the social sciences available to biologists and other environmental scientists
- Explains biological theories and concepts for the social sciences community working on the environment
- Helps bridge one of the difficult divides in collaborative work in human-environment research
- Includes much-needed descriptions of how to carry out research that is multinational, multiscale, multitemporal, and multidisciplinary within a complex systems theory context
Preface
1. The Challenge of Human-Environment Interactions Research
2. Theories and Concepts from the Social Sciences
3. Theories and Concepts from the Biological Sciences
4. Spatially-Explicit Approaches
5. Multi-Scale and Multi-temporal Analysis
6. Bio-complexity in Ecological Systems
7. Environmental Decision-Making
8. Towards Sustainability Science
Bibliography
Emilio F. Moran is Distinguished Professor and Rudy Professor of Anthropology and Professor of Environmental Sciences at Indiana University in Bloomington. He is the author of Through Amazonian Eyes: the human ecology of Amazonian Populations (1993), Human Adaptability, 3rd Edition (2007), and People and Nature (2006, Blackwell).
"This work represents an impressive bridge between social and natural science. For anyone interested in the development of a comprehensive environmental science."
- Choice, 1 April 2011
"Thanks to its capacity of surfing across natural and social sciences, Moran's work will at minimum help scholars from both sides to create bridges across the gap that still separates them; something that can already be seen as a non-trivial result."
- Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, July 2010
"This transformative book addresses the foundational theories and methods essential to both social and biophysical fields in human-environment research, promoting familiarity with – and accessibility to – research crossing traditional disciplinary bounds. Destined to become a key text within coupled human-natural systems research by exploring the complex problems that our environment faces, this book underscores that those challenges can be successfully addressed only through interdisciplinary research teams; this work will be an integral component of educating future interdisciplinary researchers."
- Jane Southworth, University of Florida
"In the nick of time at the dawn of the era of great environmental challenge: a work that encompasses the full array of relevant sciences...fundamental to lasting solutions"
- Thomas E. Lovejoy, The Heinz Center for Science, Economics and the Environment
"Professor Moran gives scientists the tools to attack the most critical environmental challenges – those involving the relations between people and the environment"
- David E. Blockstein, National Council for Science and the Environment
"The book fills an incredibly important gap. Emilio Moran provides a remarkably comprehensive coverage of the fundamental science that underpins the analysis of coupled human-environment systems. It's a must read for researchers working in the emerging field of sustainability science."
- Pamela Matson, Stanford University
"A superb overview of the emerging field of sustainability science. Readers will enjoy his clear writing, engaging examples and effective answers to real-world problems."
- Ben Orlove, University of California, Davis