Springer Social-ecological Systems of Latin America: Complexities and Challenges

Human societies are influencing nature in such a way that their independent analysis is no longer suitable. Fortunately, social-ecological systems provide a conceptual framework for the interconnected analysis of societies and ecosystems. However, in the case of Latin America, the complexity of social-ecological processes undermined a much-needed compilation of theoretical concepts, methods and case studies. Increasing readers’ understanding of such systems using a postnormal approach, the book discusses current concepts and methods with examples of studies from eight countries. It is a useful resource for social actors, government decision makers and scholars.  Review      Review      Review      From the Back Cover Human societies are influencing nature in such a way that their independent analysis is no longer suitable. Fortunately, social-ecological systems provide a conceptual framework for the interconnected analysis of societies and ecosystems. However, in the case of Latin America, the complexity of social-ecological processes undermined a much-needed compilation of theoretical concepts, methods and case studies. Increasing readers’ understanding of such systems using a postnormal approach, the book discusses current concepts and methods with examples of studies from eight countries. It is a useful resource for social actors, government decision makers and scholars.   About the Author Luisa E. Delgado is a Professor at Universidad de Chile, Invited Professor at Universidad Nacional de Asunción (Paraguay) and founder of Fundación Centro Transdisciplinario de Estudios FES-sistémicos (Chile). She has a doctoral degree in Social Processes and Public Policies from Universidad de Artes y Ciencias Sociales and a master’s degree in Ecology from Universidad de Chile.  She was awarded scholarships by the Deutshcer Akademisher Austauschdients (DAAD, Germany) and the World Bank.  She is currently pursuing research, financed by CONICYT-Chile, on social-ecological systems, ecosystem services, human wellbeing and environmental governance. Víctor H. Marín is Full Professor at Universidad de Chile (Departamento de Ciencias Ecológicas, Facultad de Ciencias). He has a Ph.D. in Oceanography and postdoc in Ecosystem Ecology from Scripps Institution of Oceanography (USA), and he received a Georg Forster fellowship from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (Germany) to study aquatic ecosystems. He is currently a Professor of Ecosystem Ecology and Numerical Modelling at Universidad de Chile.