The execution of successful social-ecological research and the formulation of effective environmental policies crucially depend on a deep knowledge of the temporal complexity of the interactions between social and biophysical systems. To promote a keener awareness of the relevance of time, cycles, and tempos, this study assembles examples drawn from a range of disciplines to delineate the ways temporality enters into human behavior, resource management, and the conduct of social-ecological research. Anthropological and historical studies document the culturally embedded temporal subjectivities that shape the way humans exploit or conserve natural resources. Analyses of environmental policy show how temporal considerations enter into intervention strategies via such concepts as discount rates, property rights and the precautionary principle. The centrality of temporal assumptions is further evidenced by the time-dependent foundations of disciplinary specializations. The likelihood of temporal mismatches between the specializations that participate in interdisciplinary research and between the scientific findings and environmental policy can be mitigated by giving attention to temporal grain, temporal fallacy and temporal extent.
Adam, B. (1995) Timewatch: The Social Analysis of Time. Cambridge: Polity Press.
2.
Adam, B. (1998) Timescapes of Modernity: The Environment and Invisible Hazards. London and New York: Routledge.
3.
Agrawal, A. (1997) Community in Conservation: Beyond Enchantment and Disenchantment (Discussion Paper). Gainesville, FL: Conservation and Development Forum (CDF).
4.
Ahl, V. and Allen, T.F.H. (1996) Hierarchy Theory: A Vision, Vocabulary and Epistemology . New York: Columbia University Press.
5.
Alchian, A. and Demsetz, H. (1973) `The Property Rights Paradigm', Journal of Economic History33: 16-27.
6.
Allen, T.F.H. and Starr, T.B. (1982) Hierarchy: Perspectives for Ecological Complexity . Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
7.
Appell, D. (2001) `The New Uncertainty Principle', Scientific American (January): 18-19. Available at: http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=000C3111-2859-1C71-84A9809EC588EF21&catID=2 .
8.
Beaumont, P.M. and Walker, R.T. (1994) `Land Degradation and Property Regimes', Ecological Economics18: 55-66.
9.
Bluedorn, A.C. (2002) The Human Organization of Time: Temporal Realities and Experience. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
10.
Brainard, J. (2002) `U.S. Agencies Look to Interdisciplinary Science' , The Chronicle of Higher Education6/14. Available at: http://chronicle.com/weekly/v48/i40/40a02001.htm.
11.
Brand, S. (1999) The Clock of the Long Now: Time and Responsibility . New York: Basic Books.
12.
Braudel, F. (1949/1985) La Méditerranée et le Monde Méditerranéen à l'époque de Philippe II [The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip the Second] (6th edn). Paris: Armand Colin.
13.
Braudel, F. (1980) On History. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
14.
Carpenter, S.R. and Kitchell, J.F. (1987) `Plankton Community Structure and Limnetic Primary Production', American Naturalist124: 159-72.
15.
Chasteen, J.C. (2001) Born in Blood and Fire: A Concise History of Latin America. New York: W. W. Norton .
Cumming, G.S., Cumming, D.M. and Redman, C.L. (2006) `Scale Mismatches in Social-ecological Systems: Causes, Consequences and Solutions' Ecology and Society11: 14.
18.
Durkheim, E. (1915/1964) The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life. London: George Allen and Unwin .
19.
Evans-Pritchard, E.E. (1940) The Nuer: A Description of the Modes of Livelihood and Political Institutions of a Nolitic People. London : Oxford University Press.
20.
Farber, D.A. and Hemmersbaugh, P.A. (1993) `The Shadow of the Future: Discount Rates, Later Generations, and the Environment', Vanderbilt Law Review46: 267- 304.
21.
Feder, G. (1987) `Land Ownership Security and Farm Productivity: Evidence from Thailand', Journal of Development Studies24: 16-30.
22.
Foweraker, J. (1995) Theorizing Social Movements. Boulder, CO: Pluto Press.
23.
Gell, A. (1992) The Anthropology of Time: Cultural Constructions of Temporal Maps and Images. Providence, RI: Berg Publishers Limited.
24.
Gellert, P. (2005) `For a Sociology of "socionature": Ontology and the Commodity-based Approach', in P. S. Ciccantell , D. A. Smith and G. Seidman (eds) Nature, Raw Materials, and Political Economy (Vol. 10), pp. 65-91. New York: Elsevier.
25.
Gibson, C.C., Ostrom, E. and Ahn, T-K. (2000) `The Concept of Scale and the Human Dimensions of Global Change: A Survey', Ecological Economics32: 217-39.
26.
Goldsmith, A.A. (2004) `Predatory Versus Developmental Rule in Africa' , Democratization11(3): 89-110.
27.
Gould, S.J. (1987) Time's Arrow, Time's Cycle: Myth and Metaphor in the Discovery of Geological Time. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
28.
Goulder, L.H. and Stavins, R.N. (2002) `Discounting: An Eye on the Future', Nature419(17, October): 673-74.
29.
Gunderson, L. and Folke, C. (2003) `Toward a "Science of the Long View"', Conservation Ecology7(1): 15. Available at: http://www.consecol.org/vol7/iss1/art15/.
30.
Gunderson, L. H. and Holling C. S. (eds) (2002) Panarchy: Understanding Transformations in Human and Natural Systems. Washington DC: Island Press.
31.
Hall, J.R. (1978) The Ways Out: Utopian Communal Groups in an Age of Babylon. London: Verso.
32.
Hall, J.R. (1984) `Temporality, Social Action, and the Problem of Quantification in Historical Analysis', Historical Methods17(4): 206-18.
33.
Hareven, T.K. (1982) Family Time and Industrial Time. London: Cambridge University Press.
34.
Harremöes, P., Gee, D., MacGarvin, M., Stirling, A., Keys, J., Wynne, B. and Guedes Vaz, S. (2000) The Precautionary Principle in the 20th Century: Late Lessons from Early Warnings. Copenhagen: European Environment Agency.
35.
Henderson, D. (2005) `Evangelicals are Conservationists', Conservation Biology19(6): 1687-88.
36.
Holling, C.S. (2001) `Understanding the Complexity of Economic, Ecological, and Social Systems', Ecosystems4: 300-505.
37.
Holling, C.S., Gunderson, L.H. and Ludwig, D. (2002) `In Quest of a Theory of Adaptive Change', in L. H. Gunderson and C. S. Holling (eds) Panarchy: Understanding Transformations in Human and Natural Systems, pp. 3-22. London: Island Press.
38.
Holling, C.S.Gunderson, L.H. and Peterson, G.D. (2002) `Sustainability and Panarchies', in L. H. Gunderson and C. S. Holling (eds) Panarchy: Understanding Transformations in Human and Natural Systems, pp. 63-102. London: Island Press.
39.
Kareiva, P. and Andersen, M. (1986) `Spatial Aspects of Species Interactions: The Weddings of Models and Experiments', in A. Hastings (ed.) Community Ecology, pp. 35-50. Berlin : Springer-Verlag.
40.
Kondratiev, N. (1925) `The Major Economic Cycles', Voprosy Konjunktury (1): 28-79. [English translation in ( 1935) Review of Economic Statistics (18): 105-15.]
41.
Krech III, S. (1999) The Ecological Indian: Myth and History. New York: W. W. Norton.
42.
Larson, B.A. and Bromley, D.W. (1990) `Property Rights, Externalities and Resource Degradation' , Journal of Developing Economics33: 235-62.
43.
Lee, K.N. (1993) Compass and Gyroscope: Integrating Science and Politics for the Environment. Washington DC: Island Press.
44.
Levine, R. (1997) A Geography of Time. New York : Basic Books.
45.
Lyons, O. (1980) `An Iroquois Perspective', in C. Yecsey and R. W. Venables (eds) American Indian Environments: Ecological Issues in Native American History, pp. 171-4. New York: Syracuse University Press.
46.
McCarty, H.H., Hook, J.C. and Knos, D.S. (1956) The Measurement of Association in Industrial Geography . Ames, IA: University of Iowa .
47.
McPhee, J. (1980) Basin and Range. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
48.
Merton, R. (1984) `Socially Expected Durations: A Case Study of Concept Formation in Sociology', in W. W. Powell and R. Robbins (eds) Conflict and Consensus: In Honor of Lewis A. Coser, pp. 362-83. New York: Free Press.
49.
Newell, B., Crumley, C.L., Hassan, N., Lambin, E.F., Pahl-Wostl, C., Underdal, A. and Wasson, R. (2005) `A Conceptual Template for Integrative Human-environmental Research', Global Environmental Change15: 299-307.
Redman, C.L. and Kinzig, A.P. (2003) `Resilience of Past Landscapes: Resilience Theory, Society and the Longue Duré', Conservation Ecology7(1): 14. Available at: http://www.consecol.org/vol17/iss1/art14 .
59.
Redman, C.L., Morgan Grove, J. and Kuby, L.H. (2004) `Integrating Social Science into the Long-term Ecological Research (LTER) Network: Social Dimensions of Ecological Change and Ecological Dimensions of Social Change', Ecosystems7: 161-71.
60.
Rhoten, D. (2004) `Interdisciplinary Research: Trend or Transition?' , Items: Social Science Research Council (SSRC)5(1-2): 6-11.
61.
Rifkin, J. (1987) Time Wars. New York: Simon and Schuster.
62.
Risser P.G. (1991) Long-term Ecological Research: An International Perspective. New York: Wiley.
63.
Roberts, B. (1995) `Socially Expected Durations and the Economic Adjustment of Immigrants', in A. Portes (ed.) The Economic Sociology of Immigration, pp. 42-86. New York: Russell Sage.
64.
Robinson, W. (1950) `Ecological Correlations and the Behavior of Individuals' , American Sociological Review15: 351-7.
65.
Roxborough, I. (1979) Theories of Underdevelopment. London: Macmillan Press.
66.
Schmink, M. and Wood, C.H. (1992) Contested Frontiers in Amazonia. New York: Columbia University Press.
67.
Stuart, S.N. (2005) `Conservation Theology for Conservation Biologists: A Reply to David Orr', Conservation Biology19(6): 1689-92.
68.
Thompson, E.P. (1967) `Time, Work-discipline and Industrial Capitalism' , Past and Present38: 56-96.
69.
Tilly, C. (1984) Big Structures, Large Processes, Huge Comparisons . New York: Russell Sage Foundation .
70.
Tilman, D. (1989) `Ecological Experimentation: Strengths and Conceptual Problems', in G. E. Likens (ed.) Long-Term Studies in Ecology: Approaches and Alternatives, pp. 136-57. New York: Springer-Verlag.
71.
Trosper, R.L. (2003) `Resilience in Pre-contact Pacific Northwest Social Ecological Systems', Conservation Ecology7(3): 6. Available at: http://www.consecol.org/vol17/iss3/art6.
72.
Turner II, B.L., Skole, D., Sanderson, S., Fischer, G., Fresco, L. and Leemans, R. (1995) Land Use and Land-Cover Change: Science/Research Plan. Geneva: The International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP) and the Human Dimensions of Global Environmental Change Programme (HDP) of the International Social Science Council (ISSC) .
73.
Turner, M.G., Gardner, R.H. and O'Neill, R.V. (2001) Landscape Ecology in Theory and Practice. New York: Springer-Verlag .
74.
Urban, D.L., O'Neill, R.V. and Shugart Jr, H.H. (1987) `Landscape Ecology: A Hierarchical Perspective Can Help Scientists Understand Spatial Patterns' , BioScience37(2): 119-27.
75.
Urry, J. (2000) Sociology Beyond Societies: Mobilities for the Twenty-first Century. London: Routledge .
76.
Van Dyke, F. (2005) `Between Heaven and Earth: Evangelical Engagement in Conservation', Conservation Biology19(6): 1693.
77.
Wachter, D. (1992) Farmland Degradation in Developing Countries: The Role of Property Rights and an Assessment of Land Titling as a Policy Intervention (Land Tenure Center Paper 145). Madison: University of Wisconsin-Madison.
78.
WCED (The World Commission on Environment and Development) (1987) Our Common Future. New York : Oxford University Press.
79.
Wilson, E.O. (2006) The Creation: An Appeal to Save Life on Earth. New York: W. W. Norton.
80.
Wood, C.H. (2005) `Keeping Time: Temporal Hierarchies in Socio-ecological Systems', in P. S. Ciccantell, D. A. Smith and G. Seidman (eds) Nature, Raw Materials, and Political Economy (Vol. 10), pp. 93-112. New York: Elsevier.
81.
Wu, J. (1999) `Hierarchy and Scaling: Extrapolating Along a Scaling Ladder', Canadian Journal of Remote Sensing25(4): 367-80.
82.
Wu, J. and David, J.L. (2002) `A Spatially Explicit Hierarchical Approach to Modeling Complex Ecological Systems: Theory and Applications', Ecological Modelling153(7): 7-26.
83.
York, R. and Clark, B. (2006) `Marxism, Positivism, and Scientific Sociology: Social Gravity and Historicity', Sociological Quarterly47: 425-50.
