ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book introduces some of the outcomes of the first German research priority programme on the social dimensions of global environmental change (GEC). It deals with a marginal pastoral community in the Andean highlands of Argentina particularly entering the rather new field of investigating institutional risks arising from the capitalization of traditional modes of production in a harsh natural environment. The book provides the fact that most of the research on human dimensions had so far been done in non-urban settings and that a somehow different track in social GEC research has to be taken. It explains the specific syndromes as well as methodological aspects of syndrome diagnosis. The transect approach is originally an International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme’s concept that attempts to link sites occupying different positions along some gradient relevant to global change such as land use, rainfall or temperature.
