Project acronym CHILDCOHAB
Project Nonmarital childbearing in comparative perspective: trends, explanations, and lifecourse trajectories
Researcher (PI) Brienna Perelli-Harris
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMPTON
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH3, ERC-2010-StG_20091209
Summary Over the past several decades, childbearing within cohabitation has risen sharply throughout most of Europe, Australia, and the U.S. This project aims to study the diffusion of childbearing within cohabitation using a number of analytic levels and methodological perspectives. We will explore the following questions:
1) Trends: How does fertility differ by union status, and how do these differences change over time? Are there differences by parity, age pattern, or timing? How does the decline in marital fertility contribute to the increase in share of nonmarital births?
2) Explanations: What are the underlying reasons for increasing childbearing within cohabitation? What has produced variation across countries? How do policies impact and/or respond to childbearing within cohabitation? How do societal-level perceptions of cohabitation, marriage, and childbearing differ across countries?
3) Lifecourse trajectories: How do the lifecourse trajectories for women who bear children differ by union status? Are women who give birth within cohabitation more likely to experience changes in family structure? Is childbearing within cohabitation associated with future negative social, emotional, or economic outcomes?
To answer these questions, we will use an innovative mixed-methods strategy that 1) analyzes a unique database of harmonized reproductive and union histories, 2) conducts qualitative research into the role of policies and general perspectives on nonmarital childbearing, and 3) examines longitudinal surveys in comparative perspective. Ultimately, we aim to develop a new theoretical framework for understanding the diffusion of family change. This research will provide insights into whether lifecourse trajectories are diverging, potentially exacerbating social inequality.
Summary
Over the past several decades, childbearing within cohabitation has risen sharply throughout most of Europe, Australia, and the U.S. This project aims to study the diffusion of childbearing within cohabitation using a number of analytic levels and methodological perspectives. We will explore the following questions:
1) Trends: How does fertility differ by union status, and how do these differences change over time? Are there differences by parity, age pattern, or timing? How does the decline in marital fertility contribute to the increase in share of nonmarital births?
2) Explanations: What are the underlying reasons for increasing childbearing within cohabitation? What has produced variation across countries? How do policies impact and/or respond to childbearing within cohabitation? How do societal-level perceptions of cohabitation, marriage, and childbearing differ across countries?
3) Lifecourse trajectories: How do the lifecourse trajectories for women who bear children differ by union status? Are women who give birth within cohabitation more likely to experience changes in family structure? Is childbearing within cohabitation associated with future negative social, emotional, or economic outcomes?
To answer these questions, we will use an innovative mixed-methods strategy that 1) analyzes a unique database of harmonized reproductive and union histories, 2) conducts qualitative research into the role of policies and general perspectives on nonmarital childbearing, and 3) examines longitudinal surveys in comparative perspective. Ultimately, we aim to develop a new theoretical framework for understanding the diffusion of family change. This research will provide insights into whether lifecourse trajectories are diverging, potentially exacerbating social inequality.
Max ERC Funding
1 131 600 €
Duration
Start date: 2011-03-01, End date: 2016-05-31
Project acronym ECOSPACE
Project EcoSpace: Spatial-Dynamic Modelling of Adaptation Options to Climate Change at the Ecosystem Scale
Researcher (PI) Lars Gerard Hein
Host Institution (HI) WAGENINGEN UNIVERSITY
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH3, ERC-2010-StG_20091209
Summary Climate change will necessitate adjustments in ecosystem management in order to maintain the functioning of ecosystems and the supply of ecosystem services. The aim of this project is to develop a spatially explicit, dynamic modelling approach for identifying and analysing adaptation strategies for ecosystem management.
In particular, the project will develop and apply a general, spatial model integrating climate change scenarios, ecosystem dynamics, response thresholds, ecosystem services supply and management options. The scientific innovation of the project lies in the application of an ecosystem services approach to analyse adaptation options, the integration of complex ecosystem dynamics and societal impacts, and the spatially explicit modelling of economic benefits supplied by ecosystems.
The general model will be tested and validated on the basis of three case studies, focussing on: (i) flood protection in the Netherlands; (ii) impacts of climate change in northern Norway; and (iii) optimising land use including production of biofuels stock in Kalimantan, Indonesia. The first two areas are particularly vulnerable to climate change, and the third area is relevant because of its importance as a source of biofuel (palmoil) with associated environmental and social impacts. Each case study will be implemented in collaboration with local and international partners, and will result in the identification of economic efficient, sustainable and equitable local adaptation options.
Summary
Climate change will necessitate adjustments in ecosystem management in order to maintain the functioning of ecosystems and the supply of ecosystem services. The aim of this project is to develop a spatially explicit, dynamic modelling approach for identifying and analysing adaptation strategies for ecosystem management.
In particular, the project will develop and apply a general, spatial model integrating climate change scenarios, ecosystem dynamics, response thresholds, ecosystem services supply and management options. The scientific innovation of the project lies in the application of an ecosystem services approach to analyse adaptation options, the integration of complex ecosystem dynamics and societal impacts, and the spatially explicit modelling of economic benefits supplied by ecosystems.
The general model will be tested and validated on the basis of three case studies, focussing on: (i) flood protection in the Netherlands; (ii) impacts of climate change in northern Norway; and (iii) optimising land use including production of biofuels stock in Kalimantan, Indonesia. The first two areas are particularly vulnerable to climate change, and the third area is relevant because of its importance as a source of biofuel (palmoil) with associated environmental and social impacts. Each case study will be implemented in collaboration with local and international partners, and will result in the identification of economic efficient, sustainable and equitable local adaptation options.
Max ERC Funding
759 600 €
Duration
Start date: 2010-11-01, End date: 2015-10-31
Project acronym EDGE
Project Evaluating the Delivery Of Participatory Environmental Governance using an Evidence-based Research Design
Researcher (PI) Jens Newig
Host Institution (HI) LEUPHANA UNIVERSITAT LUNEBURG
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH3, ERC-2010-StG_20091209
Summary Participation of citizens and stakeholders in environmental governance is widely believed to enhance environmental policy outcomes. This claim has, however, been challenged both on theoretical grounds and with respect to a lack of reliable evidence. EDGE uses an evidence-based approach: By combining case survey, comparative case studies and field experimentation, the project draws on complementary methods with a high natural variety and thus external validity (case survey) and those with a higher controllability and thus higher internal validity (experimentation).
Case survey: Numerous single case studies are available across Europe and North America, providing a rich, but scattered and yet untapped resource of data. A sample of c.200 cases will be precisely coded and systematically compared based on a theoretical framework that provides relevant context, process and outcome variables.
A sample of around 10 comparative case studies on governance processes in the course of the implementation of the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD) will be conducted.
EDGE will perform one of the first field experiments in governance research. Field experiments are highly promising, yet controversially debated and in practice challenging. Around 10 cases of ongoing local WFD implementation processes will be subject to random selection of a participatory or non-participatory governance design.
Data from all three sources will be stringently analysed using the same analytical scheme. Results will be analysed with statistical and set-theoretic methods. EDGE thus aims to drastically improve the scientific knowledge on whether and under what conditions participation actually improves policy delivery in environmental governance, thus radically informing scholarly research and political practice.
Summary
Participation of citizens and stakeholders in environmental governance is widely believed to enhance environmental policy outcomes. This claim has, however, been challenged both on theoretical grounds and with respect to a lack of reliable evidence. EDGE uses an evidence-based approach: By combining case survey, comparative case studies and field experimentation, the project draws on complementary methods with a high natural variety and thus external validity (case survey) and those with a higher controllability and thus higher internal validity (experimentation).
Case survey: Numerous single case studies are available across Europe and North America, providing a rich, but scattered and yet untapped resource of data. A sample of c.200 cases will be precisely coded and systematically compared based on a theoretical framework that provides relevant context, process and outcome variables.
A sample of around 10 comparative case studies on governance processes in the course of the implementation of the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD) will be conducted.
EDGE will perform one of the first field experiments in governance research. Field experiments are highly promising, yet controversially debated and in practice challenging. Around 10 cases of ongoing local WFD implementation processes will be subject to random selection of a participatory or non-participatory governance design.
Data from all three sources will be stringently analysed using the same analytical scheme. Results will be analysed with statistical and set-theoretic methods. EDGE thus aims to drastically improve the scientific knowledge on whether and under what conditions participation actually improves policy delivery in environmental governance, thus radically informing scholarly research and political practice.
Max ERC Funding
900 000 €
Duration
Start date: 2011-04-01, End date: 2016-03-31
Project acronym FAMILIFE
Project Families of migrant origin: a life course perspective
Researcher (PI) Helga Antoinette Gerda De Valk
Host Institution (HI) KONINKLIJKE NEDERLANDSE AKADEMIE VAN WETENSCHAPPEN - KNAW
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH3, ERC-2010-StG_20091209
Summary Over the last decades European societies have become more ethnically diverse. However, a more comprehensive understanding of the life course and population dynamics in migrant families is still lacking. Ignoring a large share of the population in studies on family and population dynamics is exclusive and does not reflect reality. My project is first of all innovative in providing a more comprehensive overview of individual life courses of migrants: events in different life domains are linked and full life trajectories are analysed and explained. I will focus not only on the causes but also study the consequences of life course decisions. The second project goal is to explain the effect of migration on intergenerational solidarity and family ties. The analyses will link different phases in the life course as well as different generations. Families of different migrant and native origin will be compared in these parts. Third, I will make unique comparisons between the life course trajectories in the countries of origin and settlement of migrants. Bringing in the perspective of the sending country is original and crucial for understanding to what extent life course choices are related to the integration process in the host society, or to a trend that also occurs in the country of origin. A final major novelty of this project is that different recent data sources are linked within each of the components of the project. The combination of data from the Gender and Generations Survey (GGS), The Integration of the Second Generation (TIES) survey, the PAIRFAM survey, the European Social Survey, the Demographic and Health Surveys and the census, allow for a more complete understanding of the life courses of migrants and population dynamics in migrant families.
Summary
Over the last decades European societies have become more ethnically diverse. However, a more comprehensive understanding of the life course and population dynamics in migrant families is still lacking. Ignoring a large share of the population in studies on family and population dynamics is exclusive and does not reflect reality. My project is first of all innovative in providing a more comprehensive overview of individual life courses of migrants: events in different life domains are linked and full life trajectories are analysed and explained. I will focus not only on the causes but also study the consequences of life course decisions. The second project goal is to explain the effect of migration on intergenerational solidarity and family ties. The analyses will link different phases in the life course as well as different generations. Families of different migrant and native origin will be compared in these parts. Third, I will make unique comparisons between the life course trajectories in the countries of origin and settlement of migrants. Bringing in the perspective of the sending country is original and crucial for understanding to what extent life course choices are related to the integration process in the host society, or to a trend that also occurs in the country of origin. A final major novelty of this project is that different recent data sources are linked within each of the components of the project. The combination of data from the Gender and Generations Survey (GGS), The Integration of the Second Generation (TIES) survey, the PAIRFAM survey, the European Social Survey, the Demographic and Health Surveys and the census, allow for a more complete understanding of the life courses of migrants and population dynamics in migrant families.
Max ERC Funding
1 012 800 €
Duration
Start date: 2011-02-01, End date: 2016-08-31
Project acronym FAMMAT
Project Family Matters: Intergenerational Influences on Fertility
Researcher (PI) Rebecca Sear
Host Institution (HI) LONDON SCHOOL OF HYGIENE AND TROPICAL MEDICINE ROYAL CHARTER
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH3, ERC-2010-StG_20091209
Summary Why do people have children? Why do they have the number of children they do? These questions are of fundamental importance, but we do not yet have satisfactory answers. I propose to bring an interdisciplinary perspective, involving demography, evolutionary biology, anthropology and psychology, to bear on this topic. The aim is to test the hypothesis that intergenerational influences are important determinants of fertility, from fertility intentions to timing of births to number of children. The theoretical rationale derives from a hypothesis emerging from evolutionary biology that humans are cooperative breeders : mothers need help from others to raise children, because human children are too costly for mothers to raise alone. The support of relatives, particularly intergenerational support, is thus vital to women in determining how many children they have. If so, there is a major gap in our understanding of fertility, since such influences have not been systematically studied. This aim will be achieved using rigorous, empirical methods to analyse data from all world regions, and to use novel methods for collecting new data on fertility. The key to this project is its holistic comparative nature. The ultimate goal will be a novel comparative analysis of data from the full gamut of human societies, from small-scale traditional societies through historical populations to contemporary nations surveyed through large-scale surveys. This will allow us to go beyond simply documenting kin influences, and to understand why particular kin matter under which circumstances. Such a comparative approach has not been used before but is vital if we are to fully understand why fertility varies. This will significantly advance understanding of fertility, and promote interdisciplinary research.
Summary
Why do people have children? Why do they have the number of children they do? These questions are of fundamental importance, but we do not yet have satisfactory answers. I propose to bring an interdisciplinary perspective, involving demography, evolutionary biology, anthropology and psychology, to bear on this topic. The aim is to test the hypothesis that intergenerational influences are important determinants of fertility, from fertility intentions to timing of births to number of children. The theoretical rationale derives from a hypothesis emerging from evolutionary biology that humans are cooperative breeders : mothers need help from others to raise children, because human children are too costly for mothers to raise alone. The support of relatives, particularly intergenerational support, is thus vital to women in determining how many children they have. If so, there is a major gap in our understanding of fertility, since such influences have not been systematically studied. This aim will be achieved using rigorous, empirical methods to analyse data from all world regions, and to use novel methods for collecting new data on fertility. The key to this project is its holistic comparative nature. The ultimate goal will be a novel comparative analysis of data from the full gamut of human societies, from small-scale traditional societies through historical populations to contemporary nations surveyed through large-scale surveys. This will allow us to go beyond simply documenting kin influences, and to understand why particular kin matter under which circumstances. Such a comparative approach has not been used before but is vital if we are to fully understand why fertility varies. This will significantly advance understanding of fertility, and promote interdisciplinary research.
Max ERC Funding
799 998 €
Duration
Start date: 2011-03-01, End date: 2015-08-31
Project acronym GEODIVERCITY
Project Analysing and Modelling the Geographical Diversity of Cities and Systems of Cities
Researcher (PI) Denise Pumain
Host Institution (HI) CENTRE NATIONAL DE LA RECHERCHE SCIENTIFIQUE CNRS
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), SH3, ERC-2010-AdG_20100407
Summary Cities are today the main form of occupation of the Earth’s surface by human societies, and their development, combining design and self-organisation, sets numerous challenges in terms of collective territorial intelligence. On the scale of national and continent-wide territories, or indeed world-wide territories for the largest, cities are interconnected by way of numerous networks, in particular economic networks, that make them increasingly interdependent and associate them one with another in a process of co-evolution within which they have to structure and adapt conjointly. It is also important to underline the existence of path dependence processes, whereby the mark of previous choices is retained over several centuries in urban morphology, and often over several decades in social or economic specialisations. The present project sets out to gather the main stylised facts making up our knowledge about the dynamics of complex urban systems that has been acquired from observation and different analytical modelling processes, and to use them in new simulation models so as to reconstruct the interaction networks making up these systems. These models will be validated using a multi-scale procedure based on temporal geo-referenced data bases. The generic model SIMPOP will be completed and transferred to an open and scalable simulation platform, and specific versions will be developed and tested for the main regions of the world. The ultimate aim is to provide a series of validated models able to provide medium-term forecasts of the way in which the main urban and global territorial balances will evolve, and to explore scenarios whereby these city systems might adapt to the policies enacted aiming to counter the effects of climate change.
Summary
Cities are today the main form of occupation of the Earth’s surface by human societies, and their development, combining design and self-organisation, sets numerous challenges in terms of collective territorial intelligence. On the scale of national and continent-wide territories, or indeed world-wide territories for the largest, cities are interconnected by way of numerous networks, in particular economic networks, that make them increasingly interdependent and associate them one with another in a process of co-evolution within which they have to structure and adapt conjointly. It is also important to underline the existence of path dependence processes, whereby the mark of previous choices is retained over several centuries in urban morphology, and often over several decades in social or economic specialisations. The present project sets out to gather the main stylised facts making up our knowledge about the dynamics of complex urban systems that has been acquired from observation and different analytical modelling processes, and to use them in new simulation models so as to reconstruct the interaction networks making up these systems. These models will be validated using a multi-scale procedure based on temporal geo-referenced data bases. The generic model SIMPOP will be completed and transferred to an open and scalable simulation platform, and specific versions will be developed and tested for the main regions of the world. The ultimate aim is to provide a series of validated models able to provide medium-term forecasts of the way in which the main urban and global territorial balances will evolve, and to explore scenarios whereby these city systems might adapt to the policies enacted aiming to counter the effects of climate change.
Max ERC Funding
1 801 047 €
Duration
Start date: 2011-06-01, End date: 2016-05-31
Project acronym GP
Project COMBATING CLIMATE CHANGE: Political economy of Green Paradoxes
Researcher (PI) Cornelius Antonius Adrianus Maria Withagen
Host Institution (HI) STICHTING VU
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), SH3, ERC-2010-AdG_20100407
Summary Green Paradoxes are defined as the phenomenon that climate change policies can have counterproductive effects. For example, a subsidy on clean energy from renewable resources (solar, wind) will decrease the price at which this energy is supplied. But if the price still exceeds the cost of fossil fuel extraction and given that available stocks will be depleted, the price decrease will speed up the extraction from non-renewable resources, such as oil, that cause CO2 emissions. Hence, instead of delaying extraction the policy enhances initial extraction and emissions. In the design of environmental policy this effect is insufficiently taken into account, because the supply side of the market for fossil fuels is largely neglected.
The principal aim of this research proposal is to critically investigate Green Paradoxes and to come up with sound policy recommendations, taking into account the demand as well as the supply dimension of fossil fuels. Particular attention is paid to a broad and dynamic welfare analysis, allowing for concerns regarding sustainability. Especially relevant for tackling the research question is to provide a closer examination of imperfect competition on the oil market and to distinguish between dirty and clean alternatives for fossil fuel. In addition the proposal is to study the political economy of climate change policy to come up with proposals that not only muster global support but also address the adverse distributional aspects of climate change itself on developing economies and on the poorest of advanced economies who get hardest hit by green taxes. This requires not only the tools of modern political economy, but also the realms of second-best economics and the latest developments in public finance.
Summary
Green Paradoxes are defined as the phenomenon that climate change policies can have counterproductive effects. For example, a subsidy on clean energy from renewable resources (solar, wind) will decrease the price at which this energy is supplied. But if the price still exceeds the cost of fossil fuel extraction and given that available stocks will be depleted, the price decrease will speed up the extraction from non-renewable resources, such as oil, that cause CO2 emissions. Hence, instead of delaying extraction the policy enhances initial extraction and emissions. In the design of environmental policy this effect is insufficiently taken into account, because the supply side of the market for fossil fuels is largely neglected.
The principal aim of this research proposal is to critically investigate Green Paradoxes and to come up with sound policy recommendations, taking into account the demand as well as the supply dimension of fossil fuels. Particular attention is paid to a broad and dynamic welfare analysis, allowing for concerns regarding sustainability. Especially relevant for tackling the research question is to provide a closer examination of imperfect competition on the oil market and to distinguish between dirty and clean alternatives for fossil fuel. In addition the proposal is to study the political economy of climate change policy to come up with proposals that not only muster global support but also address the adverse distributional aspects of climate change itself on developing economies and on the poorest of advanced economies who get hardest hit by green taxes. This requires not only the tools of modern political economy, but also the realms of second-best economics and the latest developments in public finance.
Max ERC Funding
2 743 548 €
Duration
Start date: 2011-05-01, End date: 2016-04-30
Project acronym HEMOX
Project The male-female health-mortality paradox
Researcher (PI) Marc Luy
Host Institution (HI) OESTERREICHISCHE AKADEMIE DER WISSENSCHAFTEN
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH3, ERC-2010-StG_20091209
Summary "From the 1960s to the 1980s a common wisdom about differences between males and females in health and mortality emerged which was summarised by the well-known phrase ""women are sicker, but men die quicker"". Recently this wisdom has been increasingly questioned. Nevertheless, the general idea of a paradoxical relationship between health and mortality among women and men persists until today. The purpose of this project is to decisively advance the understanding of the paradox by demonstrating that the reverse relationship between sex on the one side and health and mortality on the other is not as paradoxical as it seems. We hypothesise that two factors are mainly responsible for causing this intuitive contradiction. First, the overall reversal in sex morbidity and sex mortality differentials occurs because conditions that figure importantly in morbidity are not very important in mortality, and vice versa. Second, it is very likely that longevity is directly related to the absolute number of life years in ill health. Thus, women show higher morbidity rates not because they are female but because they are the sex with higher life expectancy. We will test these hypotheses in a ""natural experiment"" by analysing the relationship between health and mortality among Catholic nuns and monks from Austria and Germany in comparison to women and men of the general population. Cloister studies have a long scientific tradition and provided path-breaking knowledge for human medicine and demography, including the applicant s research during the last decade. This project follows the line of this tradition and will investigate the male-female health-mortality paradox in a longitudinal setting that is as close as one can get to an ideal long-term experiment in humans."
Summary
"From the 1960s to the 1980s a common wisdom about differences between males and females in health and mortality emerged which was summarised by the well-known phrase ""women are sicker, but men die quicker"". Recently this wisdom has been increasingly questioned. Nevertheless, the general idea of a paradoxical relationship between health and mortality among women and men persists until today. The purpose of this project is to decisively advance the understanding of the paradox by demonstrating that the reverse relationship between sex on the one side and health and mortality on the other is not as paradoxical as it seems. We hypothesise that two factors are mainly responsible for causing this intuitive contradiction. First, the overall reversal in sex morbidity and sex mortality differentials occurs because conditions that figure importantly in morbidity are not very important in mortality, and vice versa. Second, it is very likely that longevity is directly related to the absolute number of life years in ill health. Thus, women show higher morbidity rates not because they are female but because they are the sex with higher life expectancy. We will test these hypotheses in a ""natural experiment"" by analysing the relationship between health and mortality among Catholic nuns and monks from Austria and Germany in comparison to women and men of the general population. Cloister studies have a long scientific tradition and provided path-breaking knowledge for human medicine and demography, including the applicant s research during the last decade. This project follows the line of this tradition and will investigate the male-female health-mortality paradox in a longitudinal setting that is as close as one can get to an ideal long-term experiment in humans."
Max ERC Funding
999 999 €
Duration
Start date: 2011-04-01, End date: 2016-09-30
Project acronym LEK
Project The adaptive nature of culture. A cross-cultural analysis of the returns of Local Environmental Knowledge in three indigenous societies
Researcher (PI) Victoria Reyes García
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSIDAD AUTONOMA DE BARCELONA
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH3, ERC-2010-StG_20091209
Summary Researchers debate the role of culture in shaping human adaptive strategy. Some researchers suggest that the behavioural adaptations that explain the success of our species are partially cultural, i.e., cumulative and transmitted by social learning.
Others find that cultural knowledge has often resulted in maladaptive practices, loss of technologies, and societies collapse.
Despite the importance of the debate, we lack empirical, comparative, research on the mechanisms through which culture might shape human adaptation. I will collect real world data to test a pathway through which cultural knowledge might
enhance human adaptive strategy: the individual returns to culturally evolved and environment-specific knowledge. I will direct two post-docs and four PhD students who will collect six sets of comparable panel data in three foraging societies:
the Tsimane (Amazon), the Baka (Congo Basin), and the Penan (Borneo). I will use a culturally-specific but cross-culturally comparative method to assess individual local knowledge related to 1) wild edibles; 2) medicine; 3) agriculture; and 4) weather forecast. I will analyze data using instrumental variables to get rigorous estimates of the returns to knowledge on
a) own and offsprings health and b) nutritional status, and c) farming and d) foraging productivity. Data would allow me to make generalizations on 1) the returns to local environmental knowledge and 2) the conditions under which locally developed
knowledge is adaptive or ceases to be so. The ground-breaking nature of this study lies in its explicit attempt to use empirical data and a cross-cultural framework to provide a first test of the adaptive nature of culturally transmitted information, and to do so by linking cultural knowledge to individual outcomes.
Summary
Researchers debate the role of culture in shaping human adaptive strategy. Some researchers suggest that the behavioural adaptations that explain the success of our species are partially cultural, i.e., cumulative and transmitted by social learning.
Others find that cultural knowledge has often resulted in maladaptive practices, loss of technologies, and societies collapse.
Despite the importance of the debate, we lack empirical, comparative, research on the mechanisms through which culture might shape human adaptation. I will collect real world data to test a pathway through which cultural knowledge might
enhance human adaptive strategy: the individual returns to culturally evolved and environment-specific knowledge. I will direct two post-docs and four PhD students who will collect six sets of comparable panel data in three foraging societies:
the Tsimane (Amazon), the Baka (Congo Basin), and the Penan (Borneo). I will use a culturally-specific but cross-culturally comparative method to assess individual local knowledge related to 1) wild edibles; 2) medicine; 3) agriculture; and 4) weather forecast. I will analyze data using instrumental variables to get rigorous estimates of the returns to knowledge on
a) own and offsprings health and b) nutritional status, and c) farming and d) foraging productivity. Data would allow me to make generalizations on 1) the returns to local environmental knowledge and 2) the conditions under which locally developed
knowledge is adaptive or ceases to be so. The ground-breaking nature of this study lies in its explicit attempt to use empirical data and a cross-cultural framework to provide a first test of the adaptive nature of culturally transmitted information, and to do so by linking cultural knowledge to individual outcomes.
Max ERC Funding
1 000 000 €
Duration
Start date: 2011-01-01, End date: 2015-12-31
Project acronym LUISE
Project An integrated socioecological approach to land-use intensity: Analyzing and mapping biophysical stocks/flows and their socioeconomic drivers
Researcher (PI) Karlheinz Erb
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITAET KLAGENFURT
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH3, ERC-2010-StG_20091209
Summary Land-use intensity is an essential aspect of the human use of terrestrial ecosystems. In the course of history, intensification of land use allowed to overcome Malthusian traps and supported population growth and im-proved diets. It can be anticipated that intensification will become even more decisive in the future, in the light of a growing world population, surges in biofuel consumption, and the simultaneous mandate to protect the world’s forests. Despite its importance, there is a lack of comprehensive, consistent, systematic, and spa-tially explicit metrics of land-use intensity. In consequence, the causal understanding of the factors, mecha-nisms, determinants and constraints underlying land intensification is unsatisfactory. This is due to the main-stream in land use research that predominantly operates with nominal scales, subdividing the Earth’s surface into discrete land cover units. This hampers the analysis of gradual changes, in particular those which are not related to changes in land cover. Intensification leads exactly to such changes. The overall goal of LUISE is the conceptualization and quantification of land use intensity and to contribute to an improved causal under-standing of land intensification. By applying and significantly extending existing methods of the material and energy flow analysis framework (MEFA), the full cycle of land intensification will be studied: Socioeco-nomic inputs to ecosystems, structural changes within ecosystems, changes in outputs of ecosystems to soci-ety, and the underlying socioeconomic constraints, feedbacks, and thresholds, from top-down macro perspec-tives as well as applying bottom-up approaches. The anticipated new empirical results and insights can allow further conceptualizations and quantifications of land modifications (land change without land cover change), and improve the understanding of the dynamic and complex interplay of society and nature that shapes spatial patterns as well as changes of land systems over time.
Summary
Land-use intensity is an essential aspect of the human use of terrestrial ecosystems. In the course of history, intensification of land use allowed to overcome Malthusian traps and supported population growth and im-proved diets. It can be anticipated that intensification will become even more decisive in the future, in the light of a growing world population, surges in biofuel consumption, and the simultaneous mandate to protect the world’s forests. Despite its importance, there is a lack of comprehensive, consistent, systematic, and spa-tially explicit metrics of land-use intensity. In consequence, the causal understanding of the factors, mecha-nisms, determinants and constraints underlying land intensification is unsatisfactory. This is due to the main-stream in land use research that predominantly operates with nominal scales, subdividing the Earth’s surface into discrete land cover units. This hampers the analysis of gradual changes, in particular those which are not related to changes in land cover. Intensification leads exactly to such changes. The overall goal of LUISE is the conceptualization and quantification of land use intensity and to contribute to an improved causal under-standing of land intensification. By applying and significantly extending existing methods of the material and energy flow analysis framework (MEFA), the full cycle of land intensification will be studied: Socioeco-nomic inputs to ecosystems, structural changes within ecosystems, changes in outputs of ecosystems to soci-ety, and the underlying socioeconomic constraints, feedbacks, and thresholds, from top-down macro perspec-tives as well as applying bottom-up approaches. The anticipated new empirical results and insights can allow further conceptualizations and quantifications of land modifications (land change without land cover change), and improve the understanding of the dynamic and complex interplay of society and nature that shapes spatial patterns as well as changes of land systems over time.
Max ERC Funding
887 121 €
Duration
Start date: 2010-10-01, End date: 2016-06-30
