IngentaConnect Disproportionality as a Framework for Linking Social and Biophysi...

Authors: Nowak, Pete¹; Bowen, Sarah²; Cabot, Perry³

Source: Society and Natural Resources, Volume 19, Number 2, Number 2/February 2006 , pp. 153-173(21)

Publisher: Routledge, part of the Taylor & Francis Group

Abstract:

Interdisciplinary research is capable of investigating questions that no single or independent collection of disciplines can address. This interdisciplinary approach was used to investigate why nonpoint source pollution to a lake had not changed even though the often cited social drivers of this situation had changed significantly. The concept of disproportionality was adapted to examine social and biophysical interactions at different spatial and temporal scales to address this situation. Rather than using social and biophysical variable as contextual or additive relative to each other, we examined their interactive or multiplicative effects at coarse and fine spatial and temporal scales. Limited occurrence of inappropriate behaviors in vulnerable biophysical settings resulted in disproportionate environmental impacts. The concept of disproportionality implies that the environmental meaning placed on any social behavior requires accounting for where and when it occurs in a biophysical setting, and that a few outliers can determine system performance and outcomes.

Keywords: agriculture; cross-scale; development; disproportionality; eutrophication; interdisciplinary; nonpoint source pollution; space and time

Document Type: Research article

DOI: 10.1080/08941920500394816

Affiliations: 1: Department of Rural Sociology and Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, USA 2: Department of Rural Sociology, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, USA 3: Department of Biological Systems Engineering and Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, USA

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Disproportionality as a Framework for Linking Social and Biophysical Systems