Science, Society and the Environment: Applying Anthropology and Physics to Sustainability

179 Pages·2015·5.88 MB·English

by  Michael R. Dove

Science, Society and the
environment
In an era when pressing environmental problems make collaboration across the
divide between sciences and arts and humanities essential, this book presents
the results of a collaborative analysis by an anthropologist and a physicist of
four key junctures between science, society, and environment. The first
focuses on the systemic bias in science in favour of studying esoteric subjects
as distinct from the mundane subjects of everyday life; the second is a study of
the complex political-economic dynamics of “vernacular” landscapes, focusing
on the fire-climax grasslands of Southeast Asia; the third reworks the idea of
“moral economy”, applying it to the way that the costs versus benefits of natural
resource management are recognized versus obscured; and the fourth focuses
on the evolution of the global discourse of the culpability and responsibility of
climate change. The volume concludes with the insights of an interdisciplinary
perspective for the natural and social science of sustainability. It argues that
failures of conservation and development must be viewed systemically, and
that mundane topics are no less complex than the more esoteric subjects of
science. The book addresses a current blind spot within the academic research
community by focusing attention on the seemingly common and mundane
beliefs and practices that ultimately play such a central role in human interaction
with the environment.
This book will benefit students and scholars from a number of different
academic disciplines, including conservation and environmental studies,
development studies, studies of global environmental change, anthropology,
geography, sociology, politics, and science and technology studies.
Michael R. Dove is the Margaret K. Musser Professor of Social Ecology in
the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, Professor of Anthropology,
and Curator of the Peabody Museum of Natural History, Yale University, New
Haven, USA.
Daniel M. Kammen is Professor at the Goldman School of Public Policy and
Energy and Resources Group at the University of California, Berkeley, USA.
He is also Vice President of Renewable Energy at the World Bank.
“This book combines the best of natural and social scientific thinking to address
the sustainability of human-environmental interaction in new ways. Dove and
Kammen have produced a magisterial work that is a must read for all who wish
to understand how interdisciplinary collaboration can prompt fresh thinking on
the social and environmental challenges of our times.”
–Raymond Bryant, King’s College London, UK
“This book is the fruit of a decades-long collaboration between two prominent
scholars from two very different disciplines. Recognizing that both sets of
theories and methods are necessary to tackle current global dilemmas, they
provide fresh, powerful accounts of key issues such as agriculture, biodiversity
and climate change, and reshape the entire terms of debate over sustainable
development.”
–Ben Orlove, Columbia University, USA
“Michael Dove and Daniel Kammen succeed in redefining sustainability as
a thoroughly interdisciplinary and systemic study of human-environmental
relations – one which we must get right if we are in fact to sustain ourselves on
this planet.”
–Thomas Thornton, University of Oxford, UK
Science, Society and
the environment
Applying anthropology and physics to
sustainability
Michael R. Dove and Daniel M. Kammen
First published 2015
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2015 Michael R. Dove and Daniel M. Kammen
The right of Michael R. Dove and Daniel M. Kammen to be
identified as author of this work has been asserted by him/her in
accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical,
or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or
retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks
or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Dove, Michael, 1949–
Science, society and the environment : applying anthropology and
physics to sustainability / Michael R. Dove and Daniel M. Kammen.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Environmental sociology. 2. Sustainability – Social aspects.
3. Environmental sustainability. 4. Human ecology.
5. Applied anthropology. 6. Science and the humanities.
I. Kammen, Daniel M., 1962– II. Title.
GE195.D68 2015
304.2–dc23 2014037787
ISBN: 978-0-415-71598-0 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-415-71599-7 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-88039-6 (ebk)
Typeset in Bembo
by HWA Text and Data Management, London
contentS
List of figures vi
List of tables viii
Preface ix
Acknowledgments xii
1 Introduction: the anthropology and physics of sustainable
environmental systems 1
2 The virtues of mundane science: studying the everyday 21
3 Nature, society, and science in anthropogenic grasslands:
studying declensionist discourses 43
4 High modern vs local folk views of dearth and abundance:
studying failure vs success in resource management systems 68
5 Differences in perceptions of climate change between and
within nations: studying science, scientists, and folk 94
6 Conclusion: reflections on the interdisciplinary project 118
References 134
Index 156
FigureS
1.1 Google Ngram frequency of the use of the terms “disciplinary”
and “interdisciplinary” in book titles, 1800–2000 5
2.1 Studying the rich variety of biomass fuels exploited by a farm
household in Pakistan’s semi-arid barani districts 24
2.2 An array of different cookstoves for sale in Kibera, the largest
shanty town in Nairobi 28
2.3 A Pokot woman in Laikipia District, Kenya, examining
improved efficiency cookstoves 29
2.4 Solar torches all sold under the banner of “Lighting Africa”
products 31
2.5 An expanded range of off-grid lighting products, all certified
by the Lighting Africa program 31
2.6 The theory of destructive (vicious) or constructive (virtuous)
feedback 33
2.7 A mini-grid deployed in the Crocker Highlands of Sabah,
Malaysian Borneo 34
2.8 Liter of Light – a plastic bottle with bleach provides an excellent
lighting source 34
3.1 Linnaeus’ drawing of Imperata cylindrica 44
3.2 Central Javanese wedding paraphernalia, including Imperata
cylindrica 48
3.3 Banjarese oxen and plough for cultivating grasslands 53
3.4 Banjarese livestock grazing on Imperata cylindrica 53
3.5 Javanese transmigrant grazing cattle on Imperata cylindrica in South
Sumatra 60
3.6 Braving volcanic hazards on the slopes of Mt. Merapi in Central
Java to cut Imperata cylindrica for stall-fed cattle 61
List of figures vii
3.7 Banjarese hunting wild cattle on grasslands near the last
Banjarese kraton ‘palace’ 62
4.1 A Kantu’ man carrying a basket of jackfruit and durian home from
the forest during the mast season 74
4.2 A bountiful swidden rice harvest gathered at a Kantu’ longhouse 75
4.3 A flooded river in front of a Kantu’ longhouse 78
4.4 A Kantu’ man sacrifices a pig to the spirits as thanks for a good
swidden harvest 80
4.5 Natural afforestation of the previous year’s swidden in front of
a newly burned swidden 81
4.6 A Kantu’ hunter with a wild pig (Sus barbatus) shot in a rubber
grove near the longhouse 85
4.7 The use of surplus in swidden cultivation versus green
revolution agriculture 87
5.1 Countries with the highest net greenhouse gas emissions 97
5.2 Yo! Amigo!! We need that tree to protect us from the greenhouse
effect! 99
tableS
2.1 Breakdown of causes of death from indoor air pollution in
less-developed countries 27
2.2 Analysis of development prospects for solar ovens and solar
bottle lights 35
3.1 Spatial patterning of Banjarese land use in South Kalimantan 51
4.1 The conception of abundance in mast-fruiting, swidden
cultivation, and HYV agriculture 76
4.2 The conception of exchange in mast-fruiting, swidden cultivation,
and HYV agriculture 82
4.3 Alternative names for high-yielding varieties 84
5.1 The early lines of the global warming debate 98
5.2 Major events in the development of the international climate
policy regime, 1979–2010 104
5.3 The North–South dimension during the evolution of the
international climate policy regime 105
PreFace
Our collaboration was initiated by a chance conversation at a 1993 conference on
“Polluted or Pristine?: Scientific, Cultural, and Policy Impacts of Pre-Industrial
Anthropogenic Impact on the Global Carbon Cycle” at the East-West Center
in Honolulu.1 One of us, Dove, was talking about native beliefs of reciprocity
between nature and culture; and the other, Kammen, was talking about the
principles of thermodynamics – and suddenly we both saw a parallel or analogy
between the two fields of study.2 This moment initiated a lengthy period of
collaboration, which ultimately led to this volume.
There was clearly an element of serendipity in this moment; and the
substantive interests that we brought to this initial meeting were quite dissimilar
– Kammen was interested in energy dynamics, whereas Dove was interested in
indigenous knowledge and native cosmology – but we were thinking about our
respective subjects in some similar ways. We shared an interest in ideas of balance,
reciprocity, and the linkage of costs and benefits; we were both interested in the
dynamics of resource flows; and we both recognized the existence of scientific
norms and were willing to objectify and problematize them, including their
global politics. These were our “boundary objects”, discussed in Chapter 1 and
then at greater depth in Chapter 6, meaning ideas that “are both adaptable to
different viewpoints and robust enough to maintain identity across them” (Star
and Griesemer 1989).
Moreover, it was not by chance that we could both seize on the vision of
a cross-disciplinary analogy. We were both primed for this moment by our
respective intellectual and professional histories. Kammen at the time was
working at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public Policy at Princeton, had
previously worked at the California Institute of Technology, and has since been
based at the Energy and Resource Group at University of California, Berkeley;
whereas Dove was then based at the East-West Center on the University of