Asian Elephant Futures: A Causal Layered Analysis with Gregory Bateson in Mind

Abstract

Human population growth and dwindling fragmented natural habitats for elephants in Asia are leading to increasing conflict between humans and wild elephants. Sohail Inayatullah’s Causal layered analysis (CLA) is applied to understand the human–elephant conflict (HEC) situation. Gregory Bateson’s “ecology of mind” (EoM; epistemology, recurrence, abduction, and metaphor) is also employed to focus on possible implications of metaphor, epistemology, and social–psychological misalignments. The article aims to inform multidisciplinary practitioners on the relevance of applying both CLA and EoM to social–ecological issues in the twenty-first century. CLA and EoM are compatible and complementary multilayered approaches which, as metaphorical approaches, share mixed entailments. Bateson’s “double bind” theory is applied within CLA to explore the implications of possible Asian elephant extinction within the Anthropocene in respect to Indian (Hindu and Buddhist) cosmologies.