Societal Relations to Nature as a Common Frame of Reference for Integrated Environmental Research

Introduction Besides environmental sociology, many other sciences investigate the complex relations between society and nature. Numerous discipline-based and interdisciplinary research approaches, theoretical concepts and definitions of research objects compete and coexist with one another. For some, this situation indicates a diversity of perspectives appropriate to the complexity of the research object, a diversity which opens the possibility of achieving complementary forms of knowledge through cooperative research projects. For others, this 'pluralism of competing paradigms' is an expression of a post-modern arbitrariness, one that justifies academic rivalries and exclusion mechanisms. Again and again the hope has been raised that an overarching frame of reference could counter the arbitrariness that unfolds with this diversity. Critics of pluralism can bring a strong argument to bear here: If research on the relations between society and nature is characterized by such a wide range of incompatible concepts, then, not only is it very difficult to compare the various results of research, but it is equally difficult to evaluate the claims to scientific progress being made.