Shifting baselines: interdisciplinary perspectives on long-term change perception and memory

Abstract

Daniel Pauly's concept of the shifting baseline syndrome (SBS) focuses on problems of scientists’ long-term change perception and in particular on the forgetting of reference points established by preceding generations. Once introduced in the context of fisheries science, the concept is currently widely applied in neighbouring disciplines, but has only begun to enter the field of social and cultural science. This article considers the shifting baseline syndrome in an interdisciplinary context and describes suggestions emerging that way: With regard to the concept's context of origin, it shows that approaches from social and cultural science such as the sociology of knowledge and memory studies allow a more detailed and comprehensive understanding of questions addressed by the concept. Conversely, with regard to social and cultural science, this concept originating from natural science suggests the relevance of autobiographical, communicative, cultural and future memory for studying problems and potentials of sustainability and long-term change perception in general.