Literature Review
Practices for facilitating interdisciplinary synthetic research: the National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center (SESYNC)
Authors: Palmer, Kramer, Boyd, Hawthorne (Uploaded by: Jen Hinds)This paper describes the programs and processes of a new center designed to enhance interdisciplinary team effectiveness and the building of new communities of social and natural scientists undertaking socio-environmental synthesis research. [Edit this posting]
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877343516300033
Special Issue: Exploring Feedbacks in CHANS
Authors: VARIOUS (Uploaded by: Danelle Larson)The journal Ecology and Society published the open access special issue “Exploring Feedbacks in Coupled Human and Natural Systems (CHANS)” to look at ways to fill the gaps in interdisciplinary research on CHANS feedbacks. [Edit this posting]
http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/issues/view.php?sf=85
ES-2015-7404.pdf
Global Banking Impacts Ecosystems
Authors: Galaz, Gars, Moberg, Nykvist, Repinski (Uploaded by: Danelle Larson)Finance and environment: Why ecologists should start paying attention to the activities of banks, investors and other financial actors [Edit this posting]
http://www.stockholmresilience.org/21/research/research-news/9-23-2015-banking-f…
Stakeholder Analysis and Social Network Analysis in Natural Resource Management
Authors: Prell, Christina, Hubacek, Klaus, Reed, Mark (Uploaded by: Jocelyne Helbling)The increasing use of stakeholder analysis in natural resource management reflects a growing recognition that stakeholders can and should influence environmental decision making. Stakeholder analysis can be used to avoid inflaming conflicts, ensure that the marginalization of certain groups is not reinforced, and fairly represent diverse interests. We present a case study from the Peak District National Park in the United Kingdom, where we used social network analysis to inform stakeholder analysis. This information helped us identify which individuals and categories of stakeholder played more central roles in the network and which were more peripheral. This information guided our next steps for stakeholder selection. The article ends with a discussion on the strengths and limitations of combining social network analysis with stakeholder analysis. [Edit this posting]
http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol11/iss2/resp2/
Prell_StakeholderSNAinResourceManagment_2009.pdf
Centrality in Social Networks Conceptual Clarification
Authors: Freeman, Linton (Uploaded by: Jocelyne Helbling)The intuitive background for measures of structural centrality in social networks is reviewed and existing measures are evaluated in terms of their consistency with intuitions and their interpretability. Three distinct intuitive conceptions of centrality are uncovered and existing measures are refined to embody these conceptions. Three measures are developed for each concept, one absolute and one relative measure of the centrality of positions in a network, and one relenting the degree of centralization of the entire network. The implications of these measures for the experimental study of small groups is examined. [Edit this posting]
http://leonidzhukov.net/hse/2014/socialnetworks/papers/freeman79-centrality.pdf
Freeman1979_CentralityinSocialNetworksConceptualClarification.pdf
Toward a Network Perspective of the Study of Resilience in Social-Ecological Systems
Authors: Janssen, Marco, Bodin, Orjan, Anderies, John, Elmqvist, Thomas, Ernstson, Henrik, McAllister, Ryan, Olsson, Per, Ryan, Paul (Uploaded by: Jocelyne Helbling)ABSTRACT. Formal models used to study the resilience of social-ecological systems have not explicitly included important structural characteristics of this type of system. In this paper, we propose a network perspective for social-ecological systems that enables us to better focus on the structure of interactions between identifiable components of the system. This network perspective might be useful for developing formal models and comparing case studies of social-ecological systems. Based on an analysis of the case studies in this special issue, we identify three types of social-ecological networks: (1) ecosystems that are connected by people through flows of information or materials, (2) ecosystem networks that are disconnected and fragmented by the actions of people, and (3) artificial ecological networks created by people, such as irrigation systems. Each of these three archytypal social-ecological networks faces different problems that influence its resilience as it responds to the addition or removal of connections that affect its coordination or the diffusion of system attributes such as information or disease. [Edit this posting]
http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol11/iss1/art15/
Janssen2006_TowardNetworkPerspectiveofResilienceSES.pdf
Network Analysis in the Social Sciences
Authors: Borgatti, Stephen, Mehra, Ajay, Brass, Daniel, Labianca, Giuseppe (Uploaded by: Jocelyne Helbling)Over the past decade, there has been an explosion of interest in network research across the physical and social sciences. For social scientists, the theory of networks has been a gold mine, yielding explanations for social phenomena in a wide variety of disciplines from psychology to economics. Here, we review the kinds of things that social scientists have tried to explain using social network analysis and provide a nutshell description of the basic assumptions, goals, and explanatory mechanisms prevalent in the field. We hope to contribute to a dialogue among researchers from across the physical and social sciences who share a common interest in understanding the antecedents and consequences of network phenomena. [Edit this posting]
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/323/5916/892
Borgatti_NetworkAnlysisintheSocialSciences.pdf
Scale-Crossing Brokers and Network Governance of Urban Ecosystem Services: The Case of Stockholm
Authors: Ernstson, Henrik, Barthel, Stephan, Anderson, Erik, Borgstrom, Sara (Uploaded by: Jocelyne Helbling)ABSTRACT. Urban ecosystem services are crucial for human well-being and the livability of cities. A central challenge for sustaining ecosystem services lies in addressing scale mismatches between ecological processes on one hand, and social processes of governance on the other. This article synthesizes a set of case studies from urban green areas in Stockholm, Sweden—allotment gardens, urban parks, cemeteries and protected areas—and discusses how governmental agencies and civil society groups engaged in urban green area management can be linked through social networks so as to better match spatial scales of ecosystem processes. The article develops a framework that combines ecological scales with social network structure, with the latter being taken as the patterns of interaction between actor groups. Based on this framework, the article (1) assesses current ecosystem governance, and (2) develops a theoretical understanding of how social network structure influences ecosystem governance and how certain actors can work as agents to promote beneficial network structures. The main results show that the mesoscale of what is conceptualized as city scale green networks (i.e., functionally interconnected local green areas) is not addressed by any actor in Stockholm, and that the management practices of civil society groups engaged in local ecosystem management play a crucial but neglected role in upholding ecosystem services. The article proposes an alternative network structure and discusses the role of midscale managers (for improving ecological functioning) and scale-crossing brokers (engaged in practices to connect actors across ecological scales). Dilemmas, strategies, and practices for establishing this governance system are discussed. [Edit this posting]
http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol15/iss4/art28/
Ernstson2010_ScaleCrossingBrokersNetworkGovernance.pdf
Thresholds in Ecological and Social–Ecological Systems: a Developing Database
Authors: Walker, Meyers (Uploaded by: Aly Bean)"This paper describes a developing database established to address this need [lack of empirical data on regime shifts in SES]. The database is freely available and comprises a set of summarized published examples and a searchable bibliographic database of publications on the topic." [Edit this posting]
Thresholds in Ecological and Social–Ecological Systems (Walker and Meyers 2004)
Sustainable Social-Ecological Systems: An Impossibility?
Authors: Ostrom (Uploaded by: Aly Bean)"...scientists are worried that many of the social-ecological systems existing today may collapse by the end of the 21st century... more important than simply worrying, however, is th development of a strong diagnostic method for analyzing the diversity of processes and the multiplicity of potential social and biophysical solutions that are needed to cope effectively with these varied processes. Past efforts to impose simple solutions to these complex problems have frequently led to worse outcomes than the problems addressed. Our need today is building a strong interdisciplinary science of complex, multilevel systems that will enable over time a matching of potential solutions to a careful diagnosis of specific problems embedded in a social-ecological context. I will take some small steps toward this goal in my presentation" (presented at the 2007 Annual Mtg of AAAS). [Edit this posting]
Sustainable Social-Ecological Systems (Ostrom 2007)