The book argues that there is a fundamental confusion in the literature on land degradation as a whole which arises from an unfulfilled need to examine the social underpinnings of theories implied by both natural and social scientists; it seeks to study land degradation within a wide historical and geographical framework; and it attempts to develop a methodology which can accommodate detailed local study as well as a basis for theory construction and generalization. Four chapters provide a method of analysing the problems of management and degradation. They focus particularly on the decision making environment of the land users and managers themselves, its great variety through space and time, and on the inability of 'single grand theories' to provide satisfactory explanations. The next eight chapters are case studies which use and expand the methodology. They range through Nepal, North America, Indonesia, the Pacific, China, India and historical erosion in Europe, and modern capitalist, socialist and developing countries. The main objective of the book is to show that land degradation has social causes, and that they must be understood if there are to be social solutions. [CAB Abstracts]