Multi-scale integrated analysis of societal and ecosystem metabolism (MuSIASEM) : Theoretical concepts and basic rationale
Giampietro, Mario (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals)
Mayumi, Kozo (The University of Tokushima (Japan))
Ramos Martín, Jesús (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament d'Economia i d'Història Econòmica)

Date:	2009
Abstract:	The multi-scale integrated analysis of societal and ecosystem metabolism (MuSIASEM) approach makes it possible to perform a check on the feasibility and desirability of patterns of metabolism of socio-economic systems by providing a characterization at different levels and scales of: (a) the performance of socio-economic activities (for households, enterprises, economic sectors, national economies, world economy) and (b) ecological constraints (micro, meso, macro) by looking at the interference that the metabolism of matter and energy flows controlled by human activity induces on the expected pattern of metabolism of matter and energy flows associated with the self-organization of natural ecosystems. This paper presents three theoretical concepts behind the analytical approach MuSIASEM: (1) how to represent the endosomatic and exosomatic metabolism of societies using Georgescu-Roegen's flow-fund scheme; (2) how to generate a Sudoku effect across representations of different units of production and consumptiondefined at different levels; and (3) how to perform an impredicative loop analysis when dealing with changes (evolution) of the characteristics of dynamic budgets of metabolized flows, represented across different scales. Since sustainability deals with "becoming systems"-systems becoming something else in their process of evolution-an analysis of sustainability must adopt analytical tools semantically open in their representation of change. MuSIASEM can do that since it is a "multi-purpose grammar", which can be used for building a shared perception and representation of this "becoming" when studying sustainability. That is, it entails an agreement on an expected set of relations between "relevant semantic categories" and "pertinent formal categories" across hierarchical levels and across different narratives; for this reason it represents a clear discontinuity from models developed within the paradigm of reductionism to deal with the issue of sustainability.
Rights:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, i la comunicació pública de l'obra, sempre que no sigui amb finalitats comercials, i sempre que es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original. No es permet la creació d'obres derivades.
Language:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; recerca ; Versió acceptada per publicar
Subject:	Societal metabolism ; Multi-scale integrated analysis ; Sudoku effect ; Impredicative loop analysis ; Exosomatic energy ; Multi-purpose grammars ; MuSIASEM
Published in:	Energy, Vol. 34, Issue 3 (March 2009) , p. 313-322, ISSN 1873-6785

DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2008.07.020

Postprint 20 p, 693.0 KB

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Research literature > UAB research groups literature > Research Centres and Groups (research output) > Experimental sciences > Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals (ICTA)
Articles > Research articles
Articles > Published articles