Publications

@article{Perez-Llorente2019,

title = {Unraveling complex relations between forest-cover change and conflicts through spatial and relational analyses},

author = {Irene P\'{e}rez-Llorente and M. Isabel Ram\'{i}rez and Jaime Paneque-G\'{a}lvez and Claudio Garibay Orozco and Rafael Gonz\'{a}lez-L\'{o}pez},

url = {https://doi.org/10.5751/ https://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol24/iss3/art3/},

doi = {10.5751/ES-10992-240303},

issn = {1708-3087},

year  = {2019},

date = {2019-07-01},

journal = {Ecology and Society},

volume = {24},

number = {3},

pages = {art3},

publisher = {The Resilience Alliance},

abstract = {Despite the increasing prevalence of forest-cover change and conflicts, most studies have been unable to unravel the complex relations between the two processes. We attribute this failure to methodological limitations. We put forward an alternative approach that combines different datasets (remote sensing, GIS, local narratives, official censuses, newspaper articles), methods (spatial and relational analyses), and scales (subregions, economic sectors, land-based activities) to create a robust explanation of the relations between different intensities of forest-cover change and conflict in the Meseta Pur\'{e}pecha region, central Mexico. This is an important forest region, inhabited by indigenous and mestizo peasants; it has a worldwide reputation for community forestry and is also the epicenter of international avocado production. Forest-cover change is intense and there are recurrent episodes of conflict. We clustered communities in three subregions according to their patterns of forest-cover change. We analyzed the spatial patterns of forest-cover change and conflicts and we characterized the structure and function of the different economic sectors to unravel the nonlinear, interdependent (and sometimes contradictory) relations among these processes. We found that avocado production has differentially shaped the composition and working of society within each subregion, leading to three diverging patterns. Avocado production has provoked conflicts over landownership and over illegal logging in nearby areas. In some areas, a low incidence of conflicts over forest clearance might be explained by high profits, coercion, and violence. We suggest that, by combining spatial and relational analyses, we can integrate and check the congruence of nonequivalent representations from quantitative sources and observant participation at different scales and explain the heterogeneity that processes display across space. Our methodological approach can thus improve our understanding of similar and other complex and uncertain environmental problems elsewhere, especially when accurate or appropriate data are missing.},

keywords = {central Mexico, Complexity theory, environmental conflicts, land-cover/land-use change, Uncertainty},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Giampietro2018,

title = {Unraveling the Complexity of the Jevons Paradox: The Link Between Innovation, Efficiency, and Sustainability},

author = {Mario Giampietro and Kozo Mayumi},

url = {http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fenrg.2018.00026/full},

doi = {10.3389/fenrg.2018.00026},

issn = {2296-598X},

year  = {2018},

date = {2018-04-01},

journal = {Frontiers in Energy Research},

volume = {6},

number = {APR},

pages = {26},

abstract = {textcopyright 2018 Giampietro and Mayumi. The term "Jevons Paradox" flags the need to consider the different hierarchical scales at which a system under analysis changes its identity in response to an innovation. Accordingly, an analysis of the implications of the Jevons Paradox must abandon the realm of reductionism and deal with the complexity inherent in the issue of sustainability: when studying evolution and real change how can we define "what has to be sustained" in a system that continuously becomes something else? In an attempt to address this question this paper presents three theoretical concepts foreign to conventional scientific analysis: (i) complex adaptive systems-to address the peculiar characteristics of learning and self-producing systems; (ii) holons and holarchy-to explain the implications of the ambiguity found when observing the relation between functional and structural elements across different scales (steady-state vs. evolution); and (iii) Holling's adaptive cycle-to illustrate the existence of different phases in the evolutionary trajectory of a complex adaptive system interacting with its context in which either external or internal constraints can become limiting. These concepts are used to explain systemic drivers of the Jevons Paradox. Looking at society's thermodynamic foundations, sustainability is based on a dynamic balance of two contrasting principles regulating the evolution of complex adaptive systems: the minimum entropy production and the maximum energy flux. The co-existence of these two principles explains why in different situations innovation has to play a different role in the "sustainable development" of society: (i) when society is not subject to external biophysical constraints improvements in efficiency serve to increase the final consumption of society and expand its diversity of functions and structures; (ii) when the expansion of society is limited by external constraints improvements in efficiency should be used to avoid as much as possible the loss of the existing diversity. It is concluded that sustainability cannot be achieved by technological innovations alone, but requires a continuous process of institutional and behavioral adjustment.},

keywords = {Complex adaptive system, Complexity theory, Energy efficiency, Holon, Innovation, Jevons paradox, MuSIASEM, Rebound effect},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}