House on Fire

The house where I grew up was perpetually catching on fire. It wasn’t all bad.  Although I fought with my brothers and sisters sometimes, we really had a beautiful family.  Sunday dinner was especially nice.  Dad always asked each of us what we did that week.  If one...

Land Governance Lenses

There are multiple factors that influence the way we as human beings see the world.  Education, culture, and particular disciplines, professions, and institutions all provide us with narratives, conceptual frameworks, and biases.  These become lenses through which see...

Tips to help the sustainability professional to stay motivated and sane

The pandemic has been driving many of us stir-crazy, although obviously it goes far beyond the usual kind of stir-crazy.  The pandemic, and its lockdowns and travel restrictions, and some people’s theories about the pandemic and about the government’s response to it,...

Causal pathways in environmental governance

Regular readers of this blog will have noticed that I’ve been silent for several months. I’m hoping that in the new year I can get back to a regular monthly schedule.   In an earlier post, I argued that formal land tenure systems—including policies and laws aimed at...