| 1. |
- Klapwijk, Maartje, et al.
(författare)
-
Capturing complexity : Forests, decision-making and climate change mitigation action
- 2018
-
Ingår i: Global Environmental Change. - : Elsevier. - 0959-3780 .- 1872-9495. ; 52, s. 238-247
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Managed forests can play an important role in climate change mitigation due to their capacity to sequester carbon. However, it has proven difficult to harness their full potential for climate change mitigation. Managed forests are often referred to as socio-ecological systems as the human dimension is an integral part of the system. When attempting to change systems that are influenced by factors such as collective knowledge, social organization, understanding of the situation and values represented in society, initial intentions often shift due to the complexity of political, social and scientific interactions. Currently, the scientific literature is dispersed over the different factors related to the socio-ecological system. To examine the level of dispersion and to obtain a holistic view, we review climate change mitigation in the context of Swedish forest research. We introduce a heuristic framework to understand decision-making connected to climate change mitigation. We apply our framework to two themes which span different dimensions in the socio-ecological system: carbon accounting and bioenergy. A key finding in the literature was the perception that current uncertainties regarding the reliability of different methods of carbon accounting inhibits international agreement on the use of forests for climate change mitigation. This feeds into a strategic obstacle affecting the willingness of individual countries to implement forest-related carbon emission reduction policies. Decisions on the utilization of forests for bioenergy are impeded by a lack of knowledge regarding the resultant biophysical and social consequences. This interacts negatively with the development of institutional incentives regarding the production of bioenergy using forest products. Normative disagreement about acceptable forest use further affects these scientific discussions and therefore is an over-arching influence on decision-making. With our framework, we capture this complexity and make obstacles to decision-making more transparent to enable their more effective resolution. We have identified the main research areas concerned with the use of managed forest in climate change mitigation and the obstacles that are connected to decision making.
|
|
| 2. |
- Lidskog, Rolf, 1961-, et al.
(författare)
-
Wildfires, responsibility and trust : public understanding of Sweden’s largest wildfire
- 2019
-
Ingår i: Scandinavian Journal of Forest Research. - : Taylor & Francis. - 0282-7581 .- 1651-1891. ; 34:4, s. 319-328
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Wildfires present a growing risk to many countries, and climate change is likely to exacerbate this risk. This study analyzes how people directly affected by a wildfire understand its causes and consequences, as well as the future risk of wildfires. The point of departure is that social understanding of wildfires has an important influence on the consequences that emerge in the wake of a wildfire. The empirical case analyzed here is the largest forest fire in modern Swedish history, and the material basis of the study is a postal survey to all individuals directly affected by the fire. The results revealed a complex picture of the respondents’ understanding of the wildfire. Even if the fire was human caused, there was little blame toward forest companies and fire departments. Many positive consequences, such as a long-term increase in biodiversity, were attached to the disaster, and there was a belief that organizations will learn from it and take action to limit wildfires in the future. Simultaneously, the majority of the respondents believed that climate change may lead to an increased risk of forest fires in the future. These findings illustrate the complexity of people's perceptions of the fire and its aftermath.
|
|
| 3. |
|
|
| 4. |
|
|
| 5. |
- Lidskog, Rolf, 1961-, et al.
(författare)
-
Towards a global environmental sociology? : legacies, trends and future directions
- 2015
-
Ingår i: Current Sociology. - London : Sage Publications. - 0011-3921 .- 1461-7064. ; 63:3, s. 339-368
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- A current debate on environmental sociology involves how the subdiscipline should conceptualise and investigate the environment and whether it should be prescriptive and deliver policy recommendations. Taking this debate as a point of departure this paper discusses the current and future role of sociology in a globalised world. It discusses how environmental sociology in the US and Europe differ in their understandings of sociology’s contribution to the study of the environment. Particular stress is placed on how these two regions differ with respect to their use of the tradition of sociological thought, views on what constitutes the environment and ways of institutionalising environmental sociology as a sociological field. In conclusion, the question is raised of whether current versions of environmental sociology are appropriate for analysing a globalised world environment; or whether environmental sociology’s strong roots in the European and US cultures make it less relevant when facing an increasingly globalised world. Finally, the paper proposes some new rules for a global environmental sociology and describes some of their possible implications for the sociological study of climate change.
|
|
| 6. |
- Lidskog, Rolf, 1961-
(författare)
-
Var är samhället? : en kritisk granskning av begreppet Antropocen
- 2015
-
Ingår i: Sosiologi i dag. - Oslo : Novus Forlag. - 0332-6330 .- 1893-4617. ; 45:1, s. 8-30
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The Anthropocene narrative has had a major impact on current discussions within environmental science and environmental policy. According to it, humankind is facing its greatest challenge ever, since our activities are now undermining Earth’s life support systems. Rapid and extensive societal changes are needed to stop this trend. This paper critically examines the Anthropocene narrative, in particular which of its aspects that can be positively related to environmental sociology and which that are in opposition to it. Finally it presents how a sociological perspective can change and deepen the narrative of the Anthropocene to provide a more accurate picture of society and hence of current global environmental threats.
|
|
| 7. |
- Lidskog, Rolf, 1961-, et al.
(författare)
-
Intensive forestry in Sweden : stakeholders' evaluation of benefits and risk
- 2013
-
Ingår i: Journal of Integrative Environmental Sciences. - London : Taylor & Francis. - 1943-815X .- 1943-8168. ; 10:4, s. 145-160
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- There is growing consensus about the need to develop sustainable use of forest resources, but no consensus about how to interpret and implement this goal. Political institutions, governmental agencies, forest companies, and environmental organizations have partly different views on what sustainable forestry means and what strategies to use to achieve it. Not least, the climate change issue has put higher and partly new demands on forests, both as providers of biomass and as carbon sinks, which may be in conflict with other services of the forest’s ecosystem. This paper analyses how different Swedish stakeholders evaluate the possibilities for intensive forestry, that is, to increase the production of woody biomass through increased use of fertilizers, improved genetic material, the introduction of exotic tree species, and the use of fastgrowing deciduous tree species. The analysis shows that the pros and cons are evaluated differently, with some stakeholders assessing intensive forestry as a radical break from the current goal of sustainable forestry and others viewing it as according with it. It is concluded that this conflict should be understood as concerning not competing knowledge claims, but competing frames – schemes of interpretation through which the complexity of reality is reduced. This means that the solution is not to be found in improved knowledge but in increased awareness that the involved frames are the source of the conflict.
|
|
| 8. |
- Berg, Monika, 1979-, et al.
(författare)
-
Pathways to deliberative capacity : the role of the IPCC
- 2018
-
Ingår i: Climatic Change. - : Springer. - 0165-0009 .- 1573-1480. ; 148:1-2, s. 11-24
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This article explores the arguments for expanding deliberation in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and scrutinizes their implications for the deliberative capacity of global environmental governance (GEG). An analysis of the IPCC is presented that builds on a systematic literature review and thus a broad set of scientific debates concerning the IPCC. Based on this analysis, two different paths are outlined, one moderate and one radical; these paths ascribe different democratizing functions to the IPCC and rely on different epistemologies. The moderate path emphasizes decision capacity, whereas the radical path strives to create deliberative space and to identify the value inherent in different claims. It is argued that the IPCC cannot accommodate the aspirations of these different pathways in a single assessment. Parallel assessments must be developed in complementary subject areas with different science-policy relations.
|
|
| 9. |
- Lövbrand, Eva, et al.
(författare)
-
Who speaks for the future of Earth? : how critical social science can extend the conversation on the Anthropocene
- 2015
-
Ingår i: Global Environmental Change. - : MIT Press. - 0959-3780 .- 1872-9495. ; 32, s. 211-218
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This paper asks how the social sciences can engage with the idea of the Anthropocene in productive ways. In response to this question we outline an interpretative research agenda that allows critical engagement with the Anthropocene as a socially and culturally bounded object with many possible meanings and political trajectories. In order to facilitate the kind of political mobilization required to meet the complex environmental challenges of our times, we argue that the social sciences should refrain from adjusting to standardized research agendas and templates. A more urgent analytical challenge lies in exposing, challenging and extending the ontological assumptions that inform how we make sense of and respond to a rapidly changing environment. By cultivating environmental research that opens up multiple interpretations of the Anthropocene, the social sciences can help to extend the realm of the possible for environmental politics.
|
|
| 10. |
- Ojala, Maria, 1970-, et al.
(författare)
-
Mosquitoes as a threat to humans and the community : The role of place identity, social norms, environmental concerns and ecocentric values in public risk perception
- 2017
-
Ingår i: Local Environment. - : Routledge. - 1354-9839 .- 1469-6711. ; 22:2, s. 172-184
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- There is a risk that climate change will cause an increase of mosquito populations in Europe. Due to their nuisance to humans, there are demands to combat mosquitoes, mainly through spraying. These interventions, however, are expensive and associated with uncertainties concerning effects on biodiversity. This poses a dilemma for policy-makers, which makes it important to gain knowledge on what people’s nuisance comprises. Thus, the aim of this study is to explore what factors are associated with this risk perception of mosquitoes. Theories about place identity, social norms, environmental concern and values were used to identify relevant factors. A questionnaire was distributed to 317 persons in a Swedish community where mosquitoes have increased radically. The items concerning risk perception fell out as a unidimensional scale in a principal component analysis and the internal consistency of the scale was good. Risk perception was positively related to place identity, descriptive social norms, and self-oriented environmental concern and negatively related to ecocentric values. The most important predictor was descriptive social norms, but the other factors and gender also contributed uniquely in explaining risk perception. Results are discussed in relation to the theory of social amplification of risks.
|
|
