The World System and the Earth System: Global Socioenvironmental Change and Sustainability Since the Neolithic

This is both an exciting and rewarding book. What unites the authors is their willingness to test the hypothesis that the biophysical earth systems and the historical social world systems ultimately form a single inseparable whole, whose mode of operation needs to be elucidated. Immanuel Wallerstein, Yale University It is increasingly clear that social and ecological systems are inextricably linked on a global scale. Yet, despite the current interest in bridging our concepts of nature and society, attempts at integration continue to be stymied by the different theoretical trajectories and academic traditions that divide them. in this benchmark volume, top scholars come together to pursue a more rigorous framework for understanding and studying social and ecological systems. Contributors from a wide spectrum of disciplines, including archaeology, anthropology, geography, ecology, palaeo-science, geology, sociology, and history, present and assess both the evolution of our thinking and current, state-of-the-art theory and research. Covering ancient through modern periods, they discuss the complex ways in which human culture, economy, and demography interact with ecology and climate change. The World System and the Earth System is critical reading for all scholars and students working at the interface of nature and society.