Conceptual and theoretical reflections on the Agency-Structure binary from a human environment Geography perspective
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3989/estgeogr.202068.068Keywords:
social theory, political ecology, hazards geography, nature-society interactions, water geographies, human geographyAbstract
Debates over the primacy of agency and structure in determining human actions and the constitution of societies has, for centuries, pervaded the social sciences in general and geography in particular. The human-environment geography branch has also had an important –yet more recent– history of debates about the role that broader social forces and/or individual self-determination play in conditioning nature-society relations. While both stances were treated disjointly within academic spheres for a long time, recently there have been more integrative perspectives of agency and structure that promise to strengthen the theoretical and conceptual foundations that, in turn, can lead to a better understanding of nature-society dynamics. In this article, we first review separately some of these perspectives on agency and structure from within the human-environment geography viewpoint, particularly water and risk-hazards geography. We then introduce some empirical and theoretical-conceptual contributions that lead towards a better articulation of these two stances. The purpose of this review is to advance discussions on how to improve conceptualizations and theorizations on the complex relations between society and nature within a context of pressing social-ecological challenges that we face as a global society.
Downloads
References
Ajzen, I. (1985). From intentions to actions: A theory of planned behavior. En J. Kuhl y Beckman, J. (Eds.), Action-control: From cognition to behavior (pp. 11-39). Heidelberg, Alemania: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-69746-3_2
Attari, S. Z. (2014). Perceptions of water use. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States, (14), 5129. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1316402111 PMid:24591608 PMCid:PMC3986180
Bakker, K. (2005). Neoliberalizing nature? Market environmentalism in water supply in England and Wales. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 95(3), 542-565. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8306.2005.00474.x
Bakker, K. (2007). The "Commons" Versus the "Commodity": Alter-globalization, Anti-privatization and the Human Right to Water in the Global South. Antipode, 39(3), 430-455. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8330.2007.00534.x
Bakker, K. (2009). Water. En A Companion to Environmental Geography (pp. 515-532). Malden, MA. EE.UU.: Wiley-Blackwell. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781444305722.ch30
Bakker, K. (2013). Neoliberal versus postneoliberal water: Geographies of privatization and resistance. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 103(2), 253-260. https://doi.org/10.1080/00045608.2013.756246
Beck, U. (1998). La sociedad del riesgo: Hacia una nueva modernidad. Barcelona, España; Paidós Ibérica.
Best, H., y Mayerl, J. (2013). Values, Beliefs, Attitudes: An Empirical Study on the Structure of Environmental Concern and Recycling Participation. Social Science Quarterly, 94(3), 691-714. https://doi.org/10.1111/ssqu.12010
Blaikie, P. M., y Brookfield, H. C. (eds.). (1987). Land degradation and society. Nueva York, EE.UU.: Methuen.
Bourdieu, P. (1977). Outline of a theory of practice. Cambridge, Reino Unido: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511812507
Brenes, A. (2007). Elementos conceptuales y desarrollo histórico de la noción de g estión del riesgo y los desastres. Revista Reflexiones, 86(2), 75-91.
Brochmann, M., y Gleditsch, N. P. (2012). Shared rivers and conflict-A reconsideration. Political Geography, 31(8), 519-527. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polgeo.2012.11.001
Bunting, T. E., y Guelke, L. (1979). Behavioral and Perception Geography: A Critical Appraisal. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 69(3), 448-462. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8306.1979.tb01268.x
Chouinard, V. (1997). Structure and agency: Contested concepts in human geography. Canadian Geographer/ Le Géographe Canadien, 41(4), 363-377. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1541-0064.1997.tb01321.x
Clark, C. F., Kotchen, M. J., y Moore, M. R. (2003). Internal and external influences on pro-environmental behavior: Participation in a green electricity program. Journal of Environmental Psychology , 23 (3), 237-246. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0272-4944(02)00105-6
Clark, W. A., y Finley, J. C. (2007). Determinants of water conservation intention in Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria. Society y Natural Resources , 20 (7), 613-627. https://doi.org/10.1080/08941920701216552
Cohen, A., y Bakker, K. (2014). The eco-scalar fix: Rescaling environmental governance and the politics of ecological boundaries in Alberta, Canada. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space , 32 (1), 128-146. https://doi.org/10.1068/d0813
Cohen, C., y Werker, E. D. (2008). The Political Economy of ''Natural'' Disasters. Journal of Conflict Resolution , 52 (6), 795-819. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022002708322157
Corral-Verdugo, V. (2003). Situational and personal determinants of waste control practices in northern Mexico: A study of reuse and recycling behaviors. Resources Conservation and Recycling , 39 (3), 265-281. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0921-3449(03)00032-6
Corral-Verdugo, V., Frias-Armenta, M., Tapia Fonllem, C., y Fraijo-Sing, B. (2012). Protecting Natural Resources: Psychological and Contextual Determinants of Freshwater Conservation. En S. D. Clayton (Ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Environmental and Conservation Psychology (pp. 65-80). Nueva York, EE.UU.: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199733026.013.0030
Cuny, F. C. (1983). Disasters and development . Nueva York, EE.UU.: Oxford University Press.
Díaz, S., Demissew, S., Carabias, J., Joly, C., Lonsdale, M., Ash, N., … y otros. (2015). The IPBES Conceptual Framework-Connecting nature and people. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability , 14 , 1-16. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cosust.2014.11.002
Donald, I. J., Cooper, S. R., y Conchie, S. M. (2014). An extended theory of planned behaviour model of the psychological factors affecting commuters' transport mode use. Journal of Environmental Psychology , 40 , 39-48. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2014.03.003
Durkheim, E. (1966). The Rules of the Sociological Method (8ava edición). Nueva York, EE.UU.: Free Press.
Ehrlich, P. R. (1968). The population bomb . New York, EE.UU.: Ballantine Books.
Espinoza, E. (2018). Cognitive, valuative, and structural influences on pro-environmental land management in a coupled human-fluvial system (Tesis doctoral). Universidad de Indiana, Bloomington, Indiana, EE.UU.
García Acosta, V. (1993). Enfoques teóricos para el estudio histórico de los desastres naturales. En A. Maskrey (Ed.), Los Desastres No Son Naturales (pp. 128-137). Red de Estudios Sociales en Prevención de Desastres en América Latina.
Geist, H. (2006a). Endogenous Factor. En H. Geist (Ed.), Our Earth's Changing Land: An encyclopedia of land-use and land-cover change (Vol. 1, pp. 27-33). Westport, CT, EE.UU.: Greenwood Press.
Geist, H. (2006b). Exogenous Factor. En H. Geist (Ed.), Our Earth's Changing Land: An encyclopedia of land-use and land-cover change (Vol. 1, pp. 27- 33). Westport, CT, EE.UU.: Greenwood Press.
Giddens, A. (1984). The constitution of society: Outline of the theory of structuration. Berkeley, EE.UU.: University of California Press.
Gold, J. (2009). Behavioral Geography. En R. Kitchin y N. Thrift (Eds.), International Encyclopedia of Human Geography . (pp. 282-293). Oxford, Reino Unido: Elsevier Science. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-008044910-4.00665-9
Golob, T. F., y Hensher, D. A. (1998). Greenhouse gas emissions and Australian commuters' attitudes and behavior concerning abatement policies and personal involvement. Transportation Research Part D-Transport and Environment , 3 (1), 1-18. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1361-9209(97)00006-0
Hardin, G. (1968). The tragedy of the commons. Science , 162 (3859), 1243-1248. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.162.3859.1243
Harris, L. M., y Alatout, S. (2010). Negotiating hydroscales, forging states: Comparison of the upper Tigris/Euphrates and Jordan River basins. Political Geography (3), 148. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polgeo.2010.02.012
Hewitt, K. (1983). Interpretations of calamity from the viewpoint of human ecology . Boston, EE.UU.: Allen and Unwin.
Hill, D., Figueredo, A. J., y Jacobs, W. J. (2010). Contextual influences on sustainable behavior. En V. Corral Verdugo, C. H. García Cadena, y M. Frías Armenta (Eds.), Psychological approaches to sustainability: Current trends in theory, research and applications. Nueva York, EE.UU.: Nova Science Publishers.
IPBES (s.f). Decisión IPBES-2/4: Marco conceptual de la Plataforma Intergubernamental Científiconormativa sobre Diversidad Biológica y Servicios de los Ecosistemas. Recuperado de https://www.ipbes.net/sites/default/files/downloads/Decision_2_4_es_0.pdf .
Jacobs, S., Dendoncker, N., Martín-López, B., Barton, D. N., Gomez-Baggethun, E., Boeraeve, F., … y otros. (2016). A new valuation school: Integrating diverse values of nature in resource and land usedecisions. Ecosystem Services, 22, 213-220. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoser.2016.11.007
Jones, N., Shaw, S., Ross, H., Witt, K., y Pinner, B. (2016). The study of human values in understanding and managing social-ecological systems. Ecology and Society, 21(1): 15. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-07977-210115
Kantola, S. J., Syme, G. J., y Campbell, N. A. (1984). Cognitive Dissonance and Energy Conservation. Journal of Applied Psychology, 69(3), 416-421. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.69.3.416
Kareiva, P. M., Tallis, H., Ricketts, T., Daily, G., y Polasky, S. (2011). Natural capital: Theory y practice of mapping ecosystem services. Nueva York, EE.UU.: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199588992.001.0001
Lambin, E. F., y Geist, H. J. (2003). The land managers who have lost control of their land use: Implications for sustainability. Tropical Ecology, 44(1), 15-24.
Larson, K. (2009). Social Acceptability of Water Resource Management: A Conceptual Approach and Empirical Findings from Portland, Oregon. Journal of the American Water Resources Association, 45(4), 879-893. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1752-1688.2009.00331.x
Larson, K. L., Cook, E., Strawhacker, C., y Hall, S. J. (2010). The Influence of Diverse Values, Ecological Structure, and Geographic Context on Residents' Multifaceted Landscaping Decisions. Human Ecology, 38, 747-761. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10745-010-9359-6
Lavell, A. (2000). Desastres y desarrollo: Hacia un entendimiento de las formas de construcción social de un desastre: El caso del huracán Mitch en Centroamérica. En N. Garita y J. Nowalski (Eds.), Del Desastre al Desarrollo Sostenible: El Caso de Mitch en Centroamerica. BID y CIDHS.
Lavell, T. A. (1993). Ciencias sociales y desastres naturales en América Latina: Un encuentro inconcluso. Revista EURE-Revista de Estudios Urbano Regionales, 19(58), 73-84.
Linton, J., y Budds, J. (2014). The hydrosocial cycle: Defining and mobilizing a relational-dialectical approach to water. Geoforum, 57, 170-180. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2013.10.008
Liu, J., Hull, V., Batistella, M., DeFries, R., Dietz, T., Fu, F., … y otros. (2013). Framing sustainability in a telecoupled world. Ecology and Society, 18(2): 26. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-05873-180226
Loftus, A. (2015). Water (in)security: Securing the right to water. The Geographical Journal, 181(4), 350-356. https://doi.org/10.1111/geoj.12079
Mansfield, B. (2004). Neoliberalism in the oceans: "Rationalization," property rights, and the commons question. Geoforum, 35, 313-326. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2003.05.002
McEvoy, J. (2014). Desalination and water security: The promise and perils of a technological fix to the water crisis in Baja California Sur, Mexico. Water Alternatives, 7(3), 518-541.
McFarlane, B. L., y Hunt, L. M. (2006). Environmental activism in the forest sector-Social psychological, social-cultural, and contextual effects. Environment and Behavior, 38(2), 266-285. https://doi.org/10.1177/0013916505277999
McGinnis, M. (2011). An Introduction to IAD and the Language of the Ostrom Workshop: A Simple Guide to a Complex Framework. Policy Studies Journal, 39(1), 169-183. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1541-0072.2010.00401.x
McGinnis, M., y Ostrom, E. (2014). Social-ecological system framework: Initial changes and continuing challenges. Ecology and Society, 19(2): 30. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-06387-190230
MEA, (Millennium Ecosystem Assessment). (2005). Ecosystems and Human Well-Being: Current State and Trends. Washington, D.C., EE.UU.: Island Press.
Meinzen-Dick, R. 2007. Beyond panaceas in water institutions. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 104 (39):15200-15205. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0702296104 PMid:17881577 PMCid:PMC2000530
Mirumachi, N. (2013). Securitising shared waters: An analysis of the hydropolitical context of the Tanakpur Barrage project between Nepal and India. Geographical Journal, 179(4), 309-319. https://doi.org/10.1111/geoj.12029
Molle, F., Mollinga, P. P., y Wester, P. (2009). Hydraulic bureaucracies and the hydraulic mission: Flows of water, flows of power. Water Alternatives, 2(3), 328-349.
Myers, N. (1979). The sinking ark: A new look at the problem of disappearing species. Nueva York, EE.UU.: Pergamon Press.
Nelson, E., Mendoza, G., Regetz, J., Polasky, S., Tallis, H., Cameron, Dr., … Kareiva, P. M. (2009). Modeling multiple ecosystem services, biodiversity conservation, commodity production, and tradeoffs at landscape scales. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, 7(1), 4-11. https://doi.org/10.1890/080023
Neumann, R. P. (2005). Making political ecology. Londres, Reino Unido: Hodder Arnold.
O'Brien, K. L., y Leichenko, R. M. (2000). Double exposure: assessing the impacts of climate change within the context of economic globalization. Global Environmental Change , 10 (3), 221-232. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0959-3780(00)00021-2
Ormerod, K. J., y Scott, C. A. (2013). Drinking wastewater: Public trust in potable reuse. Science, Technology, y Human Values , 38 (3), 351-373. https://doi.org/10.1177/0162243912444736
Ostrom, E. (1990). Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action . Cambridge, Reino Unido: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511807763
Ostrom, E. (1995). Property Rights and the Environment: Social and Ecological Issues . Washington, DC, EE.UU.: Beijer International Institute of Ecological Economics and World Bank.
Ostrom, E. (2009). A General Framework for Analyzing Sustainability of Social-Ecological Systems. Science , (5939), 419-422. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1172133 PMid:19628857
Ostrom, E. (2011). Background on the Institutional Analysis and Development Framework. Policy Studies Journal , 39 (1), 7-27. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1541-0072.2010.00394.x
Ostrom, E. (2014). Más allá de los mercados y los Estados: Gobernanza policéntrica de sistemas económicos complejos. Revista Mexicana de Sociología , 76 (SPE), 15-70.
Ostrom, E., Burger, J., Field, C. B., Norgaard, R. B., y Policansky, D. (1999). Revisiting the commons: Local lessons, global challenges. Science , 284 (5412), 278-282. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.284.5412.278 PMid:10195886
Proctor, J. D. (1998). The meaning of global environmental change: Retheorizing culture in human dimensions research. Global Environmental Change , 8 (3), 227-248. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0959-3780(98)00006-5
Rappaport, R. A. (1968). Pigs for the Ancestors: Ritual in the Ecology of a New Guinea People . New Haven, CT. EE.UU.: Yale University Press.
Romero, G., y Maskrey, A. (1993). Como entender los desastres naturales. En A. Maskrey (Ed.), Los Desastres No Son Naturales (pp. 6-10). Red de Estudios Sociales en Prevención de Desastres en América Latina.
Roy Chowdhury, R., y Turner, B. L. (2006). Reconciling agency and structure in empirical analysis: Smallholder land use in the southern Yucatán, Mexico. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 96 (2), 302-322. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8306.2006.00479.x
Rubio, I. (2012). La estructura de vulnerabilidad y el escenario de un gran desastre. Investigaciones Geográficas , (77), 75-88. https://doi.org/10.14350/rig.31018
Schägner, J. P., Brander, L., Maes, J., y Hartje, V. (2013). Mapping ecosystem services' values: Current practice and future prospects. Ecosystem Services , 4 (0), 33-46. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoser.2013.02.003
Smith, A. (1977). An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations . Chicago, EE.UU.: University of Chicago Press. https://doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226763750.001.0001
Sneddon, C., y Fox, C. (2006). Rethinking transboundary waters: A critical hydropolitics of the Mekong basin. Political Geography. , 25 (2), 181-202. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polgeo.2005.11.002
Sneddon, C., y Fox, C. (2008). Struggles over dams as struggles for justice: The world commission on dams (WCD) and anti-dam campaigns in Thailand and Mozambique. Society and Natural Resources , 21 (7), 625-640. https://doi.org/10.1080/08941920701744231
Steg, L., Dreijerink, L., y Abrahamse, W. (2005). Factors influencing the acceptability of energy policies: A test of VBN theory. Journal of Environmental Psychology , 25 (4), 415-425. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2005.08.003
Stern, P. C. (2000). New environmental theories: Toward a coherent theory of environmentally significant behavior. Journal of Social Issues , 56 (3), 407-424. https://doi.org/10.1111/0022-4537.00175
Stern, P. C., Dietz, T., Abel, T., Guagnano, G. A., y Kalof, L. (1999). A value-belief-norm theory of support for social movements: The case of environmentalism. Human Ecology Review , 6 (2), 81-98.
Steward, J. H. (1955). Theory of Culture Change: The methodology of multilinear evolution . Urbana, IL. EE.UU.: University of Illinois Press.
Swyngedouw, E. (2009). The Political Economy and Political Ecology of the Hydro-Social Cycle. Journal of Contemporary Water Research y Education, 142 (1), 56-60. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1936-704X.2009.00054.x
Thorkildsen, K. (2016). 'Land yes, dam no!' Justiceseeking strategies by the anti-dam movement in the Ribeira Valley, Brazil. Journal of Peasant Studies, 45(1), 1-21. https://doi.org/10.1080/03066150.2016.1217842
Turner, B.L. (1989). The Specialist-Synthesis Approach to the Revival of Geography: The Case of Cultural Ecology. Annals of the Association of American Geographers , 79(1), 88-100. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8306.1989.tb00252.x
Turner, B.L., Kasperson, R. E., Matson, P. A., McCarthy, J. J., Corell, R. W., Christensen, L., … y otros. (2003). A framework for vulnerability analysis in sustainability science. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , 100 (14), 8074-8079. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1231335100 PMid:12792023 PMCid:PMC166184
Turner, B.L., y Ali, A. M. S. (1996). Induced intensification: Agricultural change in Bangladesh with implications for Malthus and Boserup. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , 93 (25), 14984-14991. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.93.25.14984 PMid:8962168 PMCid:PMC26249
Watts, M. (2013). Silent violence: Food, famine, and peasantry in northern Nigeria . Athens, GA. EE.UU.: University of Georgia Press.
Weber, M. (1978). Economy and society: An outline of interpretive sociology (G. Roth y C. Wittich, Eds.). Berkeley, CA. EE.UU.: University of California Press.
Wester, P., Rap, E., y Vargas-Velázquez, S. (2009). The hydraulic mission and the Mexican hydrocracy: Regulating and reforming the flows of water and power. Water Alternatives , 2 (3), 395-415.
Westley, F. R., Tjornbo, O., Schultz, L., Olsson, P., Folke, C., Crona, B., y Bodin, Ö. (2013). A Theory of Transformative Agency in Linked Social-Ecological Systems. Ecology and Society , 18 (3): 27. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-05072-180327
Whatmore, S. (2002). Hybrid geographies: Natures cultures spaces . Londres, Reino Unido: Sage.
Wittfogel, K. A. (1963). Oriental despotism: A comparative study of total power . New Haven, CT. EE.UU.: Yale University Press.
Wolf, A. T. (2007). Shared waters: Conflict and cooperation. Annual Review of Environment and Resources , 32 , 241-269. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.energy.32.041006.101434
Wutich, A., White, A. C., White, D. D., Larson, K. L., Brewis, A., y Roberts, C. (2014). Hard paths, soft paths or no paths? Cross-cultural perceptions of water solutions. Hydrology and Earth System Sciences , 18 (1), 109-120. https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-18-109-2014
Young, O. R., Berkhout, F., Gallopin, G. C., Janssen, M. A., Ostrom, E., y Van der Leeuw, S. (2006). The globalization of socio-ecological systems: an agenda for scientific research. Global Environmental Change , 16 (3), 304-316. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2006.03.004
Zimmerer, K.S. (2000). The reworking of conservation geographies: Nonequilibrium landscapes and nature- society hybrids. Annals of the Association of American Geographers , 90 (2), 356-369. https://doi.org/10.1111/0004-5608.00199
Zimmerer, K.S. (2004). Cultural ecology: Placing households in human-environment studies-the cases of tropical forest transitions and agrobiodiversity change. Progress in Human Geography , 28 (6), 795-806. https://doi.org/10.1191/0309132504ph520pr
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2021 Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
© CSIC. Manuscripts published in both the print and online versions of this journal are the property of the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, and quoting this source is a requirement for any partial or full reproduction.
All contents of this electronic edition, except where otherwise noted, are distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence. You may read here the basic information and the legal text of the licence. The indication of the CC BY 4.0 licence must be expressly stated in this way when necessary.
Self-archiving in repositories, personal webpages or similar, of any version other than the final version of the work produced by the publisher, is not allowed.
