While Dr. Davidson’s research portfolio is predominantly social problems-focused, which entails the empirical operationalization and application of concepts and knowledge in the social sciences and humanities, our ability to apply knowledge to social problems necessarily involves critical inquiries into our epistemologies, and this is particularly true of the theoretical understandings of nature-society relations that all too often remain implicit, and hence unexamined, in environmental studies. Dr. Davidson has made important theoretical contributions to the study of nature society relations, focusing in particular on transformational change, from taking up and problematizing the concept of resilience, to introducing new conceptual understandings of material relations, with The Effort Factor. Some relevant publications in this realm include:

Magnus Bostrom and Davidson, Debra J. (Editors). 2018. Environment and Society: Concepts and Challenges. Palgrave-MacMillan

Davidson, Debra J. 2019. “Exnovating for a renewable energy transition.” Nature Energy 4 (April): 254-256.

Davidson, Debra J. 2019. “The Effort Factor: An adjustment to our understanding of social-ecological metabolism in the era of Peak Oil.” Social Problems 66(1): 69–85.

Davidson, Debra J. 2018. “Rethinking adaptation: Emotions, evolution, and climate change.” Nature and Culture 13(3): 378-402.

Davidson, Debra J. Jeffrey Andrews and Daniel Pauly. 2014. “The effort factor: Evaluating the increasing marginal impact of resource extraction over time.” Global Environmental Change 25: 63-68.

Davidson, Debra J. and Jeffrey Andrews. 2013. “Not all about consumption.” Science, 339, 15 March: 1286-1287.

Andrews, Jeffrey and Debra J. Davidson. 2013. “Cell-gazing into the future: What genes, Homo heidelbergensis, and punishment tell us about our adaptive capacity.” Sustainability 5: 560-569.

Davidson, Debra J. 2010. “The applicability of the concept of resilience to social systems: Some sources of optimism and nagging doubts.” Society and Natural Resources, 23: 1135-1149.