Socioecological transitions and global change: trajectories of social metabolism and land use

Abstract

One does not usually read Lady Chatterley’s Lover to be enlightened about socio-ecological transitions and land use. Yet by chance, I was reading D. H. Lawrence historically scandalous novel (to be precise, its ‘‘Complete and Unexpurogated 1928 Orioli Edition’’) and Socioecological Transitions and Global Change—Trajectories of Social Metabolism and Land Use at the same time. Both were an exciting read, and, to my surprise, both are about the transition of agrarian to industrial societies. Lawrence lets his protagonist, Connie (‘‘Lady Chatterley’’), give a highly passionate, emotional and insightful account of this transition. The book edited by Fischer-Kowalski and Haberl is no less spirited, but also extremely disciplined. FischerKowalski, Haberl and their authors use a pioneering set of methods that can be dubbed ‘‘ways of accounting the metabolism of society’’ to analyse not only the English transition, but those in other parts of the world and less long gone, as well as contemporary. These efforts are undertaken not only for curiosity’s sake, but to gain knowledge that could help shape possible post-industrial transitions into a more sustainable world. The transition from an agrarian to an industrial society is often viewed in monetary terms. The book by FischerKowalski and Haberl, as well as the novel by D. H. Lawrence, take a richer perspective. Lawrence makes transparent the emotional turmoil that transitions can bring about in people who witness them, and with this he illuminates how profound, disturbing and yet unspecific, or impossible to clearly grasp societal changes can appear. Here are some of Connie’s thoughts about the colliers, who are visible agents of the industrial transition she witnesses: