文章基本信息

标题：Large footprints in a small world: toward a macroeconomics of scale
其他标题：Large footprints in a small world: toward a macroeconomics of scale
本地全文：下载
作者：Lenore Newman ; Ann Dale
期刊名称：Sustainability: Science, Practice, & Policy
电子版ISSN：1548-7733
出版年度：2009
卷号：5
期号：1
页码：9-19
DOI：10.1080/15487733.2009.11908024
摘要：The question of scale has been of ongoing interest in the sustainable development discourse, particularly with regard to the size, geographical extent, and complexity of human systems. However, this consideration has not sufficiently informed the practical implementation of sustainable technologies and there remain echoes of historical debates over “small is beautiful” versus “bigger is better” that dominated environmentalism during the 1970s. The complex adaptive nature of social and ecological systems suggests that trying artificially to choose a scale for systems is the wrong approach. A properly managed system should self-organize to a scale that optimizes economic prosperity while respecting ecological limits. For this outcome to occur, however, we argue along the lines of Herman Daly for the effective use of macroeconomic tools. Though the specific form of these tools remains undefined, we draw on complex systems theory to suggest four possible properties based on the concepts of resilience and transformability. These properties are then applied to the food system to demonstrate the self-organization of scale.
关键词：environmental economics;food consumption;systems analysis;population-environment relationships;ecosystems