UNDERSTANDING THE DYNAMICS OF SOCIAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL VARIABILITY - THE IMPACTS OF STRUCTURAL LAND-USE CHANGE ON THE ENVIRONMENT AND PEOPLES OF THE KALAHARI, BOTSWANA

Environmental degradation and change associated with development have both social and physical dimensions, but research frequently takes eit her an environmental or a social perspective, without fully investigat ing variability in both, This paper outlines a project that attempts t o combine detailed analysis of both social and physical components of a major environmental issue in central southern Africa, It explains th e operation of a project that is investigating the impacts of concomit ant structural land use and environmental change in the Kalahari of Bo tswana, Social and ecological dimensions of the issue are being invest igated simultaneously, which enables better attribution of the causati on of change in a spatially variable environment, This avoids the prob lems of using generalized data for one of the components while the oth er is researched in detail, It is concluded that it is especially impo rtant to do this for issues in situations where either the physical en vironment displays high temporal variability (as in drylands), or wher e social changes and policy developments are rapid, This ensures that interpretations of the nature and impact of the environmental issue an d its outcomes are made with both social and environmental components subject to the same 'time-bounded' controls, Even when such an approac h is taken, the rapid dynamics of the issue mean considerable care is needed if it is attempted to extrapolate specific findings to the stat us of general explanations. Copyright (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.