Anne-Sophie Crépin

As deputy director of the Beijer Institute, I share my time between administrative duties, research leadership and my own research on the complex interactions between society and nature on a human-dominated planet.

In particular I focus on two broad types of questions:

1. In what ways does the interplay between natural and social dynamics influence the risk of large scale abrupt changes?
2. How can society deal with this risk and sustain long term human well-being?

Addressing these questions requires an open mind about best-suited methods and approaches. I mix economic theory with theories of resilience, complex systems, regime shifts, and the Anthropocene. While my PhD was in economics, most of my work is collaborative and crosses disciplinary borders, including for example ecology, sustainability science, earth system science, and hydrology. My methods involve building and analysing small theoretical dynamic models to study aspects of the interface between nature and society. While the models are theoretical they are often designed and parametrised to mimic real world situations. I have also performed behavioural experiments and some empirical studies through my multiple collaborations.

I have studied all kinds of natural systems including grasslands, coral reefs, forests, fisheries, and the Arctic Ocean. On the social side, I have studied optimal and common property management, policy interventions, and how to address fast and slow dynamics, uncertainty, and diversity often with a strong focus on regime shifts, which are large, abrupt and persistent changes in a system’s structure and function.