The Laboratory for the Analysis of Social-Ecological Systems in a Global world (LASEG) is a research group at the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (ICTA-UAB).
What we do
Laseg’s research is situated at the intersection of social and ecological systems. We seek to reconcile human behaviour, institutions, policy and wellbeing with healthy biodiversity and ecosystems, addressing challenges of environmental justice, climate change and biodiversity and habitat loss.
We cover multiple disciplines including urban/landscape planning, (digital) geography, environmental anthropology, political ecology, agrarian political economy, ecology, and both environmental and land-use systems sciences.
We have worked with a large range of societies (Indigenous Peoples, urban and rural communities), in all inhabited continents, focussing especially on Southern Europe, Amazonia and East Africa. We have employed various quantitative and qualitative research techniques from the social, natural sciences and the humanities, addressed various temporal and spatial scales (contemporary and archival work, local and global assessments), and different types of interaction with the environment.
Our research
Positioning ourselves at the intersection of socio-ecological systems research, we embrace diverse perspectives and methodologies through a deeply interdisciplinary approach. These thematic lines evolve alongside our group’s members, projects, and emerging interests, currently focusing on three core topics.
Human wellbeing and everyday lives in rural landscapes
Knowledge, data and technology in nature conservation, environmental management, and ecosystems’ governance
Narratives, policies and projects for the green transition
Meet the team
We strive for advancing knowledge on the evolution of social-ecological and knowledge systems, through effective and meaningful partnerships involving other researchers, as well as NGOs, governments, communities and civil society groups worldwide.
Projects
LASEG’s research projects reflect the breadth of our expertise and broad-ranging interests: from Indigenous Peoples’ knowledge and biodiversity conservation policies, to environmental history and climate change adaptation.
Our portfolio is anchored by four European Research Council (ERC) grants, alongside a dynamic range of national and international initiatives. Explore our featured ERC projects below, or view our full project directory.
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Land and life in the Anthropocene: Landscape reform (LAND)
A novel 4Ps framework to investigate land–life dynamics, which, for the first time, will connect perspectives on human–nonhuman relations, property-making, land regimes and…
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IEK-CHANGES
Assessing long-term changes in Indigenous Environmental Knowledge Ethnobiological research provides contradictory evidence of changes in Indigenous Environmental Knowledge (IEK) systems, with some studies…
Member’s recent publications
- Indigenous Peoples’ stewardship of seagrass ecosystems
- Biocultural relational actors across scales: enacting ways of knowing, doing, and becoming in the southern Andes
- Indigenous Peoples and local communities as agents of transformative change for sustainability
- Social implications of the 30×30 global conservation target
- Perceived fairness of conservation decision-making more strongly influenced by absence than presence of procedural equity criteria