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Research

Research

Research

Summary

Globalization is fundamentally changing the way humans interact with natural resources. Many people no longer rely on local resources but, rather, on a set of distant resources linked through a global economic network. Unfortunately, this integration of local resource systems across several temporal and spatial scales has the potential to amplify local resource degradation problems to the global scale. Sound management of the increasingly complex global resource system requires achieving a good fit both between local intuitions and local ecological contexts and local institutions and the global context in which they are embedded. This project will combine empirical case studies of local social-ecological systems from around the globe with the development and analysis of stylized dynamic mathematical models to begin to derive general principles concerning how to best achieve such a fit. Specifically, the project will address two overarching questions: 1) what local contextual social and ecological variables are most important in determining the success or failure of local resource management institutions and 2) how does the performance of local institutions change in response to changes in larger-scale processes associated with globalization.

The project's integrated research and teaching program directed at addressing these issues will contribute to both improved resource management and enhanced mathematical literacy. Evidence continues to mount that policies based on extremely simplified, theoretical models frequently fail. Using data to judiciously add complexity to basic theoretical models, this project will systematically explore the effects of local cultural, social, economic, and ecological context on the performance of institutions and management policies and identify to which external factors local institutions are most sensitive. This understanding will improve our capacity to diagnose resource management problems, build better solutions, prevent the loss of existing institutional diversity, and maintain the integrity of the global resource system upon which we all rely. At the same time, by immersing students in research at the boundaries between natural, social, and mathematical sciences, the project will help address our nation's challenges with low mathematical literacy.

Low mathematical literacy is due, in part, to the lack of interesting context in which to apply mathematical techniques for students outside physics, chemistry, and engineering. This project will provide such context through specially-designed courses and graduate research in which students will learn mathematics by using it to address problems in the social and life sciences that really matter to them. Finally, the internet-based e-library of case studies, models, and visualization tools developed in this project will provide a valuable resource for learning mathematics through its application to problems in the social and life sciences.

Funding

National Science Foundation: CAREER, Division of Social and Economic Sciences

Timeline

March 2007 — February 2013