A close-up of human dimensions of wildlife in Europe

In Europe an increasing number of scholars from different disciplines show growing interest in studying interactions between society and wildlife. Europe’s diversity with regard to cultures, languages and governance systems... [ view full abstract ]

In Europe an increasing number of scholars from different disciplines show growing interest in studying interactions between society and wildlife. Europe’s diversity with regard to cultures, languages and governance systems for wildlife is reflected in the wealth of research perspectives on human-wildlife interactions. Today a variety of approaches, disciplinary perspectives, theoretical frameworks, concepts and methods are used. However there is no common umbrella of “human dimensions of wildlife” similar to the one seen in North America.
A network meeting was held with the goal to describe the current state of research in this field and to draft an outline for a future European research agenda. Sixty-three delegates from 25 European countries contributed due to workshop discussions and a follow-up online survey.
Two major paths to the study of human-wildlife interactions were identified. One targets individuals or groups within society and is based on the theories of cognitive hierarchy and theory of reasoned action/theory of planned behavior. While the other focuses on the collective societal level relying mainly on the theories of governance with connections to social representation, deliberative procedures and commons theory.
Europe’s diverse cultural contexts and governance systems may be a challenge for transnational research attempts but far more importantly they are an opportunity for learning. Therefore future research should strive for stringent theory-based research designs which can generate comparable data across countries as well as over time.