W. Neil Adger.

Environment and Planning A, Vol. 35, No. 6, June 2003 2003, pp. 1095-1110.

Environmental decisions made by individuals, civil society, and the state involve questions of economic efficiency, environmental effectiveness, equity, and political legitimacy. These four criteria are constitutive of the economic, social, and environmental dimensions of sustainable development, which has become the dominant rhetorical device of environmental governance. We discuss the tendency for disciplinary research to focus on particular subsets of the four criteria, and argue that such a practice promotes solutions that do not acknowledge the dynamics of scale and the heterogeneity of institutional contexts. We advocate an interdisciplinary framework for the analysis of environmental decisionmaking that seeks to identify legitimate and context-sensitive institutional solutions producing equitable, efficient, and effective outcomes. We demonstrate the usefulness of our approach by using it to examine decisions concerning contested nature conservation and multiple-use commons in the management of Hickling Broad in Norfolk in the United Kingdom. We conclude that interdisciplinary approaches enable the generalisation and transfer of lessons in a way that respects the specifics and context of the issue at hand.

F. Berkes.

Conservation Biology, Vol. 18, No. 3, Jun 2004, pp. 621-630.

Community-based conservation (CBC) is based on the idea that if conservation and development could be simultaneously achieved, then the interests of both could be served. It has been controversial because community development objectives are not necessarily consistent with conservation objectives in a given case. I examined CBC from two angles. First, CBC can be seen in the context of paradigm shifts in ecology and applied ecology. I identified three conceptual shifts-toward a systems view, toward the inclusion of humans in the ecosystem, and toward participatory approaches to ecosystem management-that are interrelated and pertain to an understanding of ecosystems as complex adaptive systems in which humans are an integral part. Second, I investigated the feasibility of CBC, as informed by a number of emerging interdisciplinary fields that have been pursuing various aspects of coupled systems of humans and nature. These fields-common property, traditional ecological knowledge, environmental ethics, political ecology, and environmental history-provide insights for CBC. They may contribute to the development of an interdisciplinary conservation science with a more sophisticated understanding of social-ecological interactions. The lessons from these fields include the importance of cross-scale conservation, adaptive comanagement, the question of incentives and multiple stakeholders, the use of traditional ecological knowledge, and development of a cross-cultural conservation ethic.Original Abstract: La conservacion basada en comunidades (CBC) se fundamenta en la idea de que si la conservacion y el desarrollo se pueden alcanzar simultaneamente, entonces se pueden servir los intereses de ambos. Ha sido controversial porque los objetivos de desarrollo comunitario no siempre coinciden con los de la conservacion en un caso determinado. Examine la CBC desde dos angulos. En primer lugar, la CBC puede verse en el contexto de cambios en paradigmas en ecologia y ecologia aplicada. Identifique tres cambios conceptuales (la vision de sistemas, la inclusion de humanos en el ecosistema y los metodos participativos para la gestion de ecosistemas) que estan interrelacionados y que corresponden a una concepcion de los ecosistemas como sistemas adaptativos complejos en los que los humanos son una parte integral. En segundo lugar, investigue la factibilidad de la CBC, usando informacion proveniente de campos interdisciplinarios emergentes que han estado analizando varios aspectos de los sistemas acoplados de humanos y naturaleza. Estos campos (propiedad comun, conocimiento ecologico tradicional, etica ambiental, ecologia politica e historia ambiental) proporcionan nuevas percepciones para la CBC. Pueden contribuir al desarrollo de una ciencia de conservacion interdisciplinaria con un entendimiento mas sofisticado de las interacciones socio-ecologicas. Las lecciones de estos campos incluyen la importancia de la conservacion trans-escala; la cogestion adaptativa; el tema de incentivos e intereses multiples; el uso del conocimiento ecologico tradicional y el desarrollo de una etica de conservacion trans-cultural.

E. Bowen-Jones, D. Brown and E. J. Z. Robinson.

Area, Vol. 35, No. 4, Dec 2003, pp. 390-402.

Bushmeat is a large but largely invisible contributor to the economies of west and central African countries. Yet the trade is currently unsustainable. Hunting is reducing wildlife populations, driving more vulnerable species to local and regional extinction, and threatening biodiversity. This paper uses a commodity chain approach to explore the bushmeat trade and to demonstrate why an interdisciplinary approach is required if the trade is to be sustainable in the future.; Reprinted by permission of the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG)

Ton Bührs.

Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, Vol. 47, No. 3, May 2004, pp. 429-447.

The concept of 'environmental space' has been put forward as a means for providing specific meaning to sustainability. The concept combines the idea of the existence of environmental limits with a strong principle of environmental justice. It has been used as a basis for the development of sustainable action plans for many European countries, and has attracted political interest. However, thus far, the concept has found limited application by governments. The paper identifies and discusses several issues that need to be addressed for the environmental space approach to be implemented. Three main options for the institutionalization of the approach are discussed: within the legal-constitutional framework (as rights and obligations), within the economic system (as environmental property rights), and through green planning (as specific objectives and targets contained in national environmental plans or strategies). The paper discusses the ability of the three options to deal with the issues identified, assessing their relative advantages and disadvantages, and to what extent these options are complementary. Finally, conclusions are drawn about the viability of the concept of 'environmental space'.; Reprinted by permission of Carfax Publishing, Taylor & Francis Ltd.

F. J. Gable.

Coastal Management, Vol. 31, No. 4, Oct-Dec 2003, pp. 435-456.

This article addresses interdisciplinary sustainable aspects of fisheries as part of ocean management. Human-caused impacts and their role as modifiers of living marine resources is discussed. The research note also theorizes about contemporary global change and its prospective biological consequences, especially when coupled with human-induced factors in coastal marine waters. Also addressed is the management and ecological aspects of fish stock populations as part of a large marine ecosystem (LME) in the Northeast United States continental shelf of the Atlantic Ocean with suggestions for an interdisciplinary policy orientation paradigm to foster the sustainability of marine life in the sea.

M. P. Hamstead and M. S. Quinn.

Local Environment, Vol. 10, No. 2, Apr 2005, pp. 141-158.

This paper examines the relationships between community development, sustainable development and economics. In particular the convergence of thought in the realms of strong sustainability and ecological economics are shown to be consistent with the goals of sustainable community development (SCD). It is argued that in order to truly and effectively practice SCD, an economics of sustainability, best represented by ecological economics, should be incorporated into all facets of SCD work. It is suggested that the application of neoclassical or environmental economics is likely to limit the effectiveness of SCD work. Five practical implications of the necessary relationship between SCD and ecological economics are presented, suggesting that SCD practitioners must: (1) seek interdisciplinarity, (2) understand and endorse limits to growth, (3) adopt and endorse alternative measures of success, (4) seek the economic valuation of natural and social capital and (5) ensure the inclusion of equity in discussions of sustainability. Finally, a practical example of those implications is offered by way of a community economic workbook application.

Edward Hviding.

Contemporary Pacific, Vol. 15, No. 1, 2003, pp. 43-73.

In this paper, I critically examine a number of notions about interdisciplinary research approaches to the challenges posed by the world today. I juxtapose this critique with a discussion of interdisciplinary developments in Pacific studies, raising questions as to how deeper dialogues between academic disciplines and the worldviews of Pacific Islanders may be reached. While interdisciplinary is widely seen as a politically correct agenda for contemporary research on processes of globalization and development, caution is needed against prevailing optimism about the potential for solving multidisciplinary problems through interdisciplinary innovation. Such optimism may overrate the potentials of broad (as opposed to deep) research approaches and may reflect disregard, if not arrogance, toward the complexity of the matters addressed. The drive in some European countries for research on 'sustainable development' indicates close ties between interdisciplinary aspirations and the bureaucratic ambitions of research administrators. Under such circumstances interdisciplinarity becomes an object of institutional conflict and internal debate between institutions, as well as between bureaucrats and scientists, more than a question of creative epistemological contact between plural knowledges in and beyond academic disciplines in a search for increased knowledge more generally. The avoidance of such pitfalls in the further development of Pacific studies requires close attention to and appreciation of initiatives from within Oceania, coming from beyond the domains of conventional disciplines. In this paper, such paths toward interdisciplinarity are exemplified in a discussion of epistemological encounters between Oceanic and western knowledges, and with reference to the emerging currents of 'Native Pacific Cultural Studies'.; Reprinted by permission of University of Hawaii Press

Z. Liu.

Journal of Sustainable Tourism, Vol. 11, No. 6, 2003, pp. 459-475.

Sustainable tourism has become an increasingly popular field of research since the late 1980s. However, the sustainable tourism debate is patchy, disjointed and often flawed with false assumptions and arguments. This paper is a brief critique of some of the weaknesses in the sustainable tourism literature. In particular, it explores six issues that are often overlooked but must be addressed in research: the role of tourism demand, the nature of tourism resources, the imperative of intra-generational equity, the role of tourism in promoting sociocultural progress, the measurement of sustainability, and forms of sustainable development. Finally, it is argued that in order to transform research on sustainable tourism to a more scientific level, a systems perspective and an interdisciplinary approach are indispensable.

Andrea Nightingale.

Geoforum, Vol. 34, No. 4, Nov 2003, pp. 525-540.

This paper presents a theoretical framework for analyzing human-environment issues that examines shifting, dialectical relationships between social & power relations, cultural beliefs & practices, & ecological processes to allow an interdisciplinary, complex assessment of social & environmental change in Nepal. The purpose of this analysis is to capture the complexity & non-static nature of environmental & social change in the context of uneven development. Drawing from political ecology & feminist geography, this framework brings together scholarship on aspects of human-environment issues that are often pursued in isolation, yet all three processes, social-political relations, cultural practices & ecological conditions, have been acknowledged as important in shaping the trajectory of social & ecological change. I argue that a consideration of the articulations between them is necessary to understand first, how specific land management regimes arise & are dominant over time in specific places. & second, I examine the extent to which these regimes distribute resources equitably within communities, promote economic development & sustain ecological resilience. In this analysis, ecological processes are conceptualised as co-productive of social & cultural processes to explore their role in land management regimes without resorting to environmental determinist or similarly reductive paradigms. I present this framework through the example of natural resource management, specifically community forestry in Nepal, as it offers a rich case study of the relationships between the political economy of land use & the ecological effects of natural resource extraction. 100 References. [Copyright 2003 Elsevier Ltd.].

J. A. Patz, P. Daszak and G. M. Tabor, et al.

Environmental health perspectives, Vol. 112, No. 10, Jul 2004, pp. 1092-1098.

Anthropogenic land use changes drive a range of infectious disease outbreaks and emergence events and modify the transmission of endemic infections. These drivers include agricultural encroachment, deforestation, road construction, dam building, irrigation, wetland modification, mining, the concentration or expansion of urban environments, coastal zone degradation, and other activities. These changes in turn cause a cascade of factors that exacerbate infectious disease emergence, such as forest fragmentation, disease introduction, pollution, poverty, and human migration. The Working Group on Land Use Change and Disease Emergence grew out of a special colloquium that convened international experts in infectious diseases, ecology, and environmental health to assess the current state of knowledge and to develop recommendations for addressing these environmental health challenges. The group established a systems model approach and priority lists of infectious diseases affected by ecologic degradation. Policy-relevant levels of the model include specific health risk factors, landscape or habitat change, and institutional (economic and behavioral) levels. The group recommended creating Centers of Excellence in Ecology and Health Research and Training, based at regional universities and/or research institutes with close links to the surrounding communities. The centers' objectives would be 3-fold: a) to provide information to local communities about the links between environmental change and public health; b) to facilitate fully interdisciplinary research from a variety of natural, social, and health sciences and train professionals who can conduct interdisciplinary research; and c) to engage in science-based communication and assessment for policy making toward sustainable health and ecosystems.

W. H. Schlesinger.

Applied Environmental Education and Communication, Vol. 3, No. 2, 2004, pp. 75-77.

As our population continues to grow, never has there been a greater need for broad-based and interdisciplinary environmental education. The Nicholas School and similar programs are poised to deliver that training to the broadest array of bright, committed students that we can attract. Each student should look at every available program before making a decision about where to enroll. I'm biased - I think ours is best! But, if you are interested in a better environment for Earth's future, enroll in any one of them, and you will reap the rewards of a career without bounds to challenge nor to its importance for the future of the planet.

Elaine Stratford.

Local Environment, Vol. 8, No. 5, Oct 2003, pp. 495-500.

Islands (also islets, isles)-paradoxical spaces: absolute entities surrounded by water but not large enough to be a continent, territories, territorial; relational spaces-archipelagos, (inter)dependent, identifiable; relative spaces-bounded but porous; isolated, connected, colonized, postcolonial; redolent of the performative imaginary; vulnerable to linguistic, cultural, environmental change; robust and able to absorb and modify; placed in regions, (part of) nation states and global life; paradisiacal, utopian and dystopian, tourist meccas, ecological refugia; frames within which interdisciplinary scholarship and dialogue can be constituted and deployed...; Reprinted by permission of Carfax Publishing, Taylor & Francis Ltd.

A. Takacs-Santa.

Human Ecology Review, Vol. 11, No. 1, 2004, pp. 51-66.

The aim of this interdisciplinary review is to provide a new framework for the research in the history of human transformation of the biosphere. It focuses on the major transitions, which resulted in a considerable increase in our species' impact on the biosphere (in relation to the state before the transition). Six such transitions are identified, in chronological order these are: 1) the use of fire, 2) language, 3) agriculture, 4) civilization (states), 5) European conquests and 6) the technological-scientific (r)evolution and the dominance of fossil fuels as primary energy sources. Such an inquiry of our biosphere transforming activities may be of great importance in establishing ecologically sustainable societies.

J. C. Warner, A. S. Cannon and K. M. Dye.

Environmental Impact Assessment Review, Vol. 24, No. 7-8, Oct 2004, pp. 775-799.

A grand challenge facing government, industry, and academia in the relationship of our technological society to the environment is reinventing the use of materials. To address this challenge, collaboration from an interdisciplinary group of stakeholders will be necessary. Traditionally, the approach to risk management of materials and chemicals has been through inerventions intended to reduce exposure to materials that are hazardous to health and the environment. In 1990, the Pollution Prevention Act encouraged a new tact-elimination of hazards at the source. An emerging approach to this grand challenge seeks to embed the diverse set of environmental perspectives and interests in the everyday practice of the people most responsible for using and creating new materials; chemists. The approach, which has come to be known as Green Chemistry, intends to eliminate intrinsic hazard itself, rather than focusing on reducing risk by minimizing exposure. This chapter addresses the representation of downstream environmental stakeholder interests in the upstream everyday practice that is reinventing chemistry and its material inputs, products, and waste as described in the '12 Principles of Green Chemistry'.