Improving network approaches to the study of complex social-ecological interdependencies

Bodin, O., Alexander, S.M., Baggio, J., Barnes, M., Berardo, R., Cumming, G.S., Dee, L.E., Fischer, A.P., Fischer, M., Garcia, M. Mancilla, Guerrero, A.M., Hileman, J., Ingold, K., Matous, P., Morrison, T.H., Nohrstedt, D., Pittman, J., Robins, G., and Sayles, J.S. (2019) Improving network approaches to the study of complex social-ecological interdependencies. Nature Sustainability, 2 (7). pp. 551-559.

[img]
Preview
PDF (Author Accepted Version) - Accepted Version
Download (676kB) | Preview
[img] PDF (Published Version) - Published Version
Restricted to Repository staff only

View at Publisher Website: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-019-0308-...
 
110
1301


Abstract

Achieving effective, sustainable environmental governance requires a better understanding of the causes and consequences of the complex patterns of interdependencies connecting people and ecosystems within and across scales. Network approaches for conceptualizing and analysing these interdependencies offer one promising solution. Here, we present two advances we argue are needed to further this area of research: (i) a typology of causal assumptions explicating the causal aims of any given network-centric study of social-ecological interdependencies; (ii) unifying research design considerations that facilitate conceptualizing exactly what is interdependent, through what types of relationships and in relation to what kinds of environmental problems. The latter builds on the appreciation that many environmental problems draw from a set of core challenges that re-occur across contexts. We demonstrate how these advances combine into a comparative heuristic that facilitates leveraging case-specific findings of social-ecological interdependencies to generalizable, yet context-sensitive, theories based on explicit assumptions of causal relationships.

Item ID: 60006
Item Type: Article (Research - C1)
ISSN: 2398-9629
Copyright Information: Published Version: © Springer Nature Limited 2019. Accepted Version may be made open access in an Institutional Repository after a 6 month embargo.
Funders: US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Centre of Excellence for Environmental Decisions, ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, Formas, Swedish Research Council
Date Deposited: 31 Jul 2019 07:44
FoR Codes: 41 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES > 4104 Environmental management > 410404 Environmental management @ 100%
SEO Codes: 96 ENVIRONMENT > 9606 Environmental and Natural Resource Evaluation > 960604 Environmental Management Systems @ 100%
Downloads: Total: 1301
Last 12 Months: 157
More Statistics

Actions (Repository Staff Only)

Item Control Page Item Control Page