Systems thinking on intensification and sustainability: systems boundaries, processes and dimensions

Conjunctions of different disciplines and different levels of analysis and action are considered with reference to the factors of nestedness and contingence. Subjects bearing on sustainable intensification which can benefit from disciplinary convergence include: biogeochemistry to address problems of climate change; part-time farming to adapt to changing economic opportunities; and symbiotic endophytes that can enhance crop health and growth. The concept of 'causation' is disaggregated to consider 'processual' as distinguished from 'mechanistic' causation. Systems thinking is likely to be more productive for addressing interactions within and between subsystems rather than for theorizing about systems as a whole.