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.

Who Cares About Wildlife? integrates social science theory in order to provide a conceptual structure for understanding and studying human interaction with wildlife. A thorough review of the current literature in conceptual areas, including norms, values, attitudes, emotions, wildlife value orientations, cultural change, and evolutionary forces/inherited tendencies is provided, and the importance of these areas in studying human-wildlife relationships is highlighted. No other book both considers the human relationship with wildlife and provides a theoretical framework for understanding this relationship on the individual, as well as cultural level. Who Cares About Wildlife? will be valuable both to students and to practitioners in wildlife management and conservation, as well those interested in the human relationship with wildlife, natural resources, and the environment.

This is a comprehensive approach to the human dimensions of fish and wildlife management.As human populations around the world continue to expand, reconciling nature conservation with human needs and aspirations is imperative. The emergence in recent decades of the academic field of human dimensions of fish and wildlife management is a proactive response to this complex problem."Wildlife and Society" brings together leading researchers in the range of specialties that are relevant to the study of human dimensions of fish and wildlife work around the globe to provide theoretical and historical context as well as a demonstration of tools, methodologies, and idea-sharing for practical implementation and integration of practices.The chapters document the progress on key issues and offer a multifaceted presentation of this truly interdisciplinary field. The book: presents an overview of the changing culture of fish and wildlife management; considers social factors creating change in fish and wildlife conservation; explores how to build the social component into the philosophy of wildlife management; discusses legal and institutional factors; and, examines social perspectives on contemporary fish and wildlife management issues."Wildlife and Society" is uniquely comprehensive in its approach to presenting the past, present, and future of human dimensions of fish and wildlife research and application. It offers perspectives from a wide variety of academic disciplines as well as presenting the views of practitioners from the United States, Europe, Africa, and Latin America. It is an important new reference for anyone concerned with fish and wildlife management or environmental conservation and protection.