The Long and the Short of the "View Thing"

Wayne Tyson

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Published: July 31, 2003

It certainly is high-time that additional emphasis was placed on the need for studies, of any length, that are congruent with the “length” (or “dimensions”) of the subject phenomena. It is time, in fact, for a concerted opposition by intellectual consortia such as Conservation Ecology to the institutional and other control-obsessed elements in academia and “corporatia” that consciously or unconsciously plan for still-born and vacant exercises that are prematurely terminated by the arbitrary boundaries of summer breaks or granting bodies.

Even when study authors themselves consider the length and breadth of their studies’ views adequate to the task they set for themselves, the peer review system, the editors, and finally the readers, should consistently and persistently insist upon a statement of the principles, ancient and/or introduced, to which the specifics (if you prefer, “short-term elements”) of the studies are relevant and irrelevant. That is, the ultimate test of coherence, of validity, of adequacy, is relevance, is it not? If not, what is the test?

And certainly, integration is at the core of relevance, of ecosystems, of everything, is it not? So the editors are to be commended again for trying to drum into our dear little ears that we “integrate disciplines.” Everything is ecology (everything is connected to everything else), of course, and the relevance of study results to the seemingly farthest-flung consequences is not merely desirable, it is essential. If this is not correct, I implore this great forum to suggest the alternative(s).

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Gunderson, L. and C. Folke. 2003. Toward a "science of the long view". Conservation Ecology 7(1): 15. [online] URL: http://www.consecol.org/Journal/vol7/iss1/art15