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

Bodin, Ö.; Alexander, S. M.; Baggio, J.; Barnes, M. L.; Berardo, R.; Cumming, G. S.; Dee, L. E.; Fischer, A. P.; Fischer, M.; Mancilla Garcia, M.; Guerrero, A. M.; Hileman, J.; Ingold, Karin; Matous, P.; Morrison, T. H.; Nohrstedt, D.; Pittman, J.; Robins, G.; Sayles, J. S. (2019). Improving network approaches to the study of complex social–ecological interdependencies. Nature sustainability, 2(7), pp. 551-559. Springer 10.1038/s41893-019-0308-0

[img] Text
s41893-019-0308-0.pdf - Published Version
Restricted to registered users only
Available under License Publisher holds Copyright.

Download (1MB) | Request a copy

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 Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

03 Faculty of Business, Economics and Social Sciences > Social Sciences > Institute of Political Science
10 Strategic Research Centers > Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research (OCCR)
10 Strategic Research Centers > Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research (OCCR) > NCCR Climate

UniBE Contributor:

Ingold, Karin Mirjam

Subjects:

300 Social sciences, sociology & anthropology > 320 Political science

ISSN:

2398-9629

Publisher:

Springer

Language:

English

Submitter:

Karin Mirjam Ingold Michel

Date Deposited:

14 Aug 2019 09:47

Last Modified:

05 Dec 2022 15:29

Publisher DOI:

10.1038/s41893-019-0308-0

BORIS DOI:

10.7892/boris.132048

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/132048

Actions (login required)

Edit item Edit item
Provide Feedback