Johan Enqvist

Bio: Johan Enqvist is an academic researcher from University of Cape Town. The author has contributed to research in topics: Stewardship & Sense of place. The author has an hindex of 12, co-authored 21 publications receiving 539 citations. Previous affiliations of Johan Enqvist include Stockholm University & Stockholm Resilience Centre.

The contribution of sense of place to social-ecological systems research : a review and research agenda

Abstract: To develop and apply goals for future sustainability, we must consider what people care about and what motivates them to engage in solving sustainability issues. Sense of place theory and methods provide a rich source of insights that, like the social-ecological systems perspective, assume an interconnected social and biophysical reality. However, these fields of research are only recently beginning to converge, and we see great potential for further engagement. Here, we present an approach and conceptual tools for how the sense of place perspective can contribute to social-ecological systems research. A brief review focuses on two areas where relation to place is particularly relevant: stewardship of ecosystem services, and responses to change in social-ecological systems. Based on the review, we synthesize specific ways in which sense of place may be applied by social-ecological systems researchers to analyze individual and social behaviors. We emphasize the importance of descriptive place meanings and evaluative place attachment as tools to study the patterned variation of sense of place within or among populations or types of places and the implications for resilience and transformative capacity. We conclude by setting out an agenda for future research that takes into account the concerns of resilience thinking such as the effects of dynamic ecology, interactions between temporal and spatial scales, and the interplay of rapid and incremental change on sense of place and place-related behaviors. This future research agenda also includes concerns from the broader sense of place literature such as the importance of structural power relationships on the creation of place meanings and how scaling up a sense of place may influence pro-environmental behavior. (Less)

Sense of place in social–ecological systems: from theory to empirics

Abstract: We live in a human-dominated world and the pace and scale of changes to the biosphere, from climate change to landuse change, are staggering. Accelerated socio-economic changes accompanying global change threaten the ecological life support systems on which we depend (Steffen et al. 2015) but also the character of the particular places which we care about (Adger et al. 2011). The rapid and novel challenges of the Anthropocene are also manifested, perceived, and responded to differently in particular places, mediated by biophysical as well as social and economic facets of the place itself (Wilbanks 2015). What is the role of people’s relationships to place in recognizing and responding to these sustainability challenges? Sense of place has been shown to be a key factor in adaptation to ecosystem changes and transformations, as well as playing an important role in people’s motivation to act on behalf of local environments (Adger et al. 2013; Chapin and Knapp 2015; Masterson et al. 2017). The connections between people, place, and nature also help us to understand social motivations and identify and develop pathways towards sustainability (Brown 2015; Jones et al. 2016). In this special feature, we mobilize theory and empirical findings on sense of place to shed light on the role of such relationships in the dynamics of social–ecological systems. While there is increasing interest in the relevance and complexity of the relationship between people and place in the context of rapid and interconnected global changes defining the Anthropocene (e.g., Hausmann et al. 2016; Masterson et al. 2017; Raymond et al. 2017), the evidence is scattered. There is a need to consolidate theory, assess different methodological tools, as well as develop the evidence base for the role of sense of place in social–ecological dynamics (Stedman 2016). This work needs to be done with attention to different socio-economic and cultural contexts, as both the sense of place and the sustainability literatures are biased towards cases from ‘developed’ countries in the global North. Fostering stewardship of resources and land needs to be a priority across the globe, which requires understanding how different people and cultures relate to their environments. We need to examine these expressions of sense of place and its interaction with social–ecological change and how they can nurture active engagement and care of places (our focus here), biodiversity, and ecology. Social–ecological system (SES) approaches view humans both as part of and actively shaping the ecosystems they depend on for development and well-being (Folke 2006; Folke et al. 2016; Norström et al. 2017). Responding to sustainability issues requires understanding their roots in intertwined social and ecological dynamics. This has resulted in a plethora of theoretical constructs: fast and slow variables, referring to the indicators of primary concern for managing SES (e.g., crop productivity) versus factors that underpin them and often change more slowly (e.g., amount of organic soil matter) (Walker et al. 2012); non-linear dynamics, where thresholds in a system can make a small change and can trigger a major disruption (Duit and Galaz 2008); resilience, i.e., the capacity of a system to deal with change and continue to develop (Folke 2006); stewardship, referring to strategies for sustaining ecosystem services under uncertainty and change (Chapin et al. 2010; but see Peçanha Enqvist et al. 2018 for Sense of place in social-ecological systems: From theory to empirical exploration

Comfort, cleanliness and conveniencethe social organization ofnormality

Abstract: Over the past few generations, expectations of comfort, cleanliness and convenience have altered radically, but these dramatic changes have largely gone unnoticed. This intriguing book brings together the sociology of consumption and technology to investigate the evolution of these changes, as well the social meaning of the practices themselves. Homes, offices, domestic appliances and clothes play a crucial role in our lives, but not many of us question exactly how and why we perform so many daily rituals associated with them. Showers, heating, air-conditioning and clothes washing are simply accepted as part of our normal, everyday lives, but clearly this was not always the case. When did the daily shower become de rigueur? What effect has air conditioning had on the siesta at one time an integral part of Mediterranean life and culture? This book interrogates the meaning and supposed normality of these practices and draws disturbing conclusions. There is clear evidence supporting the view that routine consumption is controlled by conceptions of normality and profoundly shaped by cultural and economic forces. Shove maintains that habits are not just changing, but are changing in ways that imply escalating and standardizing patterns of consumption. This shrewd and engrossing analysis shows just how far the social meanings and practices of comfort, cleanliness and convenience have eluded us.

Middle-range theories of land system change

Abstract: Changes in land systems generate many sustainability challenges Identifying more sustainable land-use alternatives requires solid theoretical foundations on the causes of land-use/cover changes Land system science is a maturing field that has produced a wealth of methodological innovations and empirical observations on land-cover and land-use change, from patterns and processes to causes We take stock of this knowledge by reviewing and synthesizing the theories that explain the causal mechanisms of land-use change, including systemic linkages between distant land-use changes, with a focus on agriculture and forestry processes We first review theories explaining changes in land-use extent, such as agricultural expansion, deforestation, frontier development, and land abandonment, and changes in land-use intensity, such as agricultural intensification and disintensification We then synthesize theories of higher-level land system change processes, focusing on: (i) land-use spillovers, including land sparing and rebound effects with intensification, leakage, indirect land-use change, and land-use displacement, and (ii) land-use transitions, defined as structural non-linear changes in land systems, including forest transitions Theories focusing on the causes of land system changes span theoretically and epistemologically disparate knowledge domains and build from deductive, abductive, and inductive approaches A grand, integrated theory of land system change remains elusive Yet, we show that middle-range theories – defined here as contextual generalizations that describe chains of causal mechanisms explaining a well-bounded range of phenomena, as well as the conditions that trigger, enable, or prevent these causal chains –, provide a path towards generalized knowledge of land systems This knowledge can support progress towards sustainable social-ecological systems

The contribution of sense of place to social-ecological systems research : a review and research agenda

Abstract: To develop and apply goals for future sustainability, we must consider what people care about and what motivates them to engage in solving sustainability issues. Sense of place theory and methods provide a rich source of insights that, like the social-ecological systems perspective, assume an interconnected social and biophysical reality. However, these fields of research are only recently beginning to converge, and we see great potential for further engagement. Here, we present an approach and conceptual tools for how the sense of place perspective can contribute to social-ecological systems research. A brief review focuses on two areas where relation to place is particularly relevant: stewardship of ecosystem services, and responses to change in social-ecological systems. Based on the review, we synthesize specific ways in which sense of place may be applied by social-ecological systems researchers to analyze individual and social behaviors. We emphasize the importance of descriptive place meanings and evaluative place attachment as tools to study the patterned variation of sense of place within or among populations or types of places and the implications for resilience and transformative capacity. We conclude by setting out an agenda for future research that takes into account the concerns of resilience thinking such as the effects of dynamic ecology, interactions between temporal and spatial scales, and the interplay of rapid and incremental change on sense of place and place-related behaviors. This future research agenda also includes concerns from the broader sense of place literature such as the importance of structural power relationships on the creation of place meanings and how scaling up a sense of place may influence pro-environmental behavior. (Less)