Marginalization and degradation
- Variable relationship:
Otherwise environmentally innocuous local production systems can undergo a transition to overexploitation of the natural resources on which they depend as a result of state development interventions (External Support) and/or increasing integration in regional and global markets (Market; Market Scale). This shift may lead to increasing poverty and social marginalization (Economic Status), high levels of dependence (Economic Dependence) on poorly productive resources (Productivity), and cyclically increasing overexploitation (Commons Condition Trend) (Grossman 1998; Hecht and Cockburn 2010; Schmink and Wood 2013; Watts 2013).
Note: Marginalization is a process whereby politically and socially marginal people are pushed into ecologically marginal spaces and economically marginal production (Productivity), resulting in (1) increasing demands on the marginal productivity of ecosystems, and (2) increasing social vulnerability to risks.
- Project
- SESMAD
- Sector(s)
- Scientific Field
- Component Type(s)
- Status
- Public
Variables
| Variable | Role | Role Explanation | Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Markets | Underlying independent variable | Increasing integration into markets causes overexploitation of natural resources and increasing social marginalization (poverty and inequality) | Present |
| External support | Underlying independent variable | Government support in the form of 'development' projects to e.g. increase agricultural productivity can increase social marginalization and resource degradation | Extensive support |
| Market scale | Underlying independent variable | The larger the scale at which markets for this resource operate, the less connected the market is with local resource use dynamics and the higher the risk is that demand driven resource exploitation reaches unsustainable levels. | Large in scale |
| Economic status | Proximate independent variable | Economic status of marginalized groups decreases as a result of market integration and government 'development' interventions. With increased poverty, users become less elastic to reosurce management measures and conservation. | Low |
| Productivity | Proximate independent variable | Politically and socially marginal people are pushed into ecologically marginal spaces that are less productive and more vulnerable to given resource demand. | Poorly productive |
| Economic dependence | Intermediate outcome | Commons users become highly dependent on the resources they have available. | Very dependent |
| Commons condition trend | Final outcome | Resource use conditions are likely to decrease in low productivity resource patches that are used by user groups that highly depend on resource use for their subsistence. | Worsened |
Related Theories
| Theory | Relationship | Characterizing Variables |
|---|---|---|
| Poverty and resource degradation | contains | |
| Market-driven resource decline | related | |
| Rational depletion of natural resources | related | |
| Crowding out from external support | related |