CAN WE IDENTIFY DISTINCT TYPES OF CROSS-LEVEL, SCALE-DEPENDENT INTERPLAY?
Cross-level, scale-dependent interplay is ubiquitous, and each case has its own distinctive features. However, it is worth asking whether we can discern types of interplay that belong to this general universe of cases, but differ from one another in significant ways. My goal at this stage is simply to identify recurrent patterns that can and do occur in this context; I will take up the challenge of analyzing the forces likely to produce one or another of these patterns in specific situations in the next section. Although the following account is far from ideal from a taxonomic perspective, five major types or patterns of scale-dependent interplay can be identified from an examination of actual cross-level interactions among regimes designed to manage human uses of living resources (see Fig. 1).
