Away from a Theory of Biodiversity Loss: Examining Biodiversity Loss in Concert with Social History

• In Event: 352 - Theory Section Roundtables (one-hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 05. Knowledge and Information

Abstract

The purpose of this presentation is to advance a new sociological understanding of the contemporary, anthropogenic crisis of global biodiversity loss as a process that is at once too complex to be encapsulated in a broad, macro-theoretical framework yet, to be understood in its totality, must be conceptualized at a higher scale than specific case studies can provide. I traverse this impasse through establishing what I believe should be the epistemological boundaries of the discussion. These boundaries incorporate traditional epistemological issues in sociology and related disciplines, such as the dynamics of scale and history, as well as scientific issues specific to processes of biodiversity loss. I argue that a serious discussion of how social processes are tied to biodiversity loss, one it is imperative sociologists be a part of, involves first recognition of the analytic framework I set forth.

Author

• Jordan Fox Besek, University of Oregon