This is a book about the work of scientists in the era of the
Anthropocene: where human beings appear to have become a driving
force in the evolution of the planet. It is a diverse collection of
empirical, methodological and theoretical chapters concerned with
the practice of interdisciplinary social-ecological systems
research. The aim of the contributors is to give the reader an
appreciation for the range and complexity of the challenges faced
by researchers, research institutions and wider communities trying
to make sense of the causes and consequences of the this new era of
global environmental change.
The tragedy of the Anthropocene, of the large scale
anthropogenic habitat destruction and planet-wide impacts of
anthropogenic climate change, is not that science has failed
humanity but rather that it has served humanity all too well,
making possible in just a few hundred years volumes and scales of
human activity far exceeding anything ever seen before. Coming to
terms with that success was the aim of the 1969 Alpbach Symposium,
from which this book draws its name, where contributors including
Friedrich Hayek and Ludwig von Bertalanffy, asked themselves: what
theory, practices and standards are required to move beyond
reductionism? Like those from 1969, the answers presented in this
collection are hugely diverse, ranging from PhD students concerned
with research methods and institutional obstacles, to mid-career
scholars presenting their innovative beyond-reductionism research
methods, to emeritus professors looking back over what has been
achieved in the past 30 years and suggesting where things might go
from here.
All the contributors begin from the premise that the challenges
of the Anthropocene can only be successfully met if
interdisciplinary research effectively brings together social and
natural sciences, the humanities, stakeholders and decision makers.
They conclude, in unison, that both the institutional and the
methodological foundations needed to do this work are still sorely
lacking. While this may seem a dismal position, the book is full of
success stories, such as: the integrative approach of MuSIASEM
(Multi-Scale Integrative Assessment of Social-Ecological
Metabolism) developed by Mario Giampietro s group in Barcelona,
Spain; the alternative perspectives of what Ariel Salleh calls the
meta-industrial discourse in Ecofeminism; or the innovative
trans-departmental status of the Stockholm Resilience Centre in
Sweden. Putting both the theoretical and methodological challenges
of moving beyond reductionism on the table for discussion, this
text aims to help a growing community of passionate thinkers and
actors better understand themselves and their work.
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