Conceptualizing Distal Drivers in Land Use Competition

Jörg Niewöhner, Jonas Ø. Nielsen, Ignacio Gasparri, Yaqing Gou, Mads Hauge, Neha Joshi, Anke Schaffartzik, Frank Sejersen, Karen C. Seto, Chris Shughrue

Research output: Contribution to Book/Report typesChapterpeer-review

Abstract (may include machine translation)

This introductory chapter explores the notion of ‘distal drivers’ in land use competition. Research has moved beyond proximate causes of land cover and land use change to focus on the underlying drivers of these dynamics. We discuss the framework of telecoupling within human–environment systems as a first step to come to terms with the increasingly distal nature of driving forces behind land use practices. We then expand the notion of distal as mainly a measure of Euclidian space to include temporal, social, and institutional dimensions. This understanding of distal widens our analytical scope for the analysis of land use competition as a distributed process to consider the role of knowledge and power, technology, and different temporalities within a relational or systemic analysis of practices of land use competition. We conclude by pointing toward the historical and social contingency of land use competition and by acknowledging that this contingency requires a methodological–analytical approach to dynamics that goes beyond linear cause–effect relationships. A critical component of future research will be a better understanding of different types of feedback processes reaching from biophysical feedback loops to feedback produced by individual or institutional reflexivity.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationLand Use Competition: Ecological, Economic and Social Perspectives
PublisherSpringer
Pages21–40
ISBN (Print)9783319336268
DOIs
StatePublished - 2016

Publication series

Name Human-Environment Interactions
Volume6

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