In this edited volume leading scholars from different disciplinary backgrounds wrestle with social science integration opportunities and challenges. This book explores the growing concern of how best to achieve effective integration of the social science disciplines as a means for furthering natural resource social science and environmental problem solving. The chapters provide an overview of the history, vision, advances, examples and methods that could lead to integration.

The quest for integration among the social sciences is not new. Some argue that the social sciences have lagged in their advancements and contributions to society due to their inability to address integration related issues. Integration merits debate for a number of reasons. First, natural resource issues are complex and are affected by multiple proximate driving social factors. Single disciplinary studies focused at one level are unlikely to provide explanations that represent this complexity and are limited in their ability to inform policy recommendations. Complex problems are best explored across disciplines that examine social-ecological phenomenon from different scales. Second, multi-disciplinary initiatives such as those with physical and biological scientists are necessary to understand the scope of the social sciences. Too frequently there is a belief that one social scientist on a multi-disciplinary team provides adequate social science representation. Third, more complete models of human behavior will be achieved through a synthesis of diverse social science perspectives.

Natural environments, and the human interactions that occur within, are continuously changing and evolving. This comprehensive volume explores how the impacts of climate change, natural and man-made disasters, economic instability, and other macro-environmental factors can have profound implications for local and global economies, fragile ecosystems, and human cultures and livelihoods. The authors examine the numerous ways in which changes in the natural environment impact tourism, and how the tourism industry is responding and adapting to such changes, in both developed and developing regions. Through the various case studies that examine human interaction within what are often fragile ecosystems, this book makes it clear that, while adaptation can be passive in nature, it can and should be much more proactive, with individuals and organizations seeking improved knowledge and learning. Such actions will contribute to greater resilience within the tourism industry, whether in response to climate change and its subsequent impacts, or an increasing scarcity of the natural resources upon which tourism relies. This book was originally published as a special issue of the journal Tourism Geographies.

Natural environments, and the human interactions that occur within, are continuously changing and evolving. This comprehensive volume explores how the impacts of climate change, natural and man-made disasters, economic instability, and other macro-environmental factors can have profound implications for local and global economies, fragile ecosystems, and human cultures and livelihoods. The authors examine the numerous ways in which changes in the natural environment impact tourism, and how the tourism industry is responding and adapting to such changes, in both developed and developing regions. Through the various case studies that examine human interaction within what are often fragile ecosystems, this book makes it clear that, while adaptation can be passive in nature, it can and should be much more proactive, with individuals and organizations seeking improved knowledge and learning. Such actions will contribute to greater resilience within the tourism industry, whether in response to climate change and its subsequent impacts, or an increasing scarcity of the natural resources upon which tourism relies. This book was originally published as a special issue of the journal Tourism Geographies.