Urban socioeconomic inequality and biodiversity often converge, but not always: A global meta-analysis

It is through urban biodiversity that the majority of humans experience nature on a daily basis. As cities expand globally, it is increasingly important to understand how biodiversity is shaped by human decisions, institutions, and environments. In some cities, research has documented convergence between high socioeconomic status (SES) and high species diversity. Yet, other studies show that residents with low SES live amid high biodiversity or that SES and biodiversity appear unrelated. This study examines the conditions linked to varying types of relationships between SES and biodiversity. We identified and coded 84 case studies from 34 cities in which researchers assessed SES-biodiversity relationships. We used fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) to evaluate combinations of study design and city-level conditions that explain why SES-biodiversity relationships vary city to city and between plants and animals. While the majority of cases demonstrated increased biodiversity in higher SES neighborhoods, we identified circumstances in which inequality in biodiversity distribution was ameliorated or negated by disturbance, urban form, social policy, or collective human preference. Overall, our meta-analysis highlights the contributions of residential and municipal decisions in differentially promoting biodiversity along socioeconomic lines, situated within each city’s environmental and political context. Through identifying conditions under which access to biodiversity is more or less unequal, we call attention to outstanding research questions and raise prospects for better promoting equitable access to biodiversity

Accessibility of Primary Schools in Rural Areas and the Impact of Topography: A Case Study in Nanjiang County, China

In recent years, many developing countries have consolidated rural primary schools, closed small community schools, and enlarged centralized schools, which can reduce the accessibility of education to many communities. Meanwhile, expanding road networks may enable people in far-flung communities to access schools more easily. To evaluate the impacts of both trends on spatial justice in access to education, it is important to examine spatial patterns of primary school accessibility and their predictors. How do the topographic features of villages and surrounding landscapes correlate with primary school accessibility in rural upland areas? Using a digital map route planning application, this study evaluates the primary school accessibility of each village in Nanjiang County, a mountainous county in southwest China. By evaluating relationships between primary school accessibility and village characteristics, this study provides evidence corroborating frequent claims that rural remote mountainous areas have poor primary school accessibility. Additionally, by analyzing the effects of elevation and ruggedness of villages and of the zone between villages and schools as well as the mechanisms driving these effects, we find that, contrary to expectations, with increasing village elevation, a village’s primary school accessibility first decreases and then increases. The ruggedness of the terrain upon which a village is built has no significant effect. The ruggedness of the zone between a village and its nearest school exerts significant effects. These findings demonstrate that the two policies have created a pattern of spatial injustice that disadvantages peripheral villages, illustrating the need to attend to topography in efforts to provide equitable school access in rural mountainous areas

Understanding the challenges and rewards of social-ecological research in China

Interest in collaborative research on Chinese social and ecological systems has grown dramatically in recent decades. While international researchers are giving increased attention to China, foreign scholars, especially those new to China, are often unsure of the best way to find collaborators, garner sponsorship, and pursue research goals. Understanding research incentives for Chinese scientists, the culture of relationships, research topic sensitivity, and data access limitations are some of the challenges commonly experienced by foreign scholars in China. In this article we identify potential hurdles and offer remedies when possible so that foreign scholars can more readily adapt to China's scholarly environment and improve the prospect for mutually beneficial collaboration

Unveiling Perspectives and Insights: A Survey of Environmental and Natural Resource Sociologists and Social Scientists

Existing literature on the intersection of environmental sociology (ES) and natural resource sociology (NRS) suggests that a better understanding of the diverse perceptions, experiences, and practices of individual researchers in these subfields are informative in understanding the trajectory of environmental and natural resource sociologies including where more convergence might occur. We present the descriptive results of an online survey of members of relevant domestic and international professional societies or networks to gauge scholars’ perspectives on these two subdisciplines of sociological studies of society–environment relationships. Our results show that while some distinctions persist in levels of analysis and geographic foci, several common assumptions, such as stark differences in theoretical and interdisciplinary orientations of the two subfields, are not as prevalent as widely assumed. We hope this effort to map out individual scholars’ perspectives on ES and NRS can stimulate further thoughts and interactions among colleagues of all persuasions.</p