Using the “regime shift” concept in addressing social–ecological change

Abstract

‘Regime shift’ has emerged as a key concept in the environmental sciences. The concept has roots in complexity science and its ecological applications, and is increasingly applied to intertwined social and ecological phenomena. Yet what exactly is a regime shift? We explore this question at three nested levels. First, we propose a broad, contingent, multi‐perspective epistemological basis for the concept, seeking to build bridges between its complexity theory origins and critiques from science studies, political ecology, and environmental history. Second, we define the concept in a way that is consistent with this epistemology, building on previous work on speed, scale, stickiness, and interrelationships, but also emphasising human perceptions and rhetorical uses of the notion. Third, we propose a novel typology of the ways in which the regime shift concept is used in analysing social–environmental phenomena in geography and beyond. These uses are categorised along two axes. On the one side, we distinguish between description of past or present changes and normative prescriptions for the future. On the other side, we distinguish between whether the focus is on material shifts (social and ecological) or conceptual shifts (discourses and ideas). We illustrate the typology with reference to social–environmental changes in landscapes around the world that are dominated by plantations or the widespread naturalisation of Australian Acacia species. We conclude that the regime shift concept is a boundary object with value as both an analytical and communicative tool in addressing social–environmental challenges.

Global effects of non‐native tree species on multiple ecosystem services

“…human perceptions, norms and values, social memory, institutions and rules) is more prone to changes in a few generations. This has important consequences for the way in which NNTs affect ecosystem services through time (Kueffer & Kull, ; Kull et al , ; Shackleton et al , ). There are many examples of people embracing introduced species in their practices and traditions in preference to native species used previously (i.e.…”

“…Other potential predictors may operate at local scales, and thus could not be included in our global‐scale analysis (e.g. silvicultural practices, individual choices, attitudes, and behaviours; Grove et al , ; Kull et al , ).…”

Biological Invasions in South Africa’s Urban Ecosystems: Patterns, Processes, Impacts, and Management

“…Although most research on biological invasions has focussed on ecological aspects (García-Llorente et al 2008;Hui and Richardson 2017), the ways in which social dimensions mediate responses to invasions are emerging as crucial considerations in invasion science (Kull et al 2011(Kull et al , 2018Shackleton et al 2019b). Effective engagement with stakeholders is emerging as a crucial ingredient in invasive species management (Novoa et al 2018;Shackleton et al 2019a).…”

South Africa’s Centre for Invasion Biology: An Experiment in Invasion Science for Society

“…For example, work on tree invasions has addressed diverse questions and sought new solutions at scales from genes to ecosystems, merging results from detailed biological studies with investigations of human perceptions and other socio-economic aspects, and drawing new insights by contrasting the South African situation with examples from other parts of the world. Numerous studies have addressed aspects of the invasion ecology of Australian Acacia species; this genus has proved very useful as a model system for focussing research on many dimensions of invasion science (Richardson et al 2011;Kull et al 2018;Gallien et al 2019). Another important area of research that was pioneered at the C•I•B has been macrophysiology-the investigation of variation in physiological traits over large geographical, temporal and phylogenetic scales (Chown and Gaston 2008).…”