TY - JOUR
T1 - Problems, paradoxes, paradigms
T2 - triangulating fire research
AU - Pyne, Stephen
N1 - Copyright:
Copyright 2008 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2007
Y1 - 2007
N2 - Wildland fire research has historically orbited around a physical paradigm of fire. This strategy has yielded remarkable results, yet increasingly it cannot speak to the core issues that concern fire management. Two additional paradigms are needed. One would build on fire's origins in the living world. The other would evolve out of fire's significance to humanity, and humanity's unblinking importance to fire's presence on Earth. Note that each paradigm is coherent in itself, that each is capable of absorbing the others, and that each is insufficient on its own. It is unlikely that a master synthesis of these conceptions will emerge, and is not necessary. The need is to sustain research that addresses how fire really exists, not how select sciences can handle it. This essay sketches what the resulting fire-research triangle might look like.
AB - Wildland fire research has historically orbited around a physical paradigm of fire. This strategy has yielded remarkable results, yet increasingly it cannot speak to the core issues that concern fire management. Two additional paradigms are needed. One would build on fire's origins in the living world. The other would evolve out of fire's significance to humanity, and humanity's unblinking importance to fire's presence on Earth. Note that each paradigm is coherent in itself, that each is capable of absorbing the others, and that each is insufficient on its own. It is unlikely that a master synthesis of these conceptions will emerge, and is not necessary. The need is to sustain research that addresses how fire really exists, not how select sciences can handle it. This essay sketches what the resulting fire-research triangle might look like.
KW - Anthropogenic fire
KW - Biology of fire
KW - Culture of fire
KW - Fire modelling
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U2 - 10.1071/WF06041
DO - 10.1071/WF06041
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:34547322088
VL - 16
SP - 271
EP - 276
JO - International Journal of Wildland Fire
JF - International Journal of Wildland Fire
SN - 1049-8001
IS - 3
ER -