Theorizing and Rethinking Linkages Between the Natural Environment and the Modern World-System: Deforestation in the Late 20th Century

By T. J. Burns, E. Kick, Byron L. Davis. 2003

115 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Building on prior work in world-system analysis and human ecology, we test a macro-level theory that social and demographic causes of deforestation will vary across zones of the modern world-system. Using multivariate regression analysis, we examine models of deforestation over the period 1990-2000. We test for main effects of world-system posmon, two different population variables (urbanization and proportion under working age), and economic development within zone, as well as for the contextual effects of these variables as they operate differently across world-system positions. Our findings indicate that generic models of deforestation need to be qualified, because the particular social factors most closely associated with deforestation tend to vary by position in the global hierarchy. Deforestation at the macro level is best explained by considering effects of socio-demographic processes contextually, in terms of world-system dynamics. We discuss the findings in a more general world-systems and behavioral ecological framework, and suggest the field will be well served with more precise theorizing and closer attention to scope conditions.

Subfields: Demography, Political Science and International Relations, Sociology and Political Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/fc09d693d3d1cbc2a6433bee706818aa9731fdb7

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Demography

In Political Science and International Relations

In Sociology and Political Science

Citations in the corpus

Ecological Unequal Exchange: International Trade and Uneven Utilization of Environmental Space in the World System (2007, background): “indicates the slope for that term differs significantly from the excluded category (Burns et al. 2003).”
Ecologically Unequal Exchange, World Polity, and Biodiversity Loss (2009, background): “Burns et al. (2003) attribute this finding to wealthier nations ‘externalizing’ their environmental costs by importing natural resources and agricultural goods from poorer nations.”
Effects of Rural and Urban Population Dynamics and National Development on Deforestation in Less-Developed Countries, 1990-2000* (2007, background): “, Burns et al. 1994; EhrhardtMartinez, Crenshaw, and Jenkins 2002; Jorgenson 2006a, 2006b; Jorgenson and Burns 2007; Koop and Tole 2001; York, Rosa, and Dietz 2003). Kick and colleagues (1996) argue that export markets are primary economic stimuli for industrializing less-developed countries.”
Ecological Unequal Exchange: Consumption, Equity, and Unsustainable Structural Relationships within the Global Economy (2007, background): “Accordingly, there is a need to theoretically specify where, when, and under what specifi c conditions various environmental impacts tend to occur within the world-system (Burns et al., 2003).”