scholarly journals Building Resilience in Social-Ecological Food Systems in Vermont

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (12) ◽  
pp. 4813 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristine Skog ◽  
Stine Eriksen ◽  
Christy Brekken ◽  
Charles Francis
Keyword(s):  
Low Income ◽  
Food Systems ◽  
Local Community ◽  
Local Food ◽  
Local Economy ◽  
Adaptive Governance ◽  
Social Patterns ◽  
For Profit ◽  
Social Ecological Systems ◽  
Social Ecological

There is an expanding interest in Local Food Systems (LFSs) in Vermont, along with a growing effort to create adaptive governance to facilitate action. In this case study, we investigate how adaptive governance of LFS can provide ideas and act as a catalyst for creating resilience in other social-ecological systems (SESs). By participating in meetings and interviewing stakeholders inside and outside the Vermont LFS network, we found that consumers were highly motivated to participate by supporting environmental issues, the local economy, and interactive communities, as well as building social relationships. Farmers experienced better income and increased respect in the local community. All participants found adequate “safe space” to share new ideas and explore partnerships. Their identities and values were also place-specific, reflecting the working landscape of Vermont. Adaptive governance was built on equal partnerships, where problems were discussed and responsibilities were shared among many stakeholders across geographic areas and multiple sectors. Some skepticism was expressed towards mainstreaming local food production and sales. Challenges remain to more fully include farmers, for-profit players, and low-income consumers in the network. This might limit the resilience and sustainability of the LFS. Because SESs are held together by common culture and identities, the risk of non-adaptive social patterns exemplifies one key challenge for future adaptive management towards resilient and sustainable outcomes. There is a critical need for developing relevant theory and conducting further research on LFSs and their potential roles in local SESs.

scholarly journals (Re)Commoning Food and Food Systems. The Contribution of Social Innovation from Solidarity Economy

Agriculture ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 548
Author(s):  
Adanella Rossi ◽  
Mario Coscarello ◽  
Davide Biolghini
Keyword(s):  
Food Systems ◽  
Local Community ◽  
Social Innovation ◽  
Local Food ◽  
Solidarity Economy ◽  
Sustainable Food Systems ◽  
Sustainable Food ◽  
Food Governance ◽  
Food Policies ◽  
Italian Context

The need for a transition to sustainable food systems is widely recognised. Over the last three decades, movements have been demanding and proposing a radical transformation, foregrounding the social values of food. Experiences inspired by solidarity economy have given rise to highly innovative pathways, grounded on the redefinition of the food-related values and practices and the reconstruction of local, community-based food systems by referring to social and ecological sustainability. One can usefully draw from these experiences for identifying challenges, opportunities and benefits and for analysing the most effective modes of action leading to the creation of alternatives. Capturing and supporting this innovation is particularly important when looking at the opportunities offered by local food policies. This significantly involves the meanings, goals and forms that food governance takes on. The paper aims at investigating these aspects, reading the initiatives inspired by SE principles as an example of social innovation. Their engagement in re-signifying food in terms of “commons” and in “commoning” food systems constitutes a complementary key of analysis. Focusing on the Italian context, the paper draws on many years of qualitative research and direct involvement in these initiatives. The analysis provides useful insights about the potential for change existing in society and invites us to develop reflexivity on how local food policies capture the opportunity for a re-politicisation of food-related issues.

scholarly journals ADAPTIVE GOVERNANCE OF SOCIAL-ECOLOGICAL SYSTEMS

2005 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 441-473 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carl Folke ◽  
Thomas Hahn ◽  
Per Olsson ◽  
Jon Norberg
Keyword(s):  
Ecological Systems ◽  
Adaptive Governance ◽  
Social Ecological Systems ◽  
Social Ecological

scholarly journals Perception and Representation of the Resource Nexus at the Interface between Society and the Natural Environment

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (7) ◽  
pp. 2545 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mario Giampietro
Keyword(s):  
Scientific Inquiry ◽  
Systems Approach ◽  
Ecological Systems ◽  
Adaptive Governance ◽  
Metabolic Pattern ◽  
Social Ecological Systems ◽  
Resource Flows ◽  
Relational Analysis ◽  
Social Ecological ◽  
The Eu

Recent years have seen an explosion of interest in the resource nexus. This has created the co-existence of different understandings and uses of the concept. In this regard, experiences in the EU H2020 project ‘Moving towards adaptive governance in complexity: Informing nexus security’ are consistent with findings reported in the literature: (i) The inconvenient message of the nexus is difficult to get across, it being incompatible with the currently dominant rosy narratives about sustainability. Indeed, from a historic perspective, the nexus can be seen as a revival of the ideological fight between cornucopians and neo-Malthusians; (ii) Silo structures in existing institutions are a problem for the governance of the nexus, and so is the resulting reductionist strategy of addressing and fixing one issue at the time; (iii) Scientific inquiry is currently not providing the quality inputs needed for a meaningful discussion of the resource nexus. Entanglement of resource flows is rooted in the complex metabolic pattern of social-ecological systems, the analysis of which requires a complex systems approach and relational analysis. Contemporary reductionist models simply make the nexus invisible to the analyst.

scholarly journals Can Adaptive Governance Promote Coupling Social-Ecological Systems? Evidence from the Vulnerable Ecological Region of Northwestern China

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (20) ◽  
pp. 11247
Author(s):  
Yanzi Wang ◽  
Chunming Wu ◽  
Yongfeng Gong ◽  
Zhen Zhu
Keyword(s):  
Social System ◽  
Resource Dependence ◽  
Social Innovation ◽  
Northwestern China ◽  
Driving Mechanism ◽  
Adaptive Governance ◽  
Social Ecological Systems ◽  
Social Ecological ◽  
Ecological Vulnerability ◽  
The Social

Adaptive governance is increasingly considered a feasible approach to address the uncertainties and complexities of social-ecological system (SES), whereas its role on SES coupling has not been sufficiently testified. Empirical evidence is provided in this paper with the case of northwestern China, a region struggling with economic backwardness and ecological vulnerability. Given the ambiguities in scholarship on the causal relationship between adaptive governance and SES coupling, we develop a theoretical framework to outline the driving mechanism of adaptive governance by focusing on its impact on ecosystem service (ES) delivery. Within the framework, ecosystem governance and social system governance are identified as pathways of adaptive governance, which are estimated on their effects on SES coupling by FGLS. The results show that (1) only the synergy of them can positively promote SES coupling rather than isolated one of them, and (2) only social system governance presents a lustrous role in restraining the effect of resource-dependence on SES coupling as opposed to ecosystem governance. The practice of northwestern China again evidences its key leader’s role in seizing the opportunity window and social innovation. The results further uncover the necessity of synthesizing the social and ecological dimensions for shaping adaptive governance and the direction of targeted reforms for catalyzing the transition to adaptive governance.

scholarly journals Shock and Conflict in Social-Ecological Systems: Implications for Environmental Governance

2022 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 610
Author(s):  
Kristof Van Assche ◽  
Monica Gruezmacher ◽  
Raoul Beunen
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Governance ◽  
Ecological Systems ◽  
Adaptive Governance ◽  
Evolutionary Patterns ◽  
Social Ecological Systems ◽  
Path Creation ◽  
Social Ecological ◽  
Governance Theory

In this paper, we present a framework for the analysis of shock and conflict in social-ecological systems and investigate the implications of this perspective for the understanding of environmental governance, particularly its evolutionary patterns and drivers. We dwell on the distinction between shock and conflict. In mapping the relation between shock and conflict, we invoke a different potentiality for altering rigidity and flexibility in governance; different possibilities for recall, revival and trauma; and different pathways for restructuring the relation between governance, community and environment. Shock and conflict can be both productive and eroding, and for each, one can observe that productivity can be positive or negative. These different effects in governance can be analyzed in terms of object and subject creation, path creation and in terms of the dependencies recognized by evolutionary governance theory: path, inter-, goal and material dependencies. Thus, shock and conflict are mapped in their potential consequences to not only shift a path of governance, but also to transform the pattern of self-transformation in such path. Finally, we reflect on what this means for the interpretation of adaptive governance of social-ecological systems.

scholarly journals Decision-Making for Rewilding: An Adaptive Governance Framework for Social-Ecological Complexity

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
Author(s):  
James R. A. Butler ◽  
Mariella Marzano ◽  
Nathalie Pettorelli ◽  
Sarah M. Durant ◽  
Johan T. du Toit ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Ecological Systems ◽  
Power Sharing ◽  
Knowledge Generation ◽  
Adaptive Governance ◽  
Learning Networks ◽  
Governance Framework ◽  
Social Ecological Systems ◽  
Resource Governance ◽  
Social Ecological ◽  
The Social

Rewilding can be defined as the reorganisation or regeneration of wildness in an ecologically degraded landscape with minimal ongoing intervention. While proposals for rewilding are increasingly common, they are frequently controversial and divisive amongst stakeholders. If implemented, rewilding initiatives may alter the social-ecological systems within which they are situated and thus generate sudden and unforeseen outcomes. So far, however, much of the discourse on the planning and implementation of rewilding has focused on identifying and mitigating ecological risks. There has been little consideration of how rewilding could alter the human components of the social-ecological systems concerned, nor governance arrangements that can manage these dynamics. This paper addresses this gap by proposing a generic adaptive governance framework tailored to the characteristics of rewilding, based on principles of managing complex social-ecological systems. We integrate two complementary natural resource governance approaches that lend themselves to the contentious and unpredictable characteristics of rewilding. First, adaptive co-management builds stakeholder adaptive capacity through iterative knowledge generation, collaboration and power-sharing, and cross-scale learning networks. Second, social licence to operate establishes trust and transparency between project proponents and communities through new public-private partnerships. The proposed framework includes structural and process elements which incorporate a boundary organisation, a decision-into-practise social learning exercise for planning and design, and participatory evaluation. The latter assesses rewilding outcomes and pre-conditions for the continuation of adaptive governance and conservation conflict resolution.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document