Coevolutionary contradictions: Prospects for a research programme on social and environmental change

Insights from social system-environmental system coevolutionary thought experiments are abstract, mind opening, and can only be conveyed by leading readers through the experiment themselves. Undertaking applied coevolutionary analyses requires one to bound processes and fix some of the categories, contrary to the nature of the broad, opening nature of coevolution itself. Being conscious of these contradictions makes it difficult to engage in a sustained research programme or form a community of coevolutionary scholars. In this article we engage with the epistemological tensions of conducting coevolutionary research and put forward tentative strategies for managing them. © The authors 2011 Geografiska Annaler: Series B © 2011 Swedish Society for Anthropology and Geography.