In his research on social-ecological systems (SES) he combines and integrate methods and theories from several different scientific disciplines. Bodin's main focus is to develop better understanding of SES through quantitative modeling and analyses.
 
In this work, he uses and develops theoretical/conceptual models and simulations, as well as engaging in empirical studies and empirical data analyses. Bodin often describes and models social, ecological and coupled SESs as complex and intricate webs of interactions between, and among, different ecological and/or social components. This cross-disciplinary network analytical approach allows him to apply the same set of methods and conceptualization in studying such different things as power asymmetries resulting from different patterns of social and economical relationships among small-scale fishermen to large-scale analyses of seed dispersals in human-dominated and fragmented landscapes. It thus facilitates systemic analyses of SES that bridge scientific disciplines.
 
In conjunction with the network modelling approach, Bodin has applied methods and techniques such as formal mathematical analysis, agent-based simulation modelling, GIS and spatial explicit modelling and analysis, mathematical graph-theory, and statistical modelling.
 
Bodin has published in both natural and social science journals, and has been engaged (in addition to several theoretically oriented studies) in cases studies of small-scale fisheries in east Africa, landscape connectivity in southern Madagascar, and urban ecology in Stockholm, Sweden.