Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Social and Physical Dynamics of Environmental Change in Western Burkina Faso

9506434托马斯·巴西特·莱斯利·格雷，伊利诺伊大学厄巴纳-香槟分校，布基纳法索西部环境变化的社会和自然动态本研究项目的目标是对布基纳法索西部土地退化的社会和物理层面进行多尺度调查。将对构成社会进程与土地退化因果链条中关键环节的村民的看法和决定进行评估。将针对一个村庄分析改变种植方式对土壤质量和社会组织的影响。从单一村庄分析中产生的假设将通过对几个村庄的调查进行检验。绘制各种过程，如新的农业技术；土地、劳动力和财富的转变；以及政府农业和保护政策的转变，如何相互作用和影响小农的行动、看法和决定，对于理解和解释特定地区的退化至关重要。这样的理解将提高社会将这种土地退化降至最低的能力。

SBR-9506434 Thomas J. Bassett Leslie Gray University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign The Social and Physical Dynamics of Environmental Change in Western Burkina Faso A multi-scale investigation of the social and physical dimensions of land degradation in western Burkina Faso is the goal of this research project. The perceptions and decisions of villagers that constitute the crucial links in the causal chain connecting social processes to land degradation will be evaluated. The effects of changing cropping practices on soil quality and social organization will be analyzed for one village. Hypotheses generated from the single village analysis will be tested using surveys from several villages. Mapping how various processes like new agricultural technologies; transformations in land, labor, and wealth; and shifts in government agricultural and conservation policy, have interacted and influenced the actions, perceptions, and decisions of small-scale farmers, is crucial in understanding and explaining place-specific degradation. Such understanding will improve society's ability to minimize such land degradation.