| Contemporary global analytical techniques now facilitate the study of local land change processes towards the production of generalized knowledge of these phenomena at broad spatial scales. Agricultural intensification represents one of these processes, yet remains a challenge to study at the global scale. A majority of the empirical and theoretical examination of Ester Boserup's theory of intensification complicates her framework by incorporating a myriad of social, political, and economic factors into highly contextualized, local case study research. In this thesis, I build upon the research of Turner, Hanhan, and Portoraro's (1977) meta-analysis of tropical subsistence agriculturalists, and re-examine the relationship between population density and agricultural intensity through a modern, global geographic lens. Using statistical regression techniques, I test three samples of case studies for the strength and shape of the population-intensification relationship in order to determine if and how this relationship may have changed through time. The GLOBE online collaborative engine, an analysis tool designed to facilitate global scale analysis of local case study research, further allowed me to assess and remediate potential biases in my data sets with regard to global population density distributions. Results suggest that population density continues to drive trends in agricultural intensity, and that new forms of global analysis may enable assessment of how this relationship is changing over the long-term around the world. |
