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Social dynamics in Cultural Theory

Cultural Theory interprets social-cultural change as a continuous, dynamic interplay between the adherents of the four perspectives (Thompson 1992, 1997; Vries 2023). Individuals alter their perspective when it is no longer reconcilable with their experience. Collective, institutional change happens whenever larger groups of people start to doubt the correctness and adequateness of the dominant perspective [...]

By |2024-02-15T15:52:07+00:00August 27th, 2022|Chapter 6, Chapter 7|0 Comments

Fish, gold and pollution: homo economicus vs. homo psychologicus

Can we understand the role of human behaviour in renewable resource exploitation? To explore this question, we constructed an imaginary island called Lakeland, with a local population catching fish for its livelihood, having the possibility to exploit a goldmine and the  option to permit large, foreign trawlers to fish in their waters. Based on an [...]

By |2023-11-13T21:29:31+00:00August 20th, 2021|Chapter 12|0 Comments

Free energy flow density as a measure of complexity

The astrophysicist Chaisson (2001) has proposed an interesting link between energy and complexity. Organisms can be viewed as dissipative structures: Ordered objects whose structure can be maintained thanks to a steady input of high-quality energy. The free energy flow density (ɸ) necessary to sustain such a non-equilibrium structure is a measure of complexity. It can [...]

By |2023-12-09T17:21:01+00:00July 13th, 2020|Chapter 17, Chapter 8|0 Comments

Energy: the Colosseum, slaves and containerships

The energy needed to deliver energy has always been a concern for societies. ‘All our societies require enormous flows of high-quality energy just to sustain, let alone raise, their complexity and order (to keep themselves [ . . . ] far from thermodynamic equilibrium) ... [and] after a certain point in time, without dramatic new [...]

By |2024-02-06T11:28:43+00:00July 13th, 2020|Chapter 13, Chapter 17, Chapter 3, Chapter 7|0 Comments

Population overshoot, collapse and recovery: the role of climate change in medieval Europe.

How fragile the situation was in medieval times is illustrated in the historical reconstruction of population numbers in medieval France between the year 1000 CE and 1800 CE (Figure 4.8). The graph above shows France’s population and average Northern Hemisphere temperature relative to the period 1961–1990 (Mazoyer and Roudart 1997). Detailed analyses of agricultural practices [...]

By |2024-01-31T13:31:12+00:00May 4th, 2020|Chapter 11, Chapter 12, Chapter 3|0 Comments

Local fisheries: layers of (over)exploitation

Island are offering examples of how societies did or can evolve – think of the historical reconstructions of Easter Island (see blog on this website). One feature is their openness for external influences – sometimes beneficial, sometimes catastrophic, and often a mix of both. In the novel Island, Aldous Huxley describes an ideal society on [...]

By |2023-12-09T17:14:24+00:00March 24th, 2020|Chapter 14|0 Comments

The Kaibab narrative: management on ill-understood systems

History of Kaibab plateau Numerous models of ecosystems have been made – but sometimes one wonders whether somewhere a reality can be found which more or less is described by such a model. The term empirical validation may be too strong, the aim is model-based story-telling. There are some interesting real-world stories to tell about [...]

By |2024-01-16T16:11:01+00:00March 11th, 2020|Chapter 13, Chapter 9, Narratives|0 Comments

Syndromes: in search of generic patterns of vulnerability and resilience

A fragmented, disciplinary approach does not work in sustainability science. A broader perspective transcending disciplinary boundaries is needed. One framework to investigate global change phenomena in such a broader, problem-oriented setting is the syndrome approach, originally proposed by the German Advisory Council on Global Change (WBGU 1994) and later conceptualised and developed at the Potsdam [...]

By |2023-12-09T17:24:58+00:00November 8th, 2019|Chapter 11, Chapter 8|0 Comments
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