•  9
    Why nature matters: A systematic review of intrinsic, instrumental, and relational values
    with A. Himes, B. Muraca, C. B. Anderson, S. Athayde, T. Beery, M. Cantú-Fernández, D. González-Jiménez, R. K. Gould, A. P. Hejnowicz, J. Kenter, D. Lenzi, R. Murali, U. Pascual, C. Raymond, A. Ring, K. Russo, A. Samakov, S. Stålhammar, and E. Zent
    In this article, we present results from a literature review of intrinsic, instrumental, and relational values of nature conducted for the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, as part of the Methodological Assessment of the Diverse Values and Valuations of Nature. We identify the most frequently recurring meanings in the heterogeneous use of different value types and their association with worldviews and other key concepts. From frequent uses, we dete…Read more
  •  7
    Interdisciplinary research in the fields of forestry and sustainability studies often encounters seemingly incompatible ontological assumptions deriving from natural and social sciences. The perceived incompatibilities might emerge from the epistemological and ontological claims of the theories or models directly employed in the interdisciplinary collaboration, or they might be created by other epistemological and ontological assumptions that these interdisciplinary researchers find no reason to…Read more
  •  116
    In this chapter, we argue that in order to understand the interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary dialectics in sustainability science, it is useful to see sustainability science as a kind of management science, and then to highlight the hard-soft distinction in systems thinking. First, we argue that the commonly made natural-social science dichotomy is relatively unimportant and unhelpful. We then outline the differences between soft and hard systems thinking as a more relevant and helpful dist…Read more
  •  13
    Against general resilience
    In Michael A. Burayidi, Adriana Allen, John Twigg & Christine Wamsler (eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Urban Resilience, . 2019.
  •  11
    A Social Science Perspective on Resilience
    with Lennart Olsson, Anne Jerneck, Johannes Persson, and David O. Byrne
    In David Chandler & Jon Coaffee (eds.), The Routledge Handbook of International Resilience, . pp. 49-62. 2016.
  •  7
    Resilience: Some Philosophical Remarks on Defining Ostensively and Stipulatively
    Sustainability: Science, Practice, and Policy 11 (1): 64-74. 2015.
    Although contentious, the concept of resilience is common in sustainability research. Critique of the concept have often focused on the content of the concept. In this paper we focus on another feature of concepts, namely how they are defined. We distinguish between concepts that are ostensively defined, that aim to point to some phenomena, and stipulatively defined concepts, where the content of the concept is given in the definition itself. We argue that although definitions themselves are sim…Read more
  •  1374
    Is resilience a normative concept?
    Resilience: International Policies, Practices and Discourses 2 (6): 112-128. 2018.
    In this paper, we engage with the question of the normative content of the resilience concept. The issues are approached in two consecutive steps. First, we proceed from a narrow construal of the resilience concept – as the ability of a system to absorb a disturbance – and show that under an analysis of normative concepts as evaluative concepts resilience comes out as descriptive. In the second part of the paper, we argue that (1) for systems of interest (primarily social systems or system with …Read more
  •  29
    One way to bring order into the often muddled picture we have of interdisciplinarity is to sort interdisciplinary projects or aims by the kinds of element that interact in encounters between researchers of the two or more disciplines involved. This is not the usual approach. Since the early seventies and the publication of Erich Jantsch , at least, the level of integration of the disciplines has been the primary focus. For instance, the level of integration is often treated as the distinguishing…Read more
  •  9
    Stepping stone or stumbling block? Mode 2 knowledge production in sustainability science
    with Line Breian
    Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 56 71-81. 2015.
    The concept of Mode 2 was developed in order to further our understanding of processes of knowledge production taking place between and beyond disciplinary structures and “in a context of application”. The concept has often been seen as especially applicable to fields addressing grand challenges, such as cli- mate change, poverty eradication, and global health. Being a relatively new field—interdisciplinary in its approach, and focused on addressing such issues—sustainability science would appea…Read more
  •  72
    The Philosophy of Interdisciplinarity: Sustainability Science and Problem-Feeding
    Journal for General Philosophy of Science / Zeitschrift für Allgemeine Wissenschaftstheorie 44 (2): 337-355. 2013.
    Traditionally, interdisciplinarity has been taken to require conceptual or theoretical integration. However, in the emerging field of sustainability science this kind of integration is often lacking. Indeed sometimes it is regarded as an obstacle to interdisciplinarity. Drawing on examples from sustainability science, we show that problem-feeding, i.e. the transfer of problems, is a common and fruitful-looking way of connecting disparate disciplines and establishing interdisciplinarity. We ident…Read more
  •  568
    Weak Emergence and Complexity
    with Philip Gerlee
    In Harold Fellerman, Mark Dörr, Martin Hanczy, Lone Ladegaard Laursen, Sarah Mauer, Daniel Merkle, Pierre-Alain Monard, Kasper Støy & Steen Rasmussen (eds.), Artificial Life XII Proceedings of the Twelfth International Conference on the Synthesis and Simulation of Living Systems, Mit Press. pp. 879-886. 2010.
    In this paper we consider Mark Bedau’s notion of weak emer- gence (WE) and relate it to various attempts to objectively construe complexity. We argue that the heavy reliance on a specific notion of complexity risks rendering the concept superfluous. Furthermore we discuss what sort of systems might reasonably be understood as exhibiting emergence at all and point out that the macro-level needs to be at least min- imally structured. A worry may thus be formed that macro- level generalisations pro…Read more
  •  30
    Interdisciplinary research in the fields of forestry and sustainability studies often encounters seemingly incompatible ontological assumptions deriving from natural and social sciences. The perceived incompatibilities might emerge from the epistemological and ontological claims of the theories or models directly employed in the interdisciplinary collaboration, or they might be created by other epistemological and ontological assumptions that these interdisciplinary researchers find no reason to…Read more
  •  49
    Resilience as a Unifying Concept
    International Studies in the Philosophy of Science 28 (3): 303-324. 2014.
    In sustainability research and elsewhere, the notion of resilience is attracting growing interest and causing heated debate. Those focusing on resilience often emphasize its potential to bridge, integrate, and unify disciplines. This article attempts to evaluate these claims. Resilience is investigated as it appears in several fields, including materials science, psychology, ecology, and sustainability science. It is argued that two different concepts of resilience are in play: one local, the ot…Read more
  •  15
    A philosophical view on concepts in psychiatry
    with Helge Malmgren, Susanna Radovic, and Bjorn Haglund
    This essay first outlines a philosophical theory of concepts and then applies it to two areas of relevance to psychiatrists, especially forensic psychiatrists. In the philosophical theory, the respective roles of verbal and non-verbal definitions are illuminated, and the importance of the phenomenon of division of semantic labour is stressed. It is pointed out that vagueness and ambiguity of a term often result when the term is used for several practical purposes at the same time. Such multi-pur…Read more
  •  41
    Resilience is often promoted as a boundary concept to integrate the social and natural dimensions of sustainability. However, it is a troubled dialogue from which social scientists may feel detached. To explain this, we first scrutinize the meanings, attributes, and uses of resilience in ecology and elsewhere to construct a typology of definitions. Second, we analyze core concepts and principles in resilience theory that cause disciplinary tensions between the social and natural sciences. Third,…Read more
  •  4
    In this paper we return to Ronald Giere and his claim that history of science as a discipline cannot contribute to philosophy of science by providing, partial or whole, solutions to philosophical problems. Let us suppose that Giere was right. Would the implication be that there can be no genuine interdisciplinarity between the two disciplines? In answering this question it is first suggested that connections between disciplines can be formed around the transfer and sharing of problems ; and that…Read more