The Historical Dynamics of Social–Ecological Traps |
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Authors: | Wiebren J Boonstra Florianne W de Boer |
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Institution: | .Stockholm Resilience Centre, Stockholm University, P.O. Box 1096, Stockholm, Sweden ;.Baltic Nest Institute, Stockholm University, P.O. Box 1096, Stockholm, Sweden ;.Nordic Centre for Research on Marine Ecosystems and Resources Under Climate Change (NorMER), University of Oslo, Blindern, P.O. Box 1066, 0316 Oslo, Norway ;.University College Utrecht, Utrecht University, Campusplein 1, 3584 ED Utrecht, The Netherlands |
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Abstract: | Environmental degradation is a typical unintended outcome of collective human behavior. Hardin’s metaphor of the “tragedy of the commons” has become a conceived wisdom that captures the social dynamics leading to environmental degradation. Recently, “traps” has gained currency as an alternative concept to explain the rigidity of social and ecological processes that produce environmental degradation and livelihood impoverishment. The trap metaphor is, however, a great deal more complex compared to Hardin’s insight. This paper takes stock of studies using the trap metaphor. It argues that the concept includes time and history in the analysis, but only as background conditions and not as a factor of causality. From a historical–sociological perspective this is remarkable since social–ecological traps are clearly path-dependent processes, which are causally produced through a conjunction of events. To prove this point the paper conceptualizes social–ecological traps as a process instead of a condition, and systematically compares history and timing in one classic and three recent studies of social–ecological traps. Based on this comparison it concludes that conjunction of social and environmental events contributes profoundly to the production of trap processes. The paper further discusses the implications of this conclusion for policy intervention and outlines how future research might generalize insights from historical–sociological studies of traps. |
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Keywords: | Social– ecological traps Path dependency Agricultural involution Gilded trap Dryland poverty trap Lock-in trap |
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