The ecology of knowledge: Linking the natural and social sciences

In the context of global crisis the Bacon-Descartes model of exact science, with its mechanistic world view and its doctrine of progress in man's mastery of nature, is being replaced by a more coherent philosophy of science based on ecosystem concepts. The late twentieth century, it seems, marks the end of centuries of positivism and the beginning of an age of ecoscience. This paper looks at the origins of the discredited positivist claims for an objective scientific method and proposes the ecology of knowledge as a more appropriate theory, both for the sciences and for ordinary knowledge. From this viewpoint claims for a fundamental division between the natural and social sciences on the basis of method and subject matter can no longer be sustained. Moreover, as the feminist and deep ecology movements join in condemning the tradition of patriarchal, exploitative science, a new conceptual framework is emerging in which science is being directed towards more holistic views and more democratic processes, guided by a more socially and environmentally responsible ethic.     

Geography and computational social science

The emergence of computational social science has had a transformative influence on the geographical sciences, integrating diverse themes of scholarship and allying it with the pursuit of grand challenges in the physical, natural, and life sciences. Geography has benefitted from many of these developments and has, in turn, catalyzed significant advances and innovation in computational social science. In this paper, I explore the relationship between geography, computing, and the social sciences by examining the evolution of some central themes in the computational social sciences: complexity, informatics, modeling and simulation, information visualization, cyberspace, socio-technical systems, and semantic computing.     

全球变化研究中自然科学和社会科学协同方法的探讨

由于研究对象、目的、数据、方法等方面的不同,自然科学和社会科学的协同存在着非常大的困难,近20年来,气候变化、环境、生态、能源、粮食、资源、灾害、健康等跨学科交叉研究的兴起,为自然科学和社会科学协同带来了新的契机。为克服自然科学和社会科学协同的困难,首先要开展"以解决问题为导向"的研究,从项目初始就贯彻"协同设计、协同实施"的理念,将政府和社会作为全球变化与可持续性研究的服务对象。在研究对象的空间尺度协同上,通过自然科学的降尺度和社会科学的升尺度,在局域尺度上开展气候变化脆弱性与适应研究是实现自然科学和社会科学协同的基础。同时,正确理解和沟通科学的不确定性是自然科学和社会科学协同的重要环节,进行观测数据及调查资料的协同是未来自然科学和社会科学协同成功的关键。最后,对自然科学和社会科学协同中沟通和交流的鸿沟以及人才培养、重理轻文倾向、跨学科研究的评价标准等问题进行了思考和讨论。     

美国科学基金会地球科学远景报告介绍

21世纪地球科学已经发展成为结合与联系了生物科学、社会科学、计算机科学、物质科学和工程科学等许多学科在内的真正跨学科科学。地球科学面临新的挑战和发展机遇,为了更深入地理解地球及其内部的相互作用,要求地球科学必须应用整体系统性分析方法,探索应用来自所有科学与工程学科的最新知识和技术。美国科学基金会(NSF)地球科学咨询委员会(AC-GEO)针对地球科学面临的新挑战,指导"地球科学远景工作组"(GEO Vision Working Group)制订了地球科学未来发展的新的规划:《地球科学远景(GEOVISION)——通过地球科学揭示未被拆散的地球的复杂性》,强调从整体系统角度来迎接地球科学未来面临的挑战。主要介绍《地球科学远景报告》的主要观点,AC-GEO提出的地球科学面临的3大挑战、5个重大科学问题,以及迎接挑战的3个措施与10个建议。     

On the role of Geography in Earth System Science

Geography is fundamentally a non-reductionist and holistic discipline. While we tend to focus on particular areas (Physical, Human, etc.), or we focus on specific successes (Quaternary studies for example) this paper argues that selling Geography though emphasizing these specific areas or strengths misses a major potential contribution our discipline can make. While most sciences have become reductionist over the last two centuries, they have recently discovered that the Earth is a “complex system” with “emergent” properties that cannot be explained through understanding the components parts individually. Many of these sciences are now contributing to a major effort called Earth System Science, an integrative super-discipline that accepts that biophysical sciences and social sciences are equally important in any attempts to understand the state, and future of the Earth System. This paper argues that the development of Earth System Sciences is a risk for Geography since it is, in effect, Geography with few Geographers. While representing a threat, the development of Earth System Science is also an opportunity. I argue that Geography could be a lead discipline among the other biophysical and social sciences that are now building Earth System Science to address key problems within the Earth System. While I am optimistic about the potential of Geography to take this leadership role, I am pessimistic about the likelihood that we will. I provide suggestions on how we might take on the leadership of Earth System Science including individual engagement and a refinement of tertiary training of some Geography students.     

Geography and general system theory,philosophical homologies and current practice

General system science, like geography, is an integrative discipline that spans the divide between the physical and social sciences. Geography, like general system science, seeks to examine the universe of observation as a functioning whole and attempts to study together the things other disciplines study separately. However, within both geography and the system sciences at large, there are many different philosophies and methodologies. A special attribute of the general system approach is an explicit adoption of an organismic rather than a mechanistic world view. This has caused general system practitioners to develop theory in more bioscientific areas of concern such as growth, hierarchical organisation and the theory of evolution. To date, much of the systems science in geography has preferred the static, mechanistic ethos of systems analysis and systems engineering. However, general system science's concern with historic processes and the dynamic self-determined relationships between systems structure, functioning and selfcreation may be more appropriate to geographical research. A search is made for general system methodologies in current geographical research and for particular applications of aspects of the new general systems theory of evolution and theory of systems attractors as defined by Ilya Prigogine and Erich Jantsch to geography.Today, we seem to be at the tip of an iceberg of scientific change... Every discipline is in the midst of a revolution... What is exciting about this theoretical chaos is not that each discipline will emerge with a new paradigm to guide future investigations but that a new grand paradigm may be forming, one that will integrate all structure and processes from the farthest reaches of the Universe to the reasonances of subatomic particles. The Grand Paradigm is somewhere in the future and we may live to see it THEISEN, (1981, p. 758).     

海洋资源——人类可持续发展的依托

广阔的蓝色海洋蕴藏着丰富的金属、能源和生物资源,除了传统的石油与天然气,近年来,一些非常规的资源受到全球性的广泛关注,并在国际上引起新一轮的"蓝色圈地"运动。大洋多金属结核、富钴结壳、多金属硫化物、天然气水合物、深海热泉生物等新型资源具有很好的科研与商业应用前景,被誉为21世纪人类可持续发展的战略接替能源。在各种海洋资源可利用性分析的基础上,针对应用开发,提出的海洋资源开发中的重大科学理论与技术集成应引起科学界与管理部门的充分关注,包括深海生物资源商业应用开发的技术集成、海底热液成矿作用理论研究、水（热液）-岩反应研究、天然气水合物与固体金属矿产的识别与开采技术集成。海洋高技术是建立在现代海洋科技理论和相关技术领域最新成就基础上的综合技术体系,重大科技理论创新突破与技术集成将成为海洋科学与海洋工程发展的动力。     

Shifting frames for local people and forests in a global heritage: the Thung Yai Naresuan Wildlife Sanctuary in the context of Thailand’s globalization and modernization

Focusing on the case of the World Heritage Site and Wildlife Sanctuary Thung Yai Naresuan, the paper sketches the interdependences of international and national forest and conservation policies in Thailand since the middle of the 19th century. In the context of Thailand’s globalization and modernization, these policies resulted in a coercing conservationism which focuses increasingly on the so-called ‘hill tribe’ ethnic minority groups. The shifting cultural and political framings of the area that became a national wildlife sanctuary and a ‘global heritage’ reflect external economic, political, and ideological interests. The people of the Karen ethnic minority group who live in the sanctuary are conceived of as a disruptive factor and never have had a chance to participate in these framings. After the designation of the area as a World Heritage Site, the remaining villages face increasing pressure from the Royal Forest Department which is trying to remove them with the help of the Military. Drawing on the different vested interests and the relativity of cultural conceptualizations, the paper questions the external framing, pointing to three major problems that are raised with regard to Thung Yai, but are symptomatic of modern conservationism at large: inconsistencies between normative claims and political practice; distortions of scale between conceptions designed at different levels of social space from the local to the global, and; the problem to reconcile conflicting cultural patterns and conceptualizations. The paper argues for a reframing of the conflict to conceive the Karen in Thung Yai as an integral part of the ‘global heritage’.     

技术方法的进步与地球科学的发展

地球科学作为自然科学的一大门类,其发展速度十分惊人。地球科学的迅速发展一方面反映了人类生产的发展对资源和环境方面愈来愈高的要求,一方面得益于科学技术的普遍发展为地球科学研究提供的越来越有利的条件。关于技术方法对地球科学研究的推动作用,人们早有认识,而现在更为深刻。当今对地球科学研究影响最大的关键技术,包括空间技术,深部探测技术,高新分析测试技术和数据综合分析技术,均来源于现代科学技术的最新发展。为了推动地球科学研究,不但要注意引进各种高新技术,还要注意将这些技术与地学研究相结合,发展和创造适合于地学研究的高新技术,并善于综合应用它们,使它们在地学研究中发挥最有效的作用。     

From natural hazard to environmental catastrophe: Past and present

The number of environmental catastrophes is rising, mostly owing to an increase in hydrometeorological hazards. The number of disasters is escalating as the world population grows and people settle in marginal areas. In order to improve preparedness, the geological and archaeological records must be investigated as they hold a wider range of possible events than the much shorter instrumental record. Catastrophes will gain amplitude with rapid onset, long duration, larger affected area, inflexible society and, of course, convergence of threats. Too often, it seems that today's societies resist learning from the past and therefore tend to repeat errors. A new field of science is emerging: the science of environmental catastrophes, which requires not only robust chronologies to firmly link cause and effect, but also bridges the crossing between the geosciences and social sciences.     

Epistemology and conceptions of people and nature in geography

The paper attempts to integrate two major issues of debate in geography which are conventionally discussed separately: epistemology and conceptions of the relationship between people and Nature. Whichever issue we start with, two concepts are essential: intersubjectivity and labour. Knowledge of natural objects is tied to labour, which both subjects ideas to a kind of test and changes our position within Nature. All knowledge depends upon intersubjective understanding between people, but this implies that in social science, and hence in human geography, the traditional subject-object relationship should be recast as a form of communication between ‘knowing-subjects’. These relationships are not limited to some separate sphere of epistemology but are constitutive of society in Nature itself. Labour, though traditionally overlooked in geography, is the most active and transformative process in changing Nature and society, and intersubjectivity is an essential element of the irreducibly social character of human life. In this attempt, the paper outlines and justifies a historical materialist perspective through critical engagement with positivist and humanist approaches. It is then argued that false conceptions of people and Nature in geography are grounded in the structure and selfunderstanding of our own society such that a critique of these ideas becomes a critique of our society.     

地理学研究进展与前沿领域

现代地理学涵盖自然地理学、人文地理学和地理信息科学，其发展趋势是：相邻学科的交叉、渗透与融合，加强地理学内部的综合研究，地理过程的微观研究进一步深化，结合实践拓宽应用研究领域，实验与研究手段的现代化，理论思维模式的转变。地理学应在陆地表层过程与格局、全球环境变化及其区域响应、自然资源保障与生态环境建设、区域可持续发展及人地系统的机理与调控、地理信息科学和数字地球战略等前沿领域开拓创新，为促进地球系统科学的发展、协调人地关系等做出积极的贡献。     

试论自然资源科学及其学科体系

本文从自然资源的基本概念和基本特点入手,首先明确了自然资源科学的性质及其研究的核心问题与研究任务,阐述了自然资源科学研究的主要内容,并根据一些经济发达国家的经验,提出了该学科研究的几种新趋向;然后,根据自然资源科学中各门学科之间及其与相邻学科之间的关系,阐明了自然资源科学的学科体系。     

中国土壤学学科发展战略研究报告

土壤是固态地球表面具有生命活动、处于生物与环境间进行物质循环和能量交换的疏松表层。它既是独立的历史自然体，也是最易受人类活动影响、为人类提供食物的自然资源。科学地开发和利用土壤在国民经济建设，特别是在农业生产和改善环境中具有重要作用。土壤学作为主要研究土壤中的物质运动规律及其与环境间相互关系的科学，是农业科学和资源环境科学的基础学科之一。随着自然科学的发展，土壤学的研究不断有新的推进。特别是当前世界进入以经济、科技为主体的竞争年代，人类面临人口－资源－环境间的尖锐矛盾，使土壤学面临着十分严峻的挑战。本报告分析了土壤学的发展趋向及我国土壤学发展中的主要问题，提出了我国土壤学近期研究的重点领域、发展的措施和展望。     

地球表层系统与中国区域大地构造的研究发展

地球表层系统科学与地质学史都具有自然科学和社会科学相结合的特征,两者研究内容和研究目标互有关联,都是从不同角度揭示地球各种地质作用和地质过程的客观规律,促使人与自然和谐发展。在地球表层系统各地质学科中,大地构造占有重要地位,因而探讨中国区域大地构造研究史,对地质学史也有重要意义。文中将中国区域大地构造的研究分为6个阶段,总结其发展的经验和过程,说明社会环境、科学路线、科技水平、思维方法等是决定科学发展的关键因素。21世纪地球表层系统科学将成为地球科学的主流之一,中国区域大地构造的研究应迅速融入地球表层系统的研究,同时也要积极创建新的大地构造理论体系。     

准晶体分数维结构的发现及其在自然观方面的意义

在研究五次对称和准晶体时发现,晶体是在原子分布方面具有“分数维”结构的物质,这在科学上是首次发现。通过这一研究,把作为现代晶体学起点的有关准晶体的科学与作为数学新分支的“分数维”学联系起来了,产生了一些新思想和新概念。这些概念在研究物质结构上将具有普遍意义。     

地下水污染及水文地质地球化学

由于公众、政府、工业界对水资源质量及其脆弱性的觉醒,在过去的20年里地下水污染问题已得到高度的重视。同时,水文地质这一专门地质学科迅速发展,现在已成为一门与许多基础分支学科、工程科学,甚至社会科学有关的高度交叉性学科。水地球化学家的参与及数学模型、计算机模拟的广泛应用是现代水文地质学发展的两个明显趋势。对地下水污染物质成分、分布和化学行为的认识迫切需要水文地球化学分析,而数学模型、计算机模拟能最大限度地帮助定量研究流体及污染物在多孔介质和碎裂岩石中的迁移、分散过程。这些研究将减少预测亚地表中污染物质活动规律的不定性。地下水污染问题的最后有效解决,除了加强多学科性科学研究外,还必须有公众及政府的参与。     

Reflections on the history of western attitudes to nature

This paper explores some of the fundamental ideas which have shaped Western attitudes toward the natural world. Four vital sets of ideas about nature and humanity, still current today, are examined: the relationship of the human race to other forms of life; the study of the interrelationships in the natural world; the transformation of nature by human agency; and subjective, emotional and aesthetic reactions to nature. Most of these ideas, though transformed throughout human history, have their roots in the classical world. Both classical and biblical conceptions were hospitable to an anthropocentric view of the role of human beings with regard to nature. The broader conception of the human race as a custodian of other forms of life has been a powerful ingredient in modern movements for conservation. Since about the middle of the 18th century, there has been increasing concern with the interrelationships in nature, and here two developments can be noted: the persistent idea of man as a geographic agent and the realization that human transformations of nature have provoked unforeseen and often unintended changes.     

地球表层的人地系统及其调控

论述了地球表层的人地关系研究发展情况及开展人地系统研究的必要性,阐明了新的人地系统观应具有的特点及不同研究模式,强调了首先研究人地系统调控的机理问题。     

Recent Progresses in Comparative Planetology——Summary of the Session of Comparative Planetology at the 3rd Conference of Earth System Sciences

Comparative planetology is an interdisciplinary science between Earth sciences and astronomy. It studies physical, chemical and dynamical properties of planets and satellites and their surface characteristics, interior structures and chemistry, magnetic field, climate and possible existence of life. Although the study of comparative planetary science is at its infancy stage in China, it is very encouraging to see that 25 papers were received by the session, which is much more than what we expected. It indicates that more and more scientists are interested in this research field. These papers can be classified into three categories: solar planets, extra-solar planets, and moon explorations. Scientists from both China and oversea reported their recent results.