Problem and Opportunity: Integrating Anthropology, Ecology, and Policy through Adaptive Experimentation in the Urban U.S. Southwest

Natural resource management agencies and governmental programs that fund research are increasingly calling for interdisciplinary research that integrates biological ecology and the social sciences in a way that can inform policy. One fundamental impediment to collaboration derives from the emphasis...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Human organization 2007-07, Vol.66 (2), p.125-139
Main Authors: Casagrande, David G., Hope, Diane, Farley-Metzger, Elizabeth, Cook, William, Yabiku, Scott, Redman, Charles
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Anthropologists
Anthropology
City Planning
Collaboration
Conservation
Cooperation
Deserts
Drinking water
Drought
Ecologists
Ecology
Ecosystems
Environmental social sciences
Ethics
Experiments
Human Ecology
Human subjects
Hypotheses
Interdisciplinary Approach
Interdisciplinary aspects
Interdisciplinary research
Landscape
Landscapes
Landscaping
Managers
Natural resource management
Natural Resources
Participation
Policy analysis
Politics
R&D
Rain
Research & development
Research methodology
Research Subjects
Resource Management
Social science research
Social sciences
Society
Special Section: Anthropology and Environmental Policy
Technological change
Theory
U.S.A
Urban areas
Urban ecology
Urban planning
Urban studies
Water conservation
Water consumption
Water management
Water resources
Water shortages
Water supply
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Summary:Natural resource management agencies and governmental programs that fund research are increasingly calling for interdisciplinary research that integrates biological ecology and the social sciences in a way that can inform policy. One fundamental impediment to collaboration derives from the emphasis that biological scientists place on experimentation, which is generally not considered a viable option for anthropologists. We suggest that anthropologists could have additional influence on policy by collaborating with biological ecologists in manipulative experiments that include human subjects. Critical to this approach are the participation of research subjects in research planning and willingness on the part of social and biological scientists to rapidly adopt new hypotheses and control scenarios that may emerge from shifting political and ethical contexts—what we call "adaptive experimentation." We provide an example of an adaptive experiment being conducted at Arizona State University, which situates urban landscaping, water conservation, and human behavior within the context of problem definition in water management policy.
ISSN:0018-7259
1938-3525
DOI:10.17730/humo.66.2.h5277q2u27354358