Much ado about nothing—some reflections on the wider and wilder implications of social carrying capacity

The excellent review of social carrying capacity literature by Graefe, Vaske, and Kuss clearly demonstrates the shared deceptions that occur when research problems are defined by resource managers rather than by established theory. This central tendency has meant that two decades of social carrying capacity research has produced few valid generalizations, little cumulation of findings, and a series of correct solutions for the wrong management problems. Some didactic suggestions are made for gaining better alignment between problems and solutions.