Agriculture,livelihoods, and globalization: The analysis of new trajectories (and avoidance of just-so stories) of human-environment change and conservation

Globalization offers a mix of new trajectories for agriculture, livelihoods, resource use, and environmental conservation. The papers in this issue share elements that advance our understanding of these new trajectories. The shared elements suggest an approach that places stress on: (i) the common ground of theoretical concepts (local-global interactions), methodologies (case study design), and analytical frameworks (spatio-temporal emphasis); (ii) farm-level economic diversification and the dynamics of agricultural intensification-disintensification; (iii) the pervasive role of agricultural as well as environmental institutions, organizations, and governance issues; (iv) the ‹agency of nature’ that blends the roles of non-human organisms and the cultural and social practices of people both at the local scale and beyond; (v) the framing of sustainability initiatives and outcomes through the perspective of historical change; (vi)␣spatial environmental dynamics of the ‹new geographics of environmental conservation’ that impact agriculture, food production, and resource management; and (vii) successful and promising policies, projects, and developments mapping out possible spaces of hope for agricultural sustainability, aquitable development, and food security. The adoption and application of these elements is successful also in avoiding the tendency toward just-so accounts or overly simplified stories of agrarian and environment successes amid the often grim realities of globalization and its impacts. Karl Zimmerer is a geographer and environmental scientist researching and teaching on the topics of globalization and human-environment change (with emphasis on agriculture, conservation and rural livelihoods); the dynamics of agrobiodiversity in tropical mountains (currently focused on irrigation and the relations of new water resource management to agrobiodiversity change); and the development and experience of spatial-environmental models, environmental science, and conservation planning. Karl is the author of numerous articles and his books and monographs include four publications, most recently Globalization and New Geographies of Conservation (2006, University of Chicago). He is active in various organizations involved with agricultural, environmental, conservation, and globalization policies and also edits the Nature-Society section of the Annals of the Association of American Geographers.