K.L. Jones

Using a Theory of Practice to Clarify Epistemological Challenges in Mixed Methods Research An Example of Theorizing, Modeling, and Mapping Changing West African Seed Systems

This article argues that Bourdieu’s theory of practice offers a unified epistemological foundation for mixed methods research by emphasizing the reflexive and iterative nature of knowing, and the relational aspects of knowledge construction. The increasing presence of spatial data and tools in research fields that focus on sociospatial phenomena suggests that visual representation can facilitate the resituating of objective patterns within a subjective context of geographic and symbolic space. The article presents the foundations of the theory of practice as a unifying framework for mixed methods research that incorporates spatiality. The article then offers an example of empirical research that characterizes changing seed systems in West Africa using the theory of practice to guide mixed methods research and analysis.

Socio-environmental consideration of phosphorus flows in the urban sanitation chain of contrasting cities

Understanding how cities can transform organic waste into a valuable resource is critical to urban sustainability. The capture and recycling of phosphorus (P), and other essential nutrients, from human excreta is particularly important as an alternative organic fertilizer source for agriculture. However, the complex set of socio-environmental factors influencing urban human excreta management is not yet sufficiently integrated into sustainable P research. Here, we synthesize information about the pathways P can take through urban sanitation systems along with barriers and facilitators to P recycling across cities. We examine five case study cities by using a sanitation chains approach: Accra, Ghana; Buenos Aires, Argentina; Beijing, China; Baltimore, USA; and London, England. Our cross-city comparison shows that London and Baltimore recycle a larger percentage of P from human excreta back to agricultural lands than other cities, and that there is a large diversity in socio-environmental factors that affect the patterns of recycling observed across cities. Our research highlights conditions that may be “necessary but not sufficient” for P recycling, including access to capital resources. Path dependencies of large sanitation infrastructure investments in the Global North contrast with rapidly urbanizing cities in the Global South, which present opportunities for alternative sanitation development pathways. Understanding such city-specific social and environmental barriers to P recycling options could help address multiple interacting societal objectives related to sanitation and provide options for satisfying global agricultural nutrient demand.

Place and Large Landscape Conservation along the Susquehanna River

ABSTRACT Place theory can be used in natural resource sociology as a heuristic for identifying and incorporating differences in human and natural systems into large landscape conservation efforts. This paper draws on theories of place and applies mixed methods to understand the potential opportunities and challenges for a large landscape conservation initiative along the Susquehanna River. The research utilized key informant interviews of 62 conservation officials to develop a grounded theory of regions within the river corridor. These regions were used as the sampling frame for a telephone survey of approximately 1,000 residents. Analysis of attitudes about conservation actors, priorities, and place perceptions were layered with data acquired in key informant interviews to produce an understanding of social, physical, and symbolic aspects of the Susquehanna River landscape as a place. Identifying similarities and differences can aid in the integration of human perceptions and attitudes within large landscape conservation efforts.

Qualitative data sharing and re-use for socio-environmental systems research: A synthesis of opportunities, challenges, resources and approaches

This work was supported by the National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center (SESYNC) under funding received from the National Science Foundation DBI-1052875.

Improving Health in or of the Community

Recognizing that community is both a geographic and social space, public health professionals have historically worked to improve health within the community as well as to improve the health of the community. Beginning with the first Healthy People report in 1979, community has been a central theme in public documents which outline the priorities of federal public health agencies. Over the course of four subsequent documents, the meaning of community has been fluid and evolving, and has incorporated the social determinants of health, the ecological model of influence, and broader concepts about the role of place in health outcomes. This chapter identifies the concept of community within each of these documents to provide a critical engagement with the concept of community in American public health over the past forty years. The chapter concludes that the concept of community has shifted from being the geographic location of public health interventions to being the problem for public health interventions, a distinction reflected in the contrast between making a community healthy by improving health within it or making a healthy community by improving the health of the community. Understanding the different possible conceptualizations of community within public health that have existed in the recent past and present in American public health can help practitioners and those working with local organizations to better understand the range of goals and approaches taken by those working on public health issues within communities.

Quantifying ecological and social drivers of ecological surprise

Author(s): Filbee-Dexter, K; Symons, CC; Jones, K; Haig, HA; Pittman, J; Alexander, SM; Burke, MJ | Abstract:

WHITE PAPER: AN OVERVIEW OF CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORKS, ANALYTICAL APPROACHES AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS IN THE FOOD-ENERGY-WATER NEXUS

This work was supported by the National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center (SESYNC), which is funded by National Science Foundation Grant # DBI-1052875.

Hot and dry: stability and simplicity in dormancy and austerity

With climate change at the forefront of the popular imagination, understanding how heat shapes human experience of place can provide insight into how human systems have persisted and can persist as temperatures rise. Exploring the human-environment interactions that shape human experience in different types of hot places complicates the perception of heat as being hopeless and dreaded. Dormancy and austerity are human articulations of characteristics of the natural environment in hot dry places, characteristics that are reflected as well in stable and simple social systems. When expectations for the human experience incorporate fundamental aspects of life in a specific climate, the innovations of history and necessity rise to the surface and provide a road map for sustaining viable societies as temperatures change and rise.