Karl S. Zimmerer

Bio: Karl S. Zimmerer is an academic researcher from Pennsylvania State University. The author has contributed to research in topics: Agricultural biodiversity & Sustainability. The author has an hindex of 38, co-authored 95 publications receiving 4738 citations. Previous affiliations of Karl S. Zimmerer include Arizona State University & University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Political ecology : an integrative approach to geography and environment-development studies

Abstract: 1. Approaching Political Ecology: Society, Nature, and Scale in Human--Environment Studies, Karl S. Zimmerer & Thomas J. Bassett Part I. Protected Areas and Conservation 2. Balancing Conservation with Development in Marine-Dependent Communities: Is Ecotourism an Empty Promise?, Emily H. Young 3. Strategies for Authenticity and Space in the Maya Biosphere Reserve, Peten, Guatemala, Juanita Sundberg Part II. Urban and Industrial Environments 4. Toward a Political Ecology of Urban Environmental Risk: The Case of Guyana, Mark Pelling 5. Modernity and the Production of the Spanish Waterscape, 1890--1930, Erik Swyngedouw Part III. Ecological Analysis and Theory in Resource Management and Conservation 6. The Ivorian Savannah: Global Narratives and Local Knowledge of Environmental Change, Thomas J. Bassett & Koli Bi Zueli 7. Environmental Zonation and Mountain Agriculture in Peru and Bolivia: Socioenvironmental Dynamics of Overlapping Patchworks and Agrobiodiversity Conservation, Karl S. Zimmerer 8. Environmental Science and Social Causation in the Analysis of Sahelian Pastoralism, Matthew Turner Part IV. Geospatial Technologies and Knowledges 9. Fixed Categories in a Portable Landscape: The Causes and Consequences of Land Cover Categorization, Paul Robbins 10. GIS Representations of Nature, Political Ecology, and the Study of Land Use and Cover Change in South Africa, Brent McCusker & Daniel Weiner Part V. North--South Environmental Histories 11. Material--Conceptual Landscape Transformation and the Emergence of the Pristine Myth in Early Colonial Mexico, Andrew Sluyter 12. The Production of Nature: Colonial Recasting of African Landscape in Serengeti National Park, Roderick P. Neumann 13. Agroenvironments and Slave Strategies in the Diffusion of Rice Culture to the Americas, Judith Carney 14. Future Directions in Political Ecology: Nature--Society Fusions and Scales of Interaction, Karl S. Zimmerer & Thomas J. Bassett Index

The Reworking of Conservation Geographies: Nonequilibrium Landscapes and Nature-Society Hybrids

Abstract: (2000). The Reworking of Conservation Geographies: Nonequilibrium Landscapes and Nature-Society Hybrids. Annals of the Association of American Geographers: Vol. 90, No. 2, pp. 356-369.

Human Geography and the “New Ecology”: The Prospect and Promise of Integration

Abstract: The “new ecology” underscores the role of nonequilibrium conditions in biophysical environments, a reorientation of biological ecology based in part on biogeography. This paper describes the contributions of the “new ecology” and examines their implications for the analysis of biophysical environments in human geography, the most notable of which is a reformulation of certain key ecological postulates (generalized carrying capacity, area-biodiversity postulate, biodiversity-stability postulate). The irony of these reformulations is that our advanced understandings of biophysical environments come at the expense of the perceived certainty of prediction and possible justification for human-induced environmental degradation. These difficulties are not insuperable, however, as is readily demonstrated by the applications of the “new ecology” in landscape ecology and agroecology. Their example may prove instructive as geographers integrate the “new ecology's” perspectives on biophysical environments an...

Changing Fortunes: Biodiversity and Peasant Livelihood in the Peruvian Andes

Abstract: Acknowledgments 1. Fields of Plenty and Want 2. The Great Historical Arch of Andean Biodiversity 3. Transitions in Farm Nature and Society, 1969-1990 4. Innovation and the Spaces of Biodiversity 5. Loss and Conservation of the Diverse Crops 6. Diversity's Sum: Geography, Ecology-Economy, and Culture 7. The Vicissitudes of Biodiversity's Fortune

Globalization and multi-spatial trends in the coverage of protected-area conservation (1980-2000)

Abstract: This study is focused on the global expansion of protected-area coverage that occurred during the 1980–2000 period. We examine the multi-scale patterning of four of the basic facets of this expansion: i) estimated increases at the world-regional and country-level scales of total protected-area coverage; ii) transboundary protected areas; iii) conservation corridor projects; and iv) type of conservation management. Geospatial patterning of protectedarea designations is a reflection of the priorities of global conservation organizations and the globalization of post- Cold War political and economic arrangements. Local and national-level factors (political leadership and infrastructure) as well as international relations such as multilateral and bilateral aid combine with these globalization processes to impact the extent, type, and location of protected-area designations. We conclude that the interaction of these factors led to the creation and reinforcement of marked spatial differences (rather th...

The Theory of Island Biogeography

Abstract: Preface to the Princeton Landmarks in Biology Edition vii Preface xi Symbols Used xiii 1. The Importance of Islands 3 2. Area and Number of Speicies 8 3. Further Explanations of the Area-Diversity Pattern 19 4. The Strategy of Colonization 68 5. Invasibility and the Variable Niche 94 6. Stepping Stones and Biotic Exchange 123 7. Evolutionary Changes Following Colonization 145 8. Prospect 181 Glossary 185 References 193 Index 201

Resilience: the emergence of a perspective for social-ecological systems analyses

Abstract: The resilience perspective is increasingly used as an approach for understanding the dynamics of social–ecological systems. This article presents the origin of the resilience perspective and provides an overview of its development to date. With roots in one branch of ecology and the discovery of multiple basins of attraction in ecosystems in the 1960–1970s, it inspired social and environmental scientists to challenge the dominant stable equilibrium view. The resilience approach emphasizes non-linear dynamics, thresholds, uncertainty and surprise, how periods of gradual change interplay with periods of rapid change and how such dynamics interact across temporal and spatial scales. The history was dominated by empirical observations of ecosystem dynamics interpreted in mathematical models, developing into the adaptive management approach for responding to ecosystem change. Serious attempts to integrate the social dimension is currently taking place in resilience work reflected in the large numbers of sciences involved in explorative studies and new discoveries of linked social–ecological systems. Recent advances include understanding of social processes like, social learning and social memory, mental models and knowledge–system integration, visioning and scenario building, leadership, agents and actor groups, social networks, institutional and organizational inertia and change, adaptive capacity, transformability and systems of adaptive governance that allow for management of essential ecosystem services.

Social and Ecological Resilience: Are They Related?

Abstract: This article defines social resilience as the ability of groups or communities to cope with external stresses and disturbances as a result of social, political and environmental change. This definition highlights social resilience in relation to the concept of ecological resilience which is a characteristic of ecosystems to maintain themselves in the face of disturbance. There is a clear link between social and ecological resilience, particularly for social groups or communities that are dependent on ecological and environmental resources for their livelihoods. But it is not clear whether resilient ecosystems enable resilient communities in such situations. This article examines whether resilience is a useful characteristic for describing the social and economic situation of social groups and explores potential links between social resilience and ecological resilience. The origins of this interdisciplinary study in human ecology, ecological economics and rural sociology are reviewed, and a study of the impacts of ecological change on a resource- dependent community in contemporary coastal Vietnam in terms of the resilience of its institu- tions is outlined. I Introduction The concept of resilience is widely used in ecology but its meaning and measurement are contested. This article argues that it is important to learn from this debate and to explore social resilience, both as an analogy of how societies work, drawing on the ecological concept, and through exploring the direct relationship between the two phenomena of social and ecological resilience. Social resilience is an important component of the circumstances under which individuals and social groups adapt to environmental change. Ecological and social resilience may be linked through the dependence on ecosystems of communities and their economic activities. The question is, then, whether societies dependent on resources and ecosystems are themselves less resilient. In addition, this analysis allows consideration of whether institutions

Whose Science? Whose Knowledge? Thinking from Women's Lives

Abstract: Introduction - after the science question in feminism. Part 1 Science: feminism confronts the sciences how the women's movement benefits science - two views why \"physics\" is a bad model for physics. Part 2 Epistemology: what is feminist epistemology \"strong objectivity\" and socially situated knowledge feminist epistemology in and after the enlightenment. Part 3 \"Others\": \"...and race?\" - the science question in global feminism common histories, common destinies - science in the first and third worlds \"real science\" thinking from the perspective of lesbian lives reinventing ourselves as other Conclusion - what is a feminist science.