Jonas Østergaard Nielsen
Biographic Data
| ID | 86548 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Jonas Østergaard Nielsen |
| GIVEN NAMES | Jonas Østergaard |
| FAMILY NAME | Nielsen |
| SIGNATURE | NIELSEN J Ø |
| AFFILIATIONS | Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-9518-7511 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 40 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 417 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 40 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2009 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 10 |
Understanding the motivations and lived experiences of gamers with a high consumption of games
This study explores the experiences of seven individuals who self-reportedly have a problematic relationship with gaming. The experiences were examined through a phenomenological approach and understood through the lens of Self-Determination Theory (SDT) with the aim of understanding the participants' contexts and motivations. We collected data through Semi-structured interviews that were then transcribed and analyzed using the Interpretative Phe…
Gold mining in the Colombian Amazon: Empirical insights on the links between sustainability, equity, and power
Gold mining is widespread in the Colombian Amazon and negatively impacts biodiversity, climate, and social equity. While some claim that sustainable gold mining can address these issues, we have analyzed different narratives of sustainable gold mining, focusing on equity and power dimensions. Our research, conducted through participatory observation and interviews across scales between 2022 and 2023, involved local miners, Indigenous representati…
Cacao agroforestry adoption by smallholder farmers and forest loss prevention in the Maya Golden Landscape, Belize
A decolonial and participatory research approach to envision equitable transformations toward sustainability in the Amazon
How people relate to and see themselves as part of nature relations differs worldwide and often depends on culture and worldviews. Nonetheless, challenging the dominant Euro-Western epistemic domination is needed to attain more equitable and sustainable future visions. This change entails fostering decolonial mediation between different knowledge systems in a context of intersectional difference. The collective struggles of Black, Indigenous, and…
Coordination work – Tuning and timing rice production in Burkina Faso
Agricultural growth poles and development corridors are key instruments for fostering economic growth in rural areas and widely employed across the African continent. This paper contributes to the growing body of scholarship that empirically investigates how these large-scale spatial development strategies ‘hit the ground’. Drawing on ethnographic research within the Bagré Growth Pole Project in Burkina Faso and focusing on its key sector, rice, …
Is there a future for smallholder farmers in bioeconomy? The case of ‘improved’ seeds in South Punjab, Pakistan
Smallholder farmers are key players in agrarian value chains, particularly in the Global South. In the planning of technology-oriented agricultural interventions featured prominently in bioeconomy policies they are however often neglected. As global demand for food and biomass is expected to rise, production increase through (bio)technological means is framed as a necessity. Yet its ecological and social sustainability has been debated. We add to…
Ten facts about land systems for sustainability
Land use is central to addressing sustainability issues, including biodiversity conservation, climate change, food security, poverty alleviation, and sustainable energy. In this paper, we synthesize knowledge accumulated in land system science, the integrated study of terrestrial social-ecological systems, into 10 hard truths that have strong, general, empirical support. These facts help to explain the challenges of achieving sustainability in la…
What influences the implementation of natural climate solutions? A systematic map and review of the evidence
Emergingresearch points to large greenhouse gas mitigation opportunities for activities that are focused on the preservation and maintenance of ecosystems, also known as natural climate solutions (NCS). Despite large quantifications of the potential biophysical and carbon benefits of these activities, these estimates hold large uncertainties and few capture the socio-economic bounds. Furthermore, the uptake of NCS remains slow and information on …
The ambiguity of transparency in the artisanal and small-scale mining sector of Tanzania
This paper examines the newly established mineral markets in Tanzania. These markets aim to ensure tax revenue collection and enhance the transparency of mineral trade within the artisanal and small-scale mining sector. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in the Geita Region, we show that the enhanced transparency facilitated by these new markets has benefitted artisanal and small-scale gold miners. However, the living conditions of the miners and …
Mineral exhaustion and its livelihood implications for artisanal and small-scale miners
Artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) is a vital livelihood practice around the world, especially in the Global South. In Tanzania, millions of people depend on artisanal and small-scale gold mining and many of these people are in Geita, the main gold mining region of Tanzania. Based on qualitative research conducted in this region, this paper engages the artisanal and small-scale miners’ experiences of gold mining. It highlights how extracting …
Climate change mitigation on tropical peatlands: A triple burden for smallholder farmers in Indonesia
Large Differences in Livelihood Responses and Outcomes to Increased Conservation Enforcement in a Protected Area
The Subjective Climate Migrant: Climate Perceptions, Their Determinants, and Relationship to Migration in Cambodia
This article examines the factors shaping the perception of climate change and the relationship between climate change perception and migration. Drawing on a 691-case survey of climate perceptions in Cambodia, it explores three dimensions of climate change perception. The first is the relationship of climate change perceptions to space, geography, and scale. Second is the influence of livelihoods to climate change perceptions, and third is the re…
Biodiversity policy beyond economic growth
Increasing evidence—synthesized in this paper—shows that economic growth contributes to biodiversity loss via greater resource consumption and higher emissions. Nonetheless, a review of international biodiversity and sustainability policies shows that the majority advocate economic growth. Since improvements in resource use efficiency have so far not allowed for absolute global reductions in resource use and pollution, we question the support for…
The on-paper hydropower boom: A case study of corruption in the hydropower sector in Bosnia and Herzegovina
Making land-use change and markets: The global-local entanglement of producing rice in Bagré, Burkina Faso
Since the 1970s the government of Burkina Faso together with international donor organizations has pushed for increasing national rice production to cope with the country’s food import dependency. This paper traces this development and illustrates that rice production in Burkina Faso is the outcome of interrelated global and local processes. Drawing on nine months of ethnographic fieldwork in Burkina Faso the paper sketches the historical, legal …
Simulating Urban Land Expansion in the Context of Land Use Planning in the Abuja City-Region, Nigeria
In the Global South, including the Sub-Saharan African city-regions, the possible future urban expansion patterns may pose a challenge towards improving environmental sustainability. Land use planning strategies and instruments for regulating urban expansion are faced with challenges, including insufficient data availability to offer insights into the possible future urban expansion. This study integrated empirical data derived from Geographic In…
Defining sustainability? Insights from a small village in Bosnia and Herzegovina
The term “sustainability” is flexible as it needs to function in many different contexts and across many issues. At the same time, this flexibility makes it difficult to assess and easy to misuse. Over the last three decades, numerous sustainability assessment tools have been developed to better define the term. In this paper, we critically address these attempts and argue that the flexibility of the term is not solely problematic, but allow peop…
Climate change extremes and barriers to successful adaptation outcomes: Disentangling a paradox in the semi-arid savanna zone of northern Ghana
From rising water to floods: Disentangling the production of flooding as a hazard in Sumatra, Indonesia
Governing flows in telecoupled land systems
Toward a normative land systems science
Science should provide solutions for societal transformations towards sustainability in the face of global environmental change. Land system science, as a systemic science focused on complex socioecological interactions around land use and associated trade-offs and synergies, is well placed to contribute to this agenda. This goal requires a stronger engagement with the normative implications of scientific practice, research topics, questions and …
Disputing nature in the Anthropocene: Technology as friend and foe in the struggle to conserve wild Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar)
Harrison, H. L., J. Hauer, J. Ø. Nielsen, and Ø. Aas. 2019. Disputing nature in the Anthropocene: technology as friend and foe in the struggle to conserve wild Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar). Ecology and Society 24(3):13. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-10945-240313
Environmental peacebuilding: Towards a theoretical framework
Environmental peacebuilding represents a paradigm shift from a nexus of environmental scarcity to one of environmental peace. It rests on the assumption that the biophysical environment’s inherent characteristics can act as incentives for cooperation and peace, rather than violence and competition. Based on this, environmental peacebuilding presents cooperation as a win-win solution and escape from the zero-sum logic of conflict. However, there i…
Middle-range theories of land system change
Middle-range theories of land system change
Cultural barriers to climate change adaptation: A case study from Northern Burkina Faso
Environmental peacebuilding: Towards a theoretical framework
Environmental peacebuilding represents a paradigm shift from a nexus of environmental scarcity to one of environmental peace. It rests on the assumption that the biophysical environment’s inherent characteristics can act as incentives for cooperation and peace, rather than violence and competition. Based on this, environmental peacebuilding presents cooperation as a win-win solution and escape from the zero-sum logic of conflict. However, there i…
Small-scale land acquisitions, large-scale implications: Exploring the case of Chinese banana investments in Northern Laos
The scholarly debate around ‘global land grabbing’ is advancing theoretically, methodologically and empirically. This study contributes to these ongoing efforts by investigating a set of ‘small-scale land acquisitions’ in the context of a recent boom in banana plantation investments in Luang Namtha Province, Laos. In relation to the actors, scales and processes involved, the banana acquisitions differ from the state-granted large-scale land acqui…
Asking about climate change: Reflections on methodology in qualitative climate change research published in Global Environmental Change since 2000
The Subjective Climate Migrant: Climate Perceptions, Their Determinants, and Relationship to Migration in Cambodia
This article examines the factors shaping the perception of climate change and the relationship between climate change perception and migration. Drawing on a 691-case survey of climate perceptions in Cambodia, it explores three dimensions of climate change perception. The first is the relationship of climate change perceptions to space, geography, and scale. Second is the influence of livelihoods to climate change perceptions, and third is the re…
Coexisting with wildfire? Achievements and challenges for a radical social-ecological transformation in Catalonia (Spain)
Mineral exhaustion and its livelihood implications for artisanal and small-scale miners
Artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) is a vital livelihood practice around the world, especially in the Global South. In Tanzania, millions of people depend on artisanal and small-scale gold mining and many of these people are in Geita, the main gold mining region of Tanzania. Based on qualitative research conducted in this region, this paper engages the artisanal and small-scale miners’ experiences of gold mining. It highlights how extracting …
Governing flows in telecoupled land systems
Landscapes of hoping - urban expansion and emerging futures in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso
Hope is much discussed as a future-oriented affect emerging from uncertain living conditions. While this conceptualisation illuminates the role that hope plays in shaping life trajectories, hope itself remains largely unaddressed. In this paper, we approach hope ethnographically as practice through the lens of material-semiotics. We draw on fieldwork in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, where hoping turns out to be co-constitutive of peri-urban life and…
Toward a normative land systems science
Science should provide solutions for societal transformations towards sustainability in the face of global environmental change. Land system science, as a systemic science focused on complex socioecological interactions around land use and associated trade-offs and synergies, is well placed to contribute to this agenda. This goal requires a stronger engagement with the normative implications of scientific practice, research topics, questions and …
Adaptive lives. Navigating the global food crisis in a changing climate
Earth System Science, the IPCC and the problem of downward causation in human geographies of Global Climate Change
Environmental determinist explanations of human behaviour have been few and far between in human geography since the Second World War. Environmental determinism is, however, resurfacing in human geography particularly when climate change is the topic of investigation. In this paper, we trace this revival and link it to the dominance of Earth System Science (ESS) and the institutional process of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)…
Climate Factors Play a Limited Role for Past Adaptation Strategies in West Africa
Mertz, O., C. Mbow, J. Østergaard Nielsen, A. Maiga, D. Diallo, A. Reenberg, A. Diouf, B. Barbier, I. Bouzou Moussa, M. Zorom, I. Ouattara, and D. Dabi. 2010. Climate factors play a limited role for past adaptation strategies in West Africa. Ecology and Society 15(4): 25. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-03774-150425
Land-use change in a telecoupled world: The relevance and applicability of the telecoupling framework in the case of banana plantation expansion in Laos
Friis, C., and J. Ø. Nielsen. 2017. Land-use change in a telecoupled world: the relevance and applicability of the telecoupling framework in the case of banana plantation expansion in Laos. Ecology and Society 22(4):30. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-09480-220430
Making land-use change and markets: The global-local entanglement of producing rice in Bagré, Burkina Faso
Since the 1970s the government of Burkina Faso together with international donor organizations has pushed for increasing national rice production to cope with the country’s food import dependency. This paper traces this development and illustrates that rice production in Burkina Faso is the outcome of interrelated global and local processes. Drawing on nine months of ethnographic fieldwork in Burkina Faso the paper sketches the historical, legal …
From rising water to floods: Disentangling the production of flooding as a hazard in Sumatra, Indonesia
Simulating Urban Land Expansion in the Context of Land Use Planning in the Abuja City-Region, Nigeria
In the Global South, including the Sub-Saharan African city-regions, the possible future urban expansion patterns may pose a challenge towards improving environmental sustainability. Land use planning strategies and instruments for regulating urban expansion are faced with challenges, including insufficient data availability to offer insights into the possible future urban expansion. This study integrated empirical data derived from Geographic In…
Climate change mitigation on tropical peatlands: A triple burden for smallholder farmers in Indonesia
Scenarios on future land changes in the West African Sahel
In an attempt to anticipate possible futures of drylands of West Africa in the face of rapid socio-economic and environmental changes, we developed four scenarios based on recent survey data, the literature and our knowledge of the region. The four scenarios are inspired by those developed by the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment: (1) ‘downward spiral’ characterized by rapid climate change, expansion of agriculture and chaotic urban growth; (2) ‘in…
Causal relations and land use transformation in the Sahel: Conceptual lenses for processes, temporal totality and inertia
The paper addresses the challenge of conceptualizing and analyzing complex change processes and causal explanations in human–environment systems. To illustrate this challenge empirically, the paper takes its point of departure in the apparent paradox that the agricultural practices in the desert fringe zone of the Sahel seem to remain remarkably unchanged despite huge and accelerating changes in major driving forces such as climate variations, po…
Large Differences in Livelihood Responses and Outcomes to Increased Conservation Enforcement in a Protected Area
Exploring causal relations: The societal effects of climate change
A decolonial and participatory research approach to envision equitable transformations toward sustainability in the Amazon
How people relate to and see themselves as part of nature relations differs worldwide and often depends on culture and worldviews. Nonetheless, challenging the dominant Euro-Western epistemic domination is needed to attain more equitable and sustainable future visions. This change entails fostering decolonial mediation between different knowledge systems in a context of intersectional difference. The collective struggles of Black, Indigenous, and…
Is there a future for smallholder farmers in bioeconomy? The case of ‘improved’ seeds in South Punjab, Pakistan
Smallholder farmers are key players in agrarian value chains, particularly in the Global South. In the planning of technology-oriented agricultural interventions featured prominently in bioeconomy policies they are however often neglected. As global demand for food and biomass is expected to rise, production increase through (bio)technological means is framed as a necessity. Yet its ecological and social sustainability has been debated. We add to…
Cultural barriers to climate change adaptation: A case study from Northern Burkina Faso
The Outburst: Climate Change, Gender Relations, and Situational Analysis
Since the major Sahelian droughts and famines of the early 1970s and 1980s, international development and aid organizations have played a large role in the small village of Biidi 2, located in northern Burkina Faso. This article explores how a visit by a development 'expert' to the village can be analyzed as a social situation in which normal social control is suspended and negotiated. Focusing on gender relations, the analysis shows how the wome…
Climate Factors Play a Limited Role for Past Adaptation Strategies in West Africa
Mertz, O., C. Mbow, J. Østergaard Nielsen, A. Maiga, D. Diallo, A. Reenberg, A. Diouf, B. Barbier, I. Bouzou Moussa, M. Zorom, I. Ouattara, and D. Dabi. 2010. Climate factors play a limited role for past adaptation strategies in West Africa. Ecology and Society 15(4): 25. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-03774-150425
Adaptive lives. Navigating the global food crisis in a changing climate
Exploring causal relations: The societal effects of climate change
Causal relations and land use transformation in the Sahel: Conceptual lenses for processes, temporal totality and inertia
The paper addresses the challenge of conceptualizing and analyzing complex change processes and causal explanations in human–environment systems. To illustrate this challenge empirically, the paper takes its point of departure in the apparent paradox that the agricultural practices in the desert fringe zone of the Sahel seem to remain remarkably unchanged despite huge and accelerating changes in major driving forces such as climate variations, po…
Causal narratives and policy in a warming world
Causal narratives and policy in a warming world." Geografisk Tidsskrift-Danish Journal of Geography, 112(2), pp. 208–209
Earth System Science, the IPCC and the problem of downward causation in human geographies of Global Climate Change
Environmental determinist explanations of human behaviour have been few and far between in human geography since the Second World War. Environmental determinism is, however, resurfacing in human geography particularly when climate change is the topic of investigation. In this paper, we trace this revival and link it to the dominance of Earth System Science (ESS) and the institutional process of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)…
Asking about climate change: Reflections on methodology in qualitative climate change research published in Global Environmental Change since 2000
Staying with the system: Theoretical consistency and change in Danish geographical work on the Sahel
Scholars have studied the Sahel intensely since major droughts hit the region in the early 1970s. One of the most persistent of these in terms of both volume and time span is Anette Reenberg. In this paper we explore her studies of the Sahel published in peer-reviewed journals and their impact over the last three decades. Reenberg has had a remarkably stable theoretical agenda concerned with the importance of understanding the social and biophysi…
Scenarios on future land changes in the West African Sahel
In an attempt to anticipate possible futures of drylands of West Africa in the face of rapid socio-economic and environmental changes, we developed four scenarios based on recent survey data, the literature and our knowledge of the region. The four scenarios are inspired by those developed by the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment: (1) ‘downward spiral’ characterized by rapid climate change, expansion of agriculture and chaotic urban growth; (2) ‘in…
Small-scale land acquisitions, large-scale implications: Exploring the case of Chinese banana investments in Northern Laos
The scholarly debate around ‘global land grabbing’ is advancing theoretically, methodologically and empirically. This study contributes to these ongoing efforts by investigating a set of ‘small-scale land acquisitions’ in the context of a recent boom in banana plantation investments in Luang Namtha Province, Laos. In relation to the actors, scales and processes involved, the banana acquisitions differ from the state-granted large-scale land acqui…
Coexisting with wildfire? Achievements and challenges for a radical social-ecological transformation in Catalonia (Spain)
Land-use change in a telecoupled world: The relevance and applicability of the telecoupling framework in the case of banana plantation expansion in Laos
Friis, C., and J. Ø. Nielsen. 2017. Land-use change in a telecoupled world: the relevance and applicability of the telecoupling framework in the case of banana plantation expansion in Laos. Ecology and Society 22(4):30. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-09480-220430
Environmental peacebuilding: Towards a theoretical framework
Environmental peacebuilding represents a paradigm shift from a nexus of environmental scarcity to one of environmental peace. It rests on the assumption that the biophysical environment’s inherent characteristics can act as incentives for cooperation and peace, rather than violence and competition. Based on this, environmental peacebuilding presents cooperation as a win-win solution and escape from the zero-sum logic of conflict. However, there i…
Middle-range theories of land system change
Landscapes of hoping - urban expansion and emerging futures in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso
Hope is much discussed as a future-oriented affect emerging from uncertain living conditions. While this conceptualisation illuminates the role that hope plays in shaping life trajectories, hope itself remains largely unaddressed. In this paper, we approach hope ethnographically as practice through the lens of material-semiotics. We draw on fieldwork in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, where hoping turns out to be co-constitutive of peri-urban life and…
Governing flows in telecoupled land systems
Toward a normative land systems science
Science should provide solutions for societal transformations towards sustainability in the face of global environmental change. Land system science, as a systemic science focused on complex socioecological interactions around land use and associated trade-offs and synergies, is well placed to contribute to this agenda. This goal requires a stronger engagement with the normative implications of scientific practice, research topics, questions and …
Disputing nature in the Anthropocene: Technology as friend and foe in the struggle to conserve wild Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar)
Harrison, H. L., J. Hauer, J. Ø. Nielsen, and Ø. Aas. 2019. Disputing nature in the Anthropocene: technology as friend and foe in the struggle to conserve wild Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar). Ecology and Society 24(3):13. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-10945-240313
Biodiversity policy beyond economic growth
Increasing evidence—synthesized in this paper—shows that economic growth contributes to biodiversity loss via greater resource consumption and higher emissions. Nonetheless, a review of international biodiversity and sustainability policies shows that the majority advocate economic growth. Since improvements in resource use efficiency have so far not allowed for absolute global reductions in resource use and pollution, we question the support for…
The on-paper hydropower boom: A case study of corruption in the hydropower sector in Bosnia and Herzegovina
Making land-use change and markets: The global-local entanglement of producing rice in Bagré, Burkina Faso
Since the 1970s the government of Burkina Faso together with international donor organizations has pushed for increasing national rice production to cope with the country’s food import dependency. This paper traces this development and illustrates that rice production in Burkina Faso is the outcome of interrelated global and local processes. Drawing on nine months of ethnographic fieldwork in Burkina Faso the paper sketches the historical, legal …
Simulating Urban Land Expansion in the Context of Land Use Planning in the Abuja City-Region, Nigeria
In the Global South, including the Sub-Saharan African city-regions, the possible future urban expansion patterns may pose a challenge towards improving environmental sustainability. Land use planning strategies and instruments for regulating urban expansion are faced with challenges, including insufficient data availability to offer insights into the possible future urban expansion. This study integrated empirical data derived from Geographic In…
Defining sustainability? Insights from a small village in Bosnia and Herzegovina
The term “sustainability” is flexible as it needs to function in many different contexts and across many issues. At the same time, this flexibility makes it difficult to assess and easy to misuse. Over the last three decades, numerous sustainability assessment tools have been developed to better define the term. In this paper, we critically address these attempts and argue that the flexibility of the term is not solely problematic, but allow peop…
Geography (30 works) · Political science (21 works) · Ecology (20 works) · Environmental resource management (19 works) · Economics (18 works) · Sociology (17 works) · Environmental Science (15 works) · Business (14 works) · Climate change (14 works) · Environmental planning (12 works)