Swamps and the City
Laura A. Ogden, of Florida International University is an anthropologist and Co-Principal Investigator of the Florida Coastal Everglades LTER. She is also a regular collaborator with the BES community and has been involved with us and…
Natural Experiments of History
The title of this essay is the same as a book edited by Jared Diamond and James A. Robinson, published in 2010 by Harvard University Press. The book explores the general method of natural experiments applied to human societies and history. …
A Moving Field Guide
Seeing the WorldScience starts with noticing the world – what plants and animals do, the changes in vegetation over time – or in wondering what’s going on beneath the surfaces we see. Careful observation continues as we devise instruments…
Adaptive Explanations in Cities
Cities are hard to explain, no doubt. Within and between cities, social capital, historical contingency, economic resources, and the deployment of power are well known explanatory variables. One kind of explanatory process, however,…
Complexity: The Hidden Nugget in Jane Jacobs’ Book
Well, perhaps it’s unfair to call it hidden. It is after all the topic of the final chapter, entitled “The Kind of Problem a City Is.” In that chapter, she explores the nature of cities as complex systems, stimulated by the…
Interest in Urban Resilience: A Burgeoning Frontier
Resilience is becoming an increasingly important concept in contemporary ecological science. Since the introduction of the resilience cycle, an open ended, ecological concept has guided the understanding of this important process (http://besdirector.blogspot.com/2011/01/resilience-ecology-evolution-and.html). …
