Explaining Human Actions and Environmental Changes

Inbunden, Engelska, 2009

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Beskrivning

In this collection of recent essays, Andrew P. Vayda argues for a pragmatic approach to explanation and explanation-oriented research in social and environmental sciences. He supports his arguments with causal analyses of both human actions, such as cutting down trees and fighting over resources, and environmental changes, such as forest fires; and he voices his opposition to methodological and ethnographic holism and the notion that explanation can be achieved by deploying theories rather than by obtaining evidence of the causal histories of concrete actions and events. Vayda is critical of much recent scholarship_in such areas as political ecology, local knowledge studies, discourse studies, and evolutionary human behavioral ecology_for its indifference to questions of evidence and methodology and its failure to give proper consideration to multiple and alternative possible causes of whatever is being explained. He also discusses the use and misuse of evidence and generalizations, the payoffs and pitfalls of moving from one level of analysis to another, the dos and don'ts in interdisciplinary research, the uses of statistics, and the importance of being clear about objects of explanation. This original and challenging work makes sense of the future of ecological anthropology and will be of interest to researchers in the social and environmental sciences in general.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum:2009-06-16
Mått:161 x 238 x 24 mm
Vikt:624 g
Format:Inbunden
Språk:Engelska
Antal sidor:316
Förlag:AltaMira Press
ISBN:9780759103238

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Mer om författaren

Andrew P. Vayda is professor emeritus of anthropology and ecology at Rutgers University.

Recensioner i media

This book represents decades of candid reflection on human-environment relations. It is a welcome challenge to the 'interpretation' focus that dominates currently, evident in fashionable political ecology. Pete Vayda—who needs no introduction to those familiar with the field—has consistently argued for empirically grounded 'explanation' (asking 'why-questions,' as he puts it ) supported by rigorous appraisal of available evidence. He refines his argument here, in an approach he now calls 'causal explanation,' and explores its methodological implications. I warmly recommend the book to all those with an interest in human ecology as a thought-provoking read.

Innehållsförteckning

Chapter 1 PrefaceChapter 2 Chapter 1. Causal Explanation as a Research Goal: Do's and Don'tsChapter 3 Chapter 2. Both Ends of the Firestick: Causal Explanation of Indonesian Forest FiresChapter 4 Chapter 3. On Knowing What Not to Know about Knowing: A Critical View of Local Knowledge StudiesChapter 5 Chapter 4. Do We Need an Anthropological Perspective on Tropical Deforestation?Chapter 6 Chapter 5. Seeing Nature's Complexity but Not People'sChapter 7 Chapter 6. Against Political EcologyChapter 8 Chapter 7. Failures of Explanation in Darwinian Ecological AnthropologyChapter 9 Chapter 8. Concepts of Process in Social Science ExplanationsChapter 10 Chapter 9. Explaining Why Marings Fought: Different Questions, Different AnswersChapter 11 Chapter 10. The Anthropology of War: Polemics and Confusion