In this episode Michael speaks with Priya Shyamsundar, lead economist at the Nature Conservancy. Priya speaks about her career trajectory that led her to the Nature Conservancy, and about her current position. They discuss the history of economics and social science at the Nature Conservancy and in Conservation more broadly, and Priya describes the increasing appreciation for the role that humans play in conservation that has occurred across many conservation organizations, but also that there remains a dominance of natural sciences simply in terms of how many natural scientists vs. social scientists are employed at the Nature Conservancy.
Michael and Priya also talk about a specific project that Priya has been involved in called the Prana (“breath”) project, dealing with agricultural residue management in rural India. There, the massive burning of residues after harvest each fall has created large-scale smoke and air pollution problems. Priya, along with a previous guest of the podcast, JT Erbaugh, have been working with local partners in India to conduct focus groups and a baseline survey to understand the preferences of local farmers for how best to address this issue. The interview concludes with a discussion of the factors that make it more or less likely for farmers to adopt new farming strategies, and Priya mentions a finding that the most significant factor in affecting whether or not a farmer adopts a new technique is whether people in their social network have adopted it as well. Just like many social behaviors, adoption can be contagious.
References:
Cool green science website that Priya mentions: https://blog.nature.org/science/
Insight #15: Steven Alexander on qualitative data sharing
048: Indonesian science and the sociology of disaster risk reduction with Irina Rafliana
047: Split incentives, Rentlab and moving from government to the private sector with Jacqui Bauer
046: The sociology of science and interdisciplinarity with John Parker
045: Finding our niche and the importance of threshold concepts with Phil Loring
Insight #14: Fiona Nunan on institutional analysis
044: Policy processes and advocacy coalitions with Chris Weible
043: Team science in academia and resource management practice with Kenneth Wallen
042: Rethinking the monetary system for social and ecological equity with Joseph Ament
041: Antarctic marine conservation with Cassandra Brooks
040: Amplification processes and incorporating local knowledge in sustainability research with David Lam
Insight #13: Barry Ness on defining success in transdisciplinary research
039: Water, waste, Covid, and the invisibility of life support systems with Raul Pacheco-Vega
038: Case studies, polycentricity and governance of the Great Barrier Reef with Tiffany Morrison
037: Pracademics and patchiness with Jessica Cockburn
036: A social anthropological view on conservation and interdisciplinarity with Liana Chua
035: Bacteria, public goods, and Interdisciplinarity with Carey Nadell
034: Reflexivity and the digitalization of academia with Klara Winkler
033: Reflections on COVID19 from a sustainability science perspective with Henrik von Wehrden
032: Food systems, applied research, and open science with Meredith Niles
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