From a Fictional Globe to Poetic Ecosystems: Modelling Human Interactions with the Environment

Abstract

Models at the global scale for the interactions of humans with the natural environment are criticized as insufficiently realistic and specific for either social science research or policy analysis. The author suggests building social-science models at a meso-scale level, which might be as small as a city or county, or in some cases as large as a continent. An example of how meso-scale modelling forces consideration of factors not usually taken into account at the global level is provided by the case of demographic modelling of the growth of the population of sub-Saharan Africa. Units of data collection and sampling are discussed, with consideration given to the nation-state as the unit most commonly employed in the social sciences and its probable inappropriateness for many applications. Finally, a unifying concept first advanced in the 1950s is put forward as often being appropriate for meeting social-science data collection and modelling needs — the concept of the “community,” which is defined as a complex of population, environment, technology, and social organization.