Joseph A. Tainter
Joseph A. Tainter studied anthropology at UC Berkeley and Northwestern University, earning his Ph.D. in 1975.
As of 2012, he was a professor in the Department of Environment and Society at Utah State University.
Previously, he led Cultural Heritage Research at Rocky Mountain Forest and Range Experiment Station and taught anthropology at the University of New Mexico.
His influential 1988 book examines societal collapse through network theory, energy economics, and complexity theory, arguing societies fail when problem-solving institutions reach diminishing returns on complexity investments and energy subsidies.
