Resource Transitions and Energy Gain: Contexts of Organization

Found at: https://hdl.handle.net/10535/2663
PDF
Type:	Journal Article
Author:	Tainter, Joseph A.,; Allen, T. F. H.; Little, Amanda; Hoekstra, Thomas W.
Journal:	Ecology and Society
Volume:	7
Page(s):
Date:	2003
URI:	https://hdl.handle.net/10535/2663
Sector:	Social Organization
Region:	North America
Subject(s):	beaver complexity energy ants organizational design natural resources solar energy
Abstract:	"Energy gain constrains resource use, social organization, and landscape organization in human and other living systems. Changes in energy gain have common characteristics across living systems. We describe these commonalities in selected case studies involving imperial taxation, fungus-farming ants, and North American beaver, and propose a suite of hypotheses for the organization of systems that subsist on different levels of energy gain. Organizational constraints arising from energy gain predict changes to settlement and organization in postcarbon societies."

Files in this item

Files	Size	Format	View
30.pdf	320.1Kb	PDF	View/Open