ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book discusses the larger historical, cultural, and institutional context within which work on natural resources has been developed and conducted. It provides a series of critical reviews and analyses of the strengths and weaknesses of the main approaches to interdisciplinary research and work. The book reviews the development of rural sociology and its relationship to sociology. It examines the various existing and emerging approaches that might be used to address natural resource issues, as well as their methodological and practical implications. The book offers a formal model that explicitly includes interactions between ecosystems and social systems. It argues that formal systems modeling and analysis as applied to the world food system have yielded meager results that are far below their potential. The book explores the larger implications of the philosophical approach to ecosystem studies.
