Studying social-ecological systems from the perspective of social sciences in Latin America

Abstract

Latin America can be understood from multiple perspectives, due to its high biological and ecosystemic diversity, intertwined with myriad historical, cultural, social, economic, and political contexts that together condition its social-ecological systems (SES). However, frequently within academic and management agencies, dominant paradigms and models have been imported from the Global North. Consequently, there is a need to recognize and incorporate local and regional (i.e., context-specific) characteristics to understand the SES of territories where there are complex interdependences. In this chapter, we propose to enhance a Latin American SES perspective by "culturalizing" the ecosystem and the environment, which we perceive as a necessity to understand the interdependence occurring in specific territories. Here, we discuss specific social science contributions to the SES framework by recognizing the influence of Latin American efforts, like the Modelo Mundial Latinoamericano. We also conduct a philosophical analysis to compare the SES history and paradigm as a "trialogue" with territorial development, political ecology, and social science disciplines that are well-developed in Latin America. Moreover, we look at how Ostrom's SES analytical framework has been operationalized in Mexico. Finally, a literature review of SES publications was conducted to determine the state-ofthe-art regarding achievements and challenges for social sciences.