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Browsing by Author "Dietz, T."

Now showing 1 - 6 of 6
  • African pastoralism: Conflict, institutions and government
    Salih, M. A. (ed.); Dietz, T.; Ahmed. A. G. M. (ed.) (London, England: Pluto Press, 2001)
    Although many countries in Africa are devastated by poverty and famine, and are desperately in need of aid, it is generally recognised that programmes of aid and development in Africa are imposed upon local communities with little regard for their traditional values and way of life. This is true of development schemes imposed by national African governments, just as it is true of international aid schemes.
  • Complexity of coupled human and natural systems
    Liu, J.; Dietz, T.; Carpenter, S. R.; Alberti, M.; Folke, C.; Moran, E.; Pell, A. N.; Deadman, P.; Kratz, T.; Lubchenco, J.; Ostrom, Elinor; Ouyang, Z.; Provencher, W.; Redman, C. L.; Shneider, S. H.; Taylor, W. W. (2007)
    Because of the lack of collaboration between social and ecological scientists, the study of coupled human and nature systems has not been directly studied. This study examines cases on five continents: Africa, Asia, North America, South America and Europe. Each area differs in ecological, socioeconomic, political, demographic and cultural setting. Still, the five studies are similar in that they address complex interactions of human and nature systems, consider and measure both human and ecological components, are composed of interdisciplinary teams, use integrated tools to collect both ecological and human data, and are context specific and longitudinal over periods of time.
  • Context and the commons
    Dietz, T.; Henry, A. D. (2008)
    This brief article summarizes some of the main concerns and strengths of common property management in the context of forest governance. Based on a number of studies, the authors argue that a transition is occurring in how we study common property management from an emphasis on the individualistic, rational actor approaches to ones that emphasize the role of context to allow for greater variability in common property management schemes. Context is defined as local institutions for enforcement, regional landscape and social networks.
  • The dynamics of vulnerability: An evolutionary perspective
    McLaughlin, P.; Dietz, T. (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2002)
    We review the current literature on human vulnerability to environmental change and suggest that an evolutionary perspective can help integrate the insights of existing research while suggesting new hypotheses and approaches. The concept of a socially constructed adaptive landscape occupied by units at various levels of aggregation and organization -- individuals, households, organizations -- is used to organize our analysis. We argue that this framework can provide a basis for constructing dynamic stochastic models of the diverse environmental, social, economic and political factors affecting vulnerability to climate change and other natural hazards.
  • Environmental values
    Dietz, T.; Fitzgerald, A.; Shwom, R. (2005)
    Values are often invoked in discussions of how to develop a more sustainable relationship with the environment. There is substantial literature on values that spans several disciplines. In philosophy, values are relatively stable principles that help us make decisions when our preferences are in conflict and thus convey some sense of what we consider good. In economics, the term values is usually used in discussions of social choice, where an assessment of the social value of various alternatives serves as a guide to the best choice under a utilitarian ethic (the greatest good for the greatest number). In sociology, social psychology, and political science, two major lines of research have addressed environmental values. One has focused on four value clusters: self-interest, altruism, traditionalism, and openness to change and found relatively consistent theoretical and empirical support for the relationship of values to environmentalism. The other line of research suggests that environmentalism emerges when basic material needs are met and that individuals and societies that are postmaterialist in their values are more likely to exhibit pro-environmental behaviors. The evidence in support of this argument is more equivocal. Overall, the idea that values, especially altruism, are related to environmentalism, seems well established, but little can be said about the causes of value change and of the overall effects of value change on changes in behavior.
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    The struggle to govern the commons
    Dietz, T.; Ostrom, Elinor; Stern, P. C. (2003)
    Human institutions -- ways of organizing activities -- affect the resilience of the environment. Locally evolved institutional arrangements governed by stable communities and buffered from outside forces have sustained resources successfully for centuries, although they often fail when rapid change occurs. Ideal conditions for governance are increasingly rare. Critical problems, such as transboundary pollution, tropical deforestation, and climate change, are at larger scales and involve nonlocal influences. Promising strategies for addressing these problems include dialogue among interested parties, officials, and scientists; complex, redundant, and layered institutions; a mix of institutional types; and designs that facilitate experimentation, learning, and change.