Significance of Telecoupling for Exploration of Land-Use Change

Author(s):

Hallie Eakin; Ruth DeFries; Suzi Kerr; Eric F. Lambin; Jianguo Liu; Peter J. Marcotullio; Peter Messerli; Anette Reenberg; Ximena Rueda; Simon R. Swaffield; Birka Wicke; and Karl Zimmerer

Journal or Book Title: Rethinking Global land Use in an Urban Era

Keywords: telecoupling; land-use, Strungmann Forum Reports

Volume/Issue: Chapter 8

Page Number(s): 141-162

Year Published: 2014

Abstract:

Land systems are increasingly influenced by distal connections: the externalities and unintended consequences of social and ecological processes which occur in distant locations, and the feedback mechanisms that lead to new institutional developments and governance arrangements. Economic globalization and urbanization accentuate these novel telecoupling relationships. The prevalence of telecoupling in land systems demands new approaches to research and analysis in land science. This chapter presents a working defi nition of a telecoupled system, emphasizing the role of governance and institutional change in telecoupled interactions. The social, institutional, and ecological processes and conditions through which telecoupling emerges are described. The analysis of these relationships in land science demands both integrative and diverse epistemological perspectives and methods. Such analyses require a focus on how the motivations and values of social actors relate to telecoupling processes, as well as on the mechanisms that produce unanticipated outcomes and feedback relationships among distal land systems.

DOI: ISBN: 9780262026901.

Type of Publication: Book Chapter

Editor(s):

Karen C. Seto; Anette Reenberg

Publisher: MIT Press

Location: Cambridge, MA

shadow