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A Strategic Approach to Multistakeholder Negotiations
Abstract
Environment and development practitioners increasingly are interested in identifying methods, institutional arrangements and policy environments that promote negotiations among natural resource stakeholders leading to collective action and, it is hoped, sustainable resource management. Yet the implications of negotiations for disadvantaged groups of people are seldom critically examined. We draw attention to such implications by examining different theoretical foundations for multistakeholder negotiations and linking these to practical problems for disadvantaged groups. We argue that negotiations based on an unhealthy combination of communicative rationality and liberal pluralism, which underplays or seeks to neutralize differences among stakeholders, poses considerable risks for disadvantaged groups. We suggest that negotiations influenced by radical pluralist and feminist post-structuralist thought, which emphasize strategic behaviour and selective alliance-building, promise better outcomes for disadvantaged groups in most cases, particularly on the scale and in the historical contexts in which negotiations over forest management usually take place.
... This issue is compounded when high-level decision-makers do not have the capacity, interest or available time and resources to support social learning , Petursson & Kristofersson 2021. Furthermore, in developing countries such as South Africa, these challenges are further exacerbated by power inequalities and capacity constraints amongst stakeholders who are expected to work together (Edmunds & Wollenberg 2001, Musavengane & Leonard 2019). ...
... tourism and agriculture) and affiliations (private and community landowners) who participate in decision-making and co-management activities within DCCP. We, therefore, recognise that this approach has potentially perpetuated the inherent power dynamic already existing within the DCCP(Edmunds & Wollenberg 2001). ...
... While not all these objectives were widely shared, they can be considered as the means needed to achieve the ultimate objectivecoordinated and effective co-management(Gregory 2000, Estrada-Carmona et al. 2014. In particular, the issue around trust requires recognition in the South African context due to the historical and current marginalisation of disadvantaged groups(Edmunds & Wollenberg 2001, Musavengane & Leonard 2019. While outside the scope of this study, we noted a power dynamic within the decision-making realm of the DCCP that requires attention, as the DCCP is moving forward based on beliefs and values that exclude the voices of the majority populace. ...
Environmental governance is the platform from which people, organisations, and institutions engage in the design and implementation of policies to achieve desired environmental outcomes. Globally, there is a trend towards collaborative environmental governance for conserving biodiversity at landscape scales. Landscapes are complex social-ecological systems, that bring together many stakeholders, ecosystems, land uses, organisations, and institutions. Working across traditional boundaries, landscape-scale approaches support social-ecological resilience as they contextualise environmental challenges to more appropriate management scales whilst encouraging ecological connectivity and the conservation of vital ecosystem services.
The inherent complexity in landscapes pose many challenges for governance. Adaptive governance has been proposed as a solution as it aims to develop adaptive capacity by establishing learning feedback at multiple interconnected levels. This enables governance regimes to adapt their practices and processes in response to disturbance and uncertainty. In this manner, governance regimes can become resilient, as it enables them to reconfigure without losing crucial functioning. There exists a call for more research into mechanisms and approaches that can enhance the operationalisation of adaptive governance for landscape-scale approaches.
Accordingly, using an interdisciplinary mixed-method and participatory approach, this thesis contributes to advancing the understanding of mechanisms and approaches that can be used to enhance adaptive governance in landscape-scale conservation. The study is situated within a multi-level landscape-scale conservation initiative, co-funded by the Global Environment Facility. This study describes interventions aimed to catalyse social learning, through stakeholder engagement processes, at the with the Project Steering Committee and explores mechanisms to evaluate and enhance learning at the local landscape level.
Through social learning interventions with the project steering committee, this research identified six practical principles for advancing adaptive governance in donor-funded landscape-scale conservation. These were : (i) adding soft skill sets as recruitment criteria for landscape coordinators; (ii) redesigning monitoring and evaluation protocols to include narrative data; (iii) enabling flexible financial protocols; (iv) redesigning the donor-funder governing protocols to allow for a project pre-implementation phase; (v) planning for social learning processes at the highest decision-making; and (vi) embedding researchers to facilitate the co-production of usable knowledge.
At the site-level, through an in-depth case study with the Dassenberg Coastal Catchment Partnership (DCCP), two studies were performed. Firstly, social network analysis was used to understand how the network configuration impacted the learning capacity and network resilience of the DCCP. We found that the DCCP had good structural features to enable learning, but that the noted high level of centrality makes it vulnerable to the loss of core actors and less equipped to deal with complex challenges.
Secondly, a social-ecological inventory was used to look at the alignment between the objectives set out by conservation partners in 2012 and those deemed important by a wider array of DCCP stakeholders in 2018 to inform adaptive practices for the DCCP. Of the shared stakeholder objectives identified three objectives were shared between all affiliations, namely, biodiversity conservation, socio-economic development, and coordination of the landscape approach. The first two aligned with the top-down landscape management objectives, and the latter did not. Coordinating landscape approaches in landscape-scale initiatives is crucial for long-term success and should be included as a landscape objective to ensure adequate resource allocation.
Collectively, this research highlights general insights that may advance the adaptive governance of landscape-scale conservation initiatives, especially in a multi-level donor-funded context.
Keywords: Adaptive capacities, adaptive governance, biodiversity conservation, collaborative governance, donor-funded interventions, landscape-scale conservation, multi-level governance, social-ecological systems, social learning
... We attempted to mitigate this by probing interviewees about stakeholders representing other sectors (e.g., tourism and agriculture) and affiliations (private and community landowners), who participate in decision-making and co-management activities within DCCP. We therefore recognize that this approach has potentially perpetuated the inherent power dynamic already existing within the DCCP (Edmunds & Wollenberg 2001). ...
... While not all of these objectives were widely shared, they can be considered as the means needed to achieve the ultimate objective: coordinated and effective co-management (Gregory 2000, Sayer et al. 2013, Estrada-Carmona et al. 2014. In particular, the issue regarding trust needs to be recognized in the South African context due to the historical and current marginalization of disadvantaged groups (Edmunds & Wollenberg 2001, Musavengane & Leonard 2019. While this is outside the scope of this study, we clearly noted a power dynamic within the decision-making realm of the DCCP that requires attention, as the DCCP is moving forwards based on beliefs and values that exclude the voices of the majority populace. ...
... While this is outside the scope of this study, we clearly noted a power dynamic within the decision-making realm of the DCCP that requires attention, as the DCCP is moving forwards based on beliefs and values that exclude the voices of the majority populace. There is a need to increase the decision-making power of the disadvantaged groups within the area to truly enable inclusive participation (Edmunds & Wollenberg 2001, Musavengane & Leonard 2019. Because other protected area expansion projects Environmental Conservation 7 ...
Globally, there is a trend towards conserving biodiversity by promoting co-management with multiple stakeholders at landscape scales. Environmental policies emphasize stakeholder engagement in decision-making, yet landscape conservation is typically a bureaucratic–scientific endeavour. Building trusting relationships with stakeholders is key to negotiations that minimize trade-offs and maximize synergies. Incorporating shared stakeholder objectives improves co-management, as they act as incentives for participation and trust development. We explored the degree of alignment between the bottom-up stakeholder objectives and top-down management objectives of a landscape-scale conservation initiative on the West Coast of South Africa. We categorized stakeholders into six affiliations representing governmental, private and community organizations, and using a social-ecological inventory we identified ten shared objectives. Of these objectives, three were shared between all affiliations, namely biodiversity conservation, socioeconomic development and coordination of the landscape approach. The first two aligned with the top-down landscape management objectives and the latter did not. The importance of coordinating landscape approaches in multi-stakeholder landscape-scale initiatives is crucial to long-term success, and we recommend that it be formally included as a landscape management objective. Exploring the alignment between bottom-up and top-down objectives can highlight overlooked functions of co-management and can reduce the transaction costs of sustaining conservation efforts in the long term.
... As argued by Edmunds and Wollenberg [23], powerful stakeholders often succeed in gaining the upper hand in natural resource use in the absence of negotiations, but also when multistakeholder negotiations fail to take into account disadvantaged groups. In other words, "there is a risk of the more powerful stakeholders having greater influence on the outcomes of the participatory process that marginalized and socially disadvantaged stakeholders" [24]. ...
... For instance, in pro-poor transformative transdisciplinary research, Marshall et al. [34] note that "pro-poor actors are (. . . ) central to alliance building and will include researchers, activists, nongovernmental organization, and community groups with a social justice emphasis who aim to work on behalf of the interests of the poor". In this paper, we define disadvantaged groups as those "with limited power to influence decisions in multistakeholder settings", with their power limited "by their social status, their representation in public for a or their negotiating capacities" [23]. This definition includes actors that are poor, marginalized or discriminated against. ...
... We offer three possible reasons for this reluctance. First, as noted by Edmunds and Wollenberg [23]: "Institutions may be able to assure a high degree of communicative rationality in setting where the power to influence (. . . ) is relatively well-balanced among stakeholders, and where cultural and social heterogeneity is low". This explains why some studies may not pay considerable attention to power differentials: as disadvantaged groups are not included to begin with, cultural and social heterogeneity may be low. ...
This paper presents the results of a meta-analysis conducted on 40 case studies of transdis- ciplinary research. First, it groups the cases according to the sustainability conception that is adopted in the project, distinguishing between approaches to sustainability that consider environmental pro- tection alone, approaches that seek to find a balance between economic growth and environmental protection, and those which seek to integrate the social, environmental and economic aspects of sustainability. Next, the paper explores the extent to which the conception of sustainability adopted in the transdisciplinary project influences a series of process features in the projects. In particular, we focus on the extent to which the projects allowed for the participation of disadvantaged groups, the degree to which they accounted for and attempted to mitigate power differentials between par- ticipants, their embeddedness in longer-term dynamics and the heterogeneity of the actors piloting the projects. We also discuss the effects of these on the social learning and empowerment generated among participants. The paper finds that among the selected case studies, those with an integrated approach to sustainability more often included disadvantaged groups and acknowledged power differentials, applying a range of tools to mitigate these. Moreover, these cases also more often reported generating empowerment and social learning.
... Second, participation of the weaker groups in the MSP may lead to negative outcomes for them, as they could be forced to accept an agreement that would not benefit them, because of pressure from other stakeholders, majority rule or lack of negotiation skills. Though they would lose participating in the process, it could still appear as a consensus decision from the point of view of an external monitoring organization (Edmunds and Wollenberg, 2001). ...
... -Capacity-building Some stakeholder groups may be less knowledgeable of the issues dealt with in the MSP, and they may come to the negotiation table without other stakeholder groups paying attention to their points of view (Edmunds and Wollenberg, 2001). Therefore, it may be necessary to organize capacity-building events for these groups' representatives before the process implementation. ...
... Frameworks for CBC now exist across multiple conservation organizations (e.g., Mahajan et al., 2021;Ostrom, 2009;TNC, 2022) and generally coalesce around strategies and interventions that create the enabling conditions for IPLCs to effectively govern and continue stewarding their land and resources. These enabling conditions are supported by many broadly conceived strategies and interventions well known to CBC practitioners, including those that help secure their rights to territory and resources Tseng et al. 2021), strengthen local leadership and governance capacity (Moore et al. 2006;Brooks et al. 2013), create forums for multistakeholder engagement and decision-making (Edmunds & Wollenberg 2001;Kusters et al. 2018), and provide sustainable economic development opportunities (Roe et al. 2012). Although CBC is context dependent and multifaceted (Schwartz et al. 2018;Mahajan et al. 2021), these elements are often researched independently. ...
... Similarly, we found no evidence of an effect for multistakeholder interventions. Improper implementation of multistakeholder interventions can do more harm than good, for example, by perpetuating existing inequitable power dynamics (Edmunds & Wollenberg 2001;Warner 2016). Given that multistakeholder platforms can promote self-determination and the active participation of previously marginalized groups, an important emphasis of emerging human rights-based frameworks (e.g., United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples [IUCN 2012]), practical insights, and methodological advances on how to implement them more effectively will be important to improving the efficacy of these interventions and clarifying their contribution to CBC success (e.g., Kusters et al. 2018). ...
Efforts to devolve rights and engage Indigenous Peoples and local communities in conservation have increased the demand for evidence of the efficacy of community‐based conservation (CBC) and insights into what enables its success. We examined the human well‐being and environmental outcomes of a diverse set of 128 CBC projects. Over 80% of CBC projects had some positive human well‐being or environmental outcomes, although just 32% achieved positive outcomes for both (i.e., combined success). We coded 57 total national‐, community‐, and project‐level variables and controls from this set, performed random forest classification to identify the variables most important to combined success, and calculated accumulated local effects to describe their individual influence on the probability of achieving it. The best predictors of combined success were 17 variables suggestive of various recommendations and opportunities for conservation practitioners related to national contexts, community characteristics, and the implementation of various strategies and interventions informed by existing CBC frameworks. Specifically, CBC projects had higher probabilities of combined success when they occurred in national contexts supportive of local governance, confronted challenges to collective action, promoted economic diversification, and invested in various capacity‐building efforts. Our results provide important insights into how to encourage greater success in CBC.
... Frameworks for CBC now exist across multiple conservation organizations (e.g., Mahajan et al., 2021;Ostrom, 2009;TNC, 2022) and generally coalesce around strategies and interventions that create the enabling conditions for IPLCs to effectively govern and continue stewarding their land and resources. These enabling conditions are supported by many broadly conceived strategies and interventions well known to CBC practitioners, including those that help secure their rights to territory and resources Tseng et al. 2021), strengthen local leadership and governance capacity (Moore et al. 2006;Brooks et al. 2013), create forums for multistakeholder engagement and decision-making (Edmunds & Wollenberg 2001;Kusters et al. 2018), and provide sustainable economic development opportunities (Roe et al. 2012). Although CBC is context dependent and multifaceted (Schwartz et al. 2018;Mahajan et al. 2021), these elements are often researched independently. ...
... Similarly, we found no evidence of an effect for multistakeholder interventions. Improper implementation of multistakeholder interventions can do more harm than good, for example, by perpetuating existing inequitable power dynamics (Edmunds & Wollenberg 2001;Warner 2016). Given that multistakeholder platforms can promote self-determination and the active participation of previously marginalized groups, an important emphasis of emerging human rights-based frameworks (e.g., United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples [IUCN 2012]), practical insights, and methodological advances on how to implement them more effectively will be important to improving the efficacy of these interventions and clarifying their contribution to CBC success (e.g., Kusters et al. 2018). ...
Efforts to devolve rights and engage Indigenous Peoples and local communities in conservation have increased the demand for evidence of the efficacy of community-based conservation (CBC) and insights into what enables its success. We curated a diverse sample of 128 projects reporting both human well-being and environmental outcomes and coded 57 national-level, community-level, project-level, and control variables. We found that over 80% of CBC projects had some positive human well-being or environmental outcomes, but only 32% achieved positive outcomes for both. Applying Random Forest Classification, we found that the best predictors of combined success could be distilled to 17 variables representative of various policy levers and actionable opportunities for conservation practitioners related to national contexts, community characteristics, and the implementation of various strategies and interventions informed by existing CBC frameworks. We found that CBC projects had higher probabilities of combined success when they occurred in national contexts supportive of effective local governance, partnered with socially cohesive communities inclined toward collective action, acknowledged conflict or trust issues that could undermine it, promoted economic diversification, and invested in various capacity-building interventions, providing important insights into how to encourage greater success in CBC.
... As noted, the imperative of consensus reduces the space available for every position included within the process and may result in "depoliticization mechanisms that limit political expression and struggle" (Moog et al. 2014: 6). More radical or divergent groups may be attacked as biased or ideological and pushed to dampen their criticism and claims (Edmunds and Wollenberg 2001), "avoiding confrontation between too diverging visions" (Cheyns and Riisgaard 2014: 9). Paradoxically, subjects involved in a decision-making process because of their particular interest in the issue come to be prevented from defending their stake. ...
... Another point of concern relates to the role of the few self-selected actors that, despite bottom-up rhetoric, usually initiate multistakeholder processes and decide which types of stakeholder should be involved, their categorization, as well as the forms of engagement and other procedural rules (Edmunds and Wollenberg 2001;Zeyen et al. 2016;Dentoni et al. 2018;Boström and Tamm Hallström 2013). Conveners and initiators retain a great and sometimes arbitrary power that could render the process flawed from the beginning, solidifying power relationships and steering processes toward their preferred outcomes. ...
This chapter summarizes the findings from the previous analyses and discusses the overall legitimacy of the IANA transition process according to the selected normative criteria. The results suggest that despite the IANA transition’s success in removing US government oversight, it neither consisted of nor produced an improved model of multistakeholder governance. Based on the IANA transition case, the chapter concludes that multistakeholderism risks resulting in misleading rhetoric that legitimizes power asymmetries, rather than being a performative concept leading toward the democratization of transnational policy-making. Finally, the chapter calls for a reform of multistakeholder governance toward a model of digital constitutionalism.
... As noted, the imperative of consensus reduces the space available for every position included within the process and may result in "depoliticization mechanisms that limit political expression and struggle" (Moog et al. 2014: 6). More radical or divergent groups may be attacked as biased or ideological and pushed to dampen their criticism and claims (Edmunds and Wollenberg 2001), "avoiding confrontation between too diverging visions" (Cheyns and Riisgaard 2014: 9). Paradoxically, subjects involved in a decision-making process because of their particular interest in the issue come to be prevented from defending their stake. ...
... Another point of concern relates to the role of the few self-selected actors that, despite bottom-up rhetoric, usually initiate multistakeholder processes and decide which types of stakeholder should be involved, their categorization, as well as the forms of engagement and other procedural rules (Edmunds and Wollenberg 2001;Zeyen et al. 2016;Dentoni et al. 2018;Boström and Tamm Hallström 2013). Conveners and initiators retain a great and sometimes arbitrary power that could render the process flawed from the beginning, solidifying power relationships and steering processes toward their preferred outcomes. ...
This chapter clarifies the purpose of the study, which is a critical assessment of the multistakeholder model in the Internet governance ecosystem through an in-depth analysis of the so-called Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) transition, probably the most relevant Internet governance multistakeholder process that has occurred in recent years. The chapter points out how multistakeholderism is a fuzzy concept that has led to ambiguous practices and disappointing results. Further, it highlights the discursive and legitimizing nature of multistakeholderism, which can serve both as a performing narrative capable of democratizing the Internet governance domain, as well as a misleading rhetoric solidifying the dominant position of the most powerful actors in different Internet policy-making arenas. Finally, the chapter concludes that a deep investigation of the consistency of the IANA transition process with normative standards of democratic legitimacy for transnational governance could shed light on the evolution of multistakeholderism in this field.
... As noted, the imperative of consensus reduces the space available for every position included within the process and may result in "depoliticization mechanisms that limit political expression and struggle" (Moog et al. 2014: 6). More radical or divergent groups may be attacked as biased or ideological and pushed to dampen their criticism and claims (Edmunds and Wollenberg 2001), "avoiding confrontation between too diverging visions" (Cheyns and Riisgaard 2014: 9). Paradoxically, subjects involved in a decision-making process because of their particular interest in the issue come to be prevented from defending their stake. ...
... Another point of concern relates to the role of the few self-selected actors that, despite bottom-up rhetoric, usually initiate multistakeholder processes and decide which types of stakeholder should be involved, their categorization, as well as the forms of engagement and other procedural rules (Edmunds and Wollenberg 2001;Zeyen et al. 2016;Dentoni et al. 2018;Boström and Tamm Hallström 2013). Conveners and initiators retain a great and sometimes arbitrary power that could render the process flawed from the beginning, solidifying power relationships and steering processes toward their preferred outcomes. ...
This chapter investigates the concept of multistakeholderism by drawing on contributions from global and transnational governance studies, focusing on the theoretical relationship between multistakeholderism and legitimacy. The rapid spread of multistakeholderism among governance studies and practices relies on its potential to establish legitimate authority at the global level, in which inclusive deliberative processes replace the legitimacy derived from electoral mechanisms. However, the concept of multistakeholderism reveals a structural weakness in dealing with the dimension of power, leading to governance practices that undermine less well-resourced actors. In reviewing the existing literature on the categories of input, throughput, and output legitimacy, this chapter identifies a set of legitimacy standards that a multistakeholder initiative needs to satisfy to fulfill the promises of multistakeholderism and avoid being considered merely a rhetorical exercise masking practices of domination.
... As noted, the imperative of consensus reduces the space available for every position included within the process and may result in "depoliticization mechanisms that limit political expression and struggle" (Moog et al. 2014: 6). More radical or divergent groups may be attacked as biased or ideological and pushed to dampen their criticism and claims (Edmunds and Wollenberg 2001), "avoiding confrontation between too diverging visions" (Cheyns and Riisgaard 2014: 9). Paradoxically, subjects involved in a decision-making process because of their particular interest in the issue come to be prevented from defending their stake. ...
... Another point of concern relates to the role of the few self-selected actors that, despite bottom-up rhetoric, usually initiate multistakeholder processes and decide which types of stakeholder should be involved, their categorization, as well as the forms of engagement and other procedural rules (Edmunds and Wollenberg 2001;Zeyen et al. 2016;Dentoni et al. 2018;Boström and Tamm Hallström 2013). Conveners and initiators retain a great and sometimes arbitrary power that could render the process flawed from the beginning, solidifying power relationships and steering processes toward their preferred outcomes. ...
This chapter focuses on the throughput legitimacy of the IANA transition process. Throughput legitimacy refers to the “black box” of a governance system, particularly the legitimacy of the processes through which the different views, interests, and positions that participants bring to a multistakeholder initiative (or, more generally, in a decision-making process) are transformed into an outcome. The analysis takes into account the procedural quality of the IANA transition to assess if its institutional design gave equal and meaningful opportunities to all involved actors to participate and influence the outcome. Further, the discursive quality of the process is investigated, considering the extent to which the IANA transition was close to the ideal-type of deliberative procedure, and whether the process was flawed by hegemonic discursive practices that inhibited minority points of view.
... As noted, the imperative of consensus reduces the space available for every position included within the process and may result in "depoliticization mechanisms that limit political expression and struggle" (Moog et al. 2014: 6). More radical or divergent groups may be attacked as biased or ideological and pushed to dampen their criticism and claims (Edmunds and Wollenberg 2001), "avoiding confrontation between too diverging visions" (Cheyns and Riisgaard 2014: 9). Paradoxically, subjects involved in a decision-making process because of their particular interest in the issue come to be prevented from defending their stake. ...
... Another point of concern relates to the role of the few self-selected actors that, despite bottom-up rhetoric, usually initiate multistakeholder processes and decide which types of stakeholder should be involved, their categorization, as well as the forms of engagement and other procedural rules (Edmunds and Wollenberg 2001;Zeyen et al. 2016;Dentoni et al. 2018;Boström and Tamm Hallström 2013). Conveners and initiators retain a great and sometimes arbitrary power that could render the process flawed from the beginning, solidifying power relationships and steering processes toward their preferred outcomes. ...
This chapter provides readers with a detailed overview of the IANA transition process, tracing back the steps that have led to the drafting of the transition proposal. The chapter introduces the procedural elements of the initiative describing the composition, rules of engagement, and approval procedure of the different bodies entrusted to draft the proposal, and draws on the huge amount of available documentation, including official statements, charters, public comments and submissions, meeting transcripts, and reports. It also gives an account of the content of deliberation in different sites and how it changed during the process.
... Socio-environmental conflicts materialize when disagreements and contestations between different groups within society around natural resource (i.e. water) distributions, or the allocation of risks and hazards (Muradian, Martinez-Alier, & Correa, 2003), cannot be solved in a manner that is agreeable to all parties involved (Edmunds & Wollenberg, 2001). Such conflicts are symptoms of inadequate or ineffective political processes, as much as they signal problems of a more technical nature. ...
... This goes far beyond public hearings and stakeholder engagement. It also requires thinking beyond quick solutions (Himley, 2014) or short-lived forms of consensus, both of which tend to blur the diversity of positions and mask abuses of power (Castro, 2007;Edmunds & Wollenberg, 2001;Moreyra & Wegerich, 2006). Rather than seeking to neutralize differences in position and power, our analysis suggests that the longer-term sustainability of livelihoods and ecosystems may be better served by openly accepting and dealing with such differences, and by learning to acknowledge that experiences and knowledge (including science) are always contextually embedded and plural. ...
... HDIs' involvement can range from the lower rung-non-participationto different degrees of tokenism, to the final upper rung, which corresponds to a situation where stakeholders influence the decisionmaking process. A particular issue raised by Edmunds and Wollenberg (2001) is that the participation of smaller users may also have negative impacts. Users may be forced to accept decisions for which the MC voted, which, however, may not benefit them, with the appearance of a consensus among stakeholders from the viewpoint of an external monitoring organization. ...
... But is it also possible that it contains risks for the HDIs? As Edmunds and Wollenberg (2001) pointed out, if the involvement of weaker groups within a stakeholder platform for natural resource management is not carefully planned, it could, in fact, be detrimental to these groups. In the situation studied here, when HDIs participate in large-scale WUAs, they risk being forced to accept decisions for which the MC voted that, however, do not benefit them, creating an appearance of a consensus among stakeholders to the external monitoring organization. ...
This report reviews the process of inclusion of smallscale users in the new large-scale WUAs. The management of water resources is being transformed in South Africa. All water users, especially the small-scale ones, are now invited to participate in this movement. This report reviews the process of inclusion of small-scale users in the new large-scale Water User Associations (WUA).Considering the difficulties encountered in this process, this report also recommend external monitoring after the transformation of an Irrigation Board into a WUA. This method may also facilitate assessment of the inclusion of small-scale users into catchment management agencies, and water resource management organizations.
... While social hierarchies are necessary and natural (Boehm, 2001;Perret et al., 2020), there are certain patterns that obstruct the work of an SIA analyst. Foremost among these is the phenomenon that greater differentials in social influence produce a greater risk of distorted communications (Edmunds & Wolenberg, 2001;Holcombe et al., 2004). Distorted communications, in turn, can distort the picture presented by an SIA. ...
... This means that the level playing field is not guaranteed. While Edmunds and Wollenberg (2001) have suggested levelling processes, these do not extend to wider power relations. However, they incorporate elements that translate better to non-Western settings, such as consociationalism in a highly divided society (Warner and Simpungwe 2003). ...
... Isolated households or communities acting alone are rarely well positioned to defend their rights against centralized bureaucratic power or external threats (Menzies, 2007;Paudel et al., 2010). Community organizations, cooperatives, networks and other collective bodies strengthen the institutional and technical capacity of member organizations and can potentially mitigate negative forces they face by defending and increasing community rights and improving market arrangements (Edmunds and Wollenberg, 2001;Menzies, 2007;Larson et al., 2010;Paudel et al., 2010). Our case studies, particularly Cofruta and RSX, show that external partnerships and support can strengthen local capability for forest management, marketing, or governance, and provide a platform for negotiating interests and finding common ground over forest management arrangements (Menzies, 2007;Pokorny et al., 2010). ...
The Amazon has a diverse array of social and environmental initiatives that adopt forest-based land-use practices to promote rural development and support local livelihoods. However, they are often insufficiently recognized as transformative pathways to sustainability and the factors that explain their success remain understudied. To address this gap, this paper proposes that local initiatives that pursue three particular pathways are more likely to generate improvements in social-ecological outcomes: (1) maintaining close connections with local grassroots, (2) pursuing diversity in productive activities performed and partnership choices, and (3) developing cross-scale collaborations. To test these ideas we collected and analyzed observations of 157 initiatives in Brazil and Peru, applying a combination of quantitative and qualitative analyses. Our results show that initiatives maintaining groundedness in representing the interests and concerns of local actors while partnering with other organizations at multiple scales are more likely to develop joint solutions to social-ecological problems. Partnerships and support from external organizations may strengthen and enhance local capabilities, providing a platform for negotiating interests and finding common ground. Such diversified pathways demonstrate the power of local actors to transcend their own territories and have broader impacts in sustainability objectives. Our findings highlight the need to make governmental and non-governmental support (e.g., financial, technical, political) available according to local needs to enable local initiatives' own ways of addressing global environmental change.
... For example, the extreme case of a "white canvas" refers to a stage of open exploration and creativity in the planning process where there is a blank slate to work with, and no predetermined or existing frameworks or structures to follow. The motivation qualifier implies motivations and interests (Edmunds and Wollenberg, 2001;Lang et al., 2012;Schmidt et al., 2020): Why engaging in the landscape and what motivation brings together different stakeholders? Does the project address specific threats (e.g., flood risk), or needs (e.g., more agricultural output); or does it follow explicit targets (e.g., community based management areas), is the project based on principles (e.g., the polluter pays principle), or does it follow a broad mission ("Forests for all forever", an example by FSC, 2017)? ...
Integrated landscape approaches (ILA) aim to reconcile multiple, often competing, interests across agriculture, nature conservation, and other land uses. Recognized ILA design principles provide guidance for implementation, yet application remains challenging, and a strong performance evidence-base is yet to be formed. Through a critical literature review and focus group discussions with practitioners, we identified considerable diversity of ILA in actors, temporal, and spatial scales, inter alia. This diversity hampers learning from and steering ILA because of the intractable nature of the concept. Therefore, we developed a tool-an 'ILA mixing board'-to structure the complexity of ILA into selectable and scalable attributes in a replicable way to allow planning, diagnosing, and comparing ILA. The ILA mixing board tool presents seven qualifiers, each representing a key attribute of ILA design and performance (for example, project flexibility, inclusiveness of the dialogue, and the centrality of the power distribution). Each qualifier has five (non-normative) outcome indicators that can be registered as present or absent. This process in turn guides planners, evaluators and other participating stake-holders involved in landscape management to diagnose the ILA type, or its performance. We apply the ILA mixing board to three ILA cases in Nicaragua, Madagascar, and the Congo Basin to show some of the many possible configurations of qualifiers on the mixing board. Further application of the tool would allow comparative analysis of the complexity of ILA in a structured and manageable way thereby enhancing the understanding of ILA performance and informing the development of evidence-based land use policy.
... The consensual and deliberative approach may produce "depoliticization mechanisms that limit political expression and struggle" (Moog, Spicer, and Böhm 2015, 6), thus inhibiting divergent or radical viewpoints (Santaniello et al. 2016). The latter could be dismissed as "extremist", "ideological", or contrary to multistakeholder initiatives' collaborative and goal-oriented spirit (Cheyns and Riisgaard 2014;Edmunds and Wollenberg 2001). Furthermore, the lack of capacity of lesser resourced stakeholders to understand the complexity of "technically-opaque policy fields" (Keller 2016, 291) can lead to asymmetric power that thwarts equal participation (Take 2012). ...
In this exploratory study we examine a less scrutinized aspect of multistakeholder arrangements: the presence and directionality of hegemonic power in the language used in the stakeholder deliberations. Specifically, we examine the deliberations of ten stakeholder groups of ICANN’s policy development body. Using meeting transcripts from 2011 to 2020, we operationalized hegemony as a latent, dependent variable (HEIN) by linking stakeholder participation to the policymaking agenda. We employed a mixed-methods approach comprising textual linguistic analysis (using DICTION 7.1), principal components analysis, and an autoregressive moving average model to identify the statistical significance of key variables that emerged from textual linguistic and principal components analyses. We found that three primary rhetorical devices – participatory evangelism, quiet politics, and glorification of the status quo – were present, which reinforce the entrenched power structure that favors some stakeholders and interfere with other stakeholders’ efforts to influence Internet governance decisions. In addition, four Diction variables, Commonality, Leveling Terms, Satisfaction, and Commonality at the GNSO (Generic Names Supporting Organization) level, yielded a positive impact on the production of hegemony, and Insistence was negatively associated with HEIN.
... Cette diversité peut également signifier l'implication de multiples niveaux : local, régional, provincial, fédéral et international (Addy et al., 2015;Roter, 2015 (Poncelet, 2001;Turcotte et Dancause, 2002), Warner (2007) signale que la recherche d'un consensus peut ne pas convenir à toutes les situations ou à toutes les cultures et que la recherche d'un consensus peut aussi signifier des discussions à l'infini . Pour leur part, Moreyra et Wegerich (2006) affirment que la recherche d'un consensus élimine la diversité en homogénéisant les discussions (Edmunds et Wollenberg, 2001 Une dernière caractéristique fondamentale du partenariat multipartite est qu'il est orienté vers la mise en oeuvre (Bäckstrand, 2006). Comme le font valoir Biermann et al. (2007), une meilleure implantation est généralement considérée comme la raison d'être la plus importante des partenariats multipartites. ...
... Thus, research and practice may spend too much time debating which agenda for change is best, and too little time considering how to facilitate better interactions among different agendas. The tendency to close down debate over co-production agendas, and cover up disagreements for sake of convenient consensus is linked to the standards of "success" by which scientists and practitioners are held accountable, alongside pressure to show immediate tangible outcomes (Cockburn et al., 2019;Edmunds and Wollenberg, 2001;. Such time pressure can incentivize the rapid creation of large 'inclusive' multi-stakeholder platforms; yet, co-productively agile initiatives consistently limited participation in important ways to effectively balance power relations and cultivate safe spaces (Haller and Merten, 2018;Ö sterblom et al., 2017). ...
Co-production, the collaborative weaving of research and practice by diverse societal actors, is argued to play an important role in sustainability transformations. Yet, there is still poor understanding of how to navigate the tensions that emerge in these processes. Through analyzing 32 initiatives worldwide that co-produced knowledge and action to foster sustainable social-ecological relations, we conceptualize ‘co-productive agility’ as an emergent feature vital for turning tensions into transformations. Co-productive agility refers to the willingness and ability of diverse actors to iteratively engage in reflexive dialogues to grow shared ideas and actions that would not have been possible from the outset. It relies on embedding knowledge production within processes of change to constantly recognize, reposition, and navigate tensions and opportunities. Co-productive agility opens up multiple pathways to transformation through: (1) elevating marginalized agendas in ways that maintain their integrity and broaden struggles for justice; (2) questioning dominant agendas by engaging with power in ways that challenge assumptions, (3) navigating conflicting agendas to actively transform interlinked paradigms, practices, and structures; (4) exploring diverse agendas to foster learning and mutual respect for a plurality of perspectives. We explore six process considerations that vary by these four pathways and provide a framework to enable agility in sustainability transformations. We argue that research and practice spend too much time closing down debate over different agendas for change – thereby avoiding, suppressing, or polarizing tensions, and call for more efforts to facilitate better interactions among different agendas.
... Criticism of the participatory paradigm that preceded the current interest in MSPs notes that some of the main power imbalances challenging MSP-like processes are at the level of technical knowledge held by different participants and in the ability of more powerful participants to decide what kind of knowledge is more important than others (Cooke andKothari 2001, Edmunds andWollenberg 2001). Across the cases, differences in knowledge as an action resource were identified as a critical source of power imbalances. ...
Multistakeholder platforms (MSPs) are the subject of increasing attention and investment in the domain of collaborative natural resource governance, yet evidence-based guidance is slim on policy and investment priorities to leverage the MSP approach. We provide a comparative analysis of eight landscape-level MSPs spanning seven countries (Peru, Brazil, India, Tanzania, Ethiopia, and a cross-border case from Kenya and Somalia), representing a diversity of resource systems covering forests, rangelands, and multiuse agricultural landscapes. Applying an adapted social-ecological systems framework, our synthesis identifies the influence of these MSPs on patterns of stakeholder interaction and draws implications for the design and organization of MSPs that are both appropriate and effective. From the cases, we distill lessons addressing: (1) how to design an MSP in relation to the governance context, including the fit between institutional and ecological dimensions of the system and with attention to cross-scale linkages; (2) how to implement inclusive processes that address power inequities, including through capacity building and procedural rules; and (3) how to support adaptive learning to expand the MSP’s influence over time, including monitoring outcomes, adapting the scope of stakeholder engagement, and investing in MSP durability.
... Social learning, in relation to CBNRM, is a multifaceted process in which multiple stakeholders bring together their different knowledge, experiences, perspectives, values and capacities in social spaces where communication, joint deliberation, critical reflection and analysis are facilitated as a means of identifying ways forward in relation to a shared issue ; see also Leeuwis and Pyburn 2002). An emphasis is placed on shared or co-learning and facilitation involves negotiation of power relations, including conflict management (Leeuwis 2000;Edmunds and Wollenberg 2001;Prabhu, McDougall and Fisher 2007). As such, while learning occurs naturally in society, social learning as framed here is a way to harness learning potential more consciously. ...
... Social learning, in relation to CBNRM, is a multifaceted process in which multiple stakeholders bring together their different knowledge, experiences, perspectives, values and capacities in social spaces where communication, joint deliberation, critical reflection and analysis are facilitated as a means of identifying ways forward in relation to a shared issue ; see also Leeuwis and Pyburn 2002). An emphasis is placed on shared or co-learning and facilitation involves negotiation of power relations, including conflict management (Leeuwis 2000;Edmunds and Wollenberg 2001;Prabhu, McDougall and Fisher 2007). As such, while learning occurs naturally in society, social learning as framed here is a way to harness learning potential more consciously. ...
... In river basins, water management stakeholders may have different levels and kinds of education, speak different languages, differ in access to politics and hold different beliefs about how nature and society function (cf. Edmunds and Wollenberg, 2001). If this is not taken into account when creating new rules, roles and rights, the institutional outcome can easily privilege those who are literate and have access to the legal system. ...
As water scarcity increases, pressure to reallocate water from agriculture to other uses mounts. With this mounting pressure comes the need for institutional arrangements that can manage and accommodate shifts to higher value uses of water. These changes in resource allocation patterns have profound implications for all involved players, particularly the agriculturists whose livelihoods are based on irrigation. The thirteen chapters of this book review basin management and cover case studies conducted in developed and developing countries, applying a functional theory of river basin management. The theory is based on the idea that there is a minimum set of functions that enable effective management in successful river basins. The studied basins were: Neste located in France, Central Valley in California (USA), Lerm-Chapala in Mexico, Olifants in South Africa, Dong Nai in Vietnam, and Gediz in Turkey. A set of basic conditions required for effective management institutions to emerge, is presented. Water policy, key water management stakeholders, enabling conditions (viz., political and informational attributes, legal authority and resources), and organizational configurations are also covered.
... Community organizers may facilitate development of collective action. Multi-stakeholder platforms can bring together diverse participants concerned with irrigation, domestic water supply, industry, environment, and other issues [75][76][77][78][79][80]. Appreciative Inquiry [81] and other facilitation methods can foster engagement in polycentric problem solving [82]. ...
The growth of groundwater irrigation poses opportunities and challenges, particularly in Africa where substantial potential exists for increased groundwater irrigation but has been constrained by limited access to energy, technology for pumps and drilling, markets, and other factors. Conventional groundwater governance concepts for state-led regulation or co-management are problematic for conditions where state capacity or political support for regulation to reconcile conflicting interests is limited. Experience in Africa and elsewhere does offer examples that may help recognize feasible patterns for collective action that can influence the equity, efficiency, and sustainability of groundwater development. An extended ladder of participation helps look beyond state-led water governance and co-management to a more diverse range of opportunities for supporting local autonomy and initiative to expand opportunities and solve problems in groundwater development. Collective action in groundwater governance can include well spacing; sharing of wells, pumps, and pipes; protecting domestic water sources; crop coordination; groundwater recharge; water imports; and aquifer management. Even where non-state organizations and collective action play primary roles in water governance, they may still be empowered by, receive advice from, or share information with government agencies and other actors. Polycentric groundwater governance can be supported by improving information, facilitating cooperation, endorsing standards, providing a legal framework for resolving conflicts and constituting governance agreements, and through polycentric social learning. Polycentric institutional artisanship by water users and their organizations can help find feasible solutions for improving groundwater governance.
... Certains auteurs insistent plutôt sur les complémentarités potentielles entre approches stratégiques et dialogiques, considérant que des approches stratégiques, en révélant les asymétries de pouvoir et en les empêchant de structurer le processus participatif, peuvent ouvrir la voie àdes processus plus dialogiques (Leeuwis, 2000). La question devient alors celle de la capacité à analyser les rapports de force à l'oeuvre et à les neutraliser dans le processus délibératif, notamment en s'assurant d'offrir les conditions d'expression d'acteurs habituellement minoritaires (Edmunds et Wollenberg, 2001 ;Barnaud et Van Paassen, 2013). Dans les démarches étudiées, non seulement ces acteurs minoritaires sont conviés aux groupes de travail participatifs, mais les récits en eux-mêmes sont une occasion de leur (re)donner une voix, en donnant à voir une diversité de points de vue. ...
De multiples démarches d'accompagnement se sont développées autour de l'élaboration et la mise en place de dispositifs de gestion de l'eau. Cet article contribue aux interrogations sur la portée et l'efficacité de ces démarches. Il s'intéresse plus particulièrement aux démarches historiques et prospectives, à travers leur spécificité commune : la capacité à construire des récits. Sur la base de trois études de cas, ayant combiné approches historique et prospective, il ressort que les récits construits permettent une opération de mise en intrigue entre des éléments hétérogènes : questions techniques liées à la gestion de l'eau, mais aussi dimensions politiques, sociales, sensibles, associées aux attachements des usagers. La co-construction de ces récits avec les acteurs de la gestion de l'eau contribue à des changements de représentations et à un intéressement aux enjeux de gestion chez ces derniers, créant un terrain favorable à la mise en place d'actions ambitieuses. La mise en intrigue au cœur des récits permet de partager un nouvel état de compréhension de la situation, qui repose sur la reconnaissance de la pluralité des fonctionnements techniques et des attachements associés, et qui contribue à améliorer la qualité des arènes délibératives autour des enjeux de gestion de l'eau.
... SEPLS allow us to determine how both socio-economic development and biodiversity conservation can be achieved simultaneously and require strong community involvement in all aspects including the work of monitoring and evaluation, for successful implementation (Saito et al., 2020). More integrative planning and design processes grounded in improved multistakeholder negotiation mechanisms are needed to enhance landscape multifunctionality (Edmunds and Wollenberg, 2001;Castella et al., 2013;Durham et al., 2014). ...
As sustainable management of production landscapes and seascapes is increasingly becoming important for global conservation of biodiversity, understanding people dimensions holds key to successful conservation projects. The “Indicators of Resilience in Socio-Ecological Production Landscapes and Seascapes” (the Indicators) had been developed to capture the multifaceted nature of landscapes and human interactions with them.. Although the Indicators had been used in many projects around the world, they had not been used before and after project interventions to determine project impacts. The information from the assessment workshops conducted in Ecuador, India and Seychelles were analyzed to determine the effectivity of the Indicators in project evaluation and monitoring. We then explored how information derived from the use of the Indicators can help project proponents understand the impact of the projects. The results show that the Indicators can be effectively used to determine the strengths and weaknesses of projects being implemented by obtaining input and feedback from stakeholders involved and/or affected by project interventions. We conclude that the Indicators serve as an effective tool for community-based assessment for projects and the overall status of resilience of landscapes and seascapes. We emphasize that qualitative information in discussion among participants of assessments using the Indicators hold rich contents that can be used to better understand the project impact and community needs; thus the project proponents should use the Indicators to obtain and learn from such information, rather than the numerical results which the Indicators also give.
... By adopting a political ecology perspective and attending to the processes of negotiation entailed within CF across longer timescales, this paper will contribute to understandings of the politics of participation within contemporary decentralised resource management practices. Like Nygren (2005), we see negotiation as a power-laden process through which people (re)shape unequal relationshipsregulated in turn by wider socio-economic and political conditions that affect what can be negotiated and by whom (see also Edmunds & Wollenberg, 2001). Using this terminology, we explore the negotiation of the power relations of CF in a region where issues of conflict and tenure security have long shaped the social forest. ...
Since the 1970s, Community forestry (CF) initiatives have sought to combine sustainable forestry, community participation and poverty alleviation. Like other community-based forms of natural resource management (CBNRM), CF has been lauded for its potential to involve local people in conservation while opening new opportunities for economic development. However, CF programmes are not always successful, economically or ecologically, and, by devolving new powers and responsibilities to an abstractly defined “community,” they risk exacerbating existing patterns of social exclusion, and creating new conflicts. In this paper we mobilise a relational concept of negotiation within a political ecology framework to explore how the power relations of CF are addressed and transformed in a region where issues of conflict and tenure security have long shaped the social forest. Specifically, we focus on the emergence and consolidation of ACOFOP [Asociación de Comunidades Forestales de Petén], a Forest Based Association in the Maya Biosphere Reserve in the Petén region of Guatemala, where CF has been practised for 25 years. Emphasising the importance of longer histories of social movements and organisations to local capacities for CF, we explore the conditions of possibility that enabled ACOFOP to emerge, as well as the strategies it has adopted to make national regulatory frameworks work for local communities. Through qualitative analysis derived from participatory research, interviews and ethnographic data, we trace four key areas of ACOFOP’s model of accompaniment (participatory decision-making; conflict resolution; advocacy and capacity-building) that have been developed in response to the negotiation of political issues pertaining to, and stemming from, the practice of CF. Highlighting ongoing challenges, and key strategies for CBNRM in other contexts, we conclude by emphasising that systems of community management cannot be “equitable,” or indeed sustainable, if political issues of access and tenure are not kept central to questions of participation.
... it turned out the farmer and peri-urban resident groups indeed appreciated our methodology for capacity-building for engaging in interactions with authorities. However, multistakeholder dialogue should be combined with training and strategies to level the playing field (see also edmunds and Wollenberg, 2001). ...
... There are many models of stakeholder engagement, although some of the most promising approaches involve multi-stakeholder forums wherein decision makers engage in collaborative planning processes with communities and representatives from the private and NGO sector (Edmunds and Wollenberg 2001;Coleman et al. 2019). Note that stakeholder engagement moves beyond mere token consultation; it instead demands a genuinely collaborative approach to policy implementation through sustained interactions. ...
... Accountability approaches require capacities to conduct independent investigations, audits, or monitoring and to establish perceptions of independence and expertise supportive of adjudicative and investigatory functions (self-reference). In either scenario, capacities to facilitate community redress often require strong local contextual knowledge and relationships, together with sufficient financial and organizational resources to support active community outreach and capacity building where required (Edmunds & Wollenberg 2001;Lukas et al. 2016, pp. 244-246). ...
Redress for communities harmed by transnational business activity remains elusive. This paper examines community efforts to access redress for human rights‐related harms via recourse to transnational nonjudicial mechanisms (NJMs) – a prevalent but widely debated instrument of transnational business regulation. Drawing together insights from theoretical debates surrounding nonjudicial regulation and evidence from a major empirical study of human rights redress claims in Indonesia and India, the paper explores the conditions under which NJMs can support community access to remedy. Three conditions are shown to be central in enabling some degree of NJM effectiveness: the institutional design of regulatory strategies, the institutional empowerment of regulatory institutions, and social empowerment of affected communities and their supporters. While all three conditions are required in some measure to underpin effective NJM interventions, these conditions can be combined in varying ways in different contexts to underpin either top–down or bottom–up pathways to redress. The former derives its primary influence from institutional authority and capacity, while the latter relies more heavily on diffuse societal leverage in support of community claims. These findings have significant implications for theoretical debates about the capacity and limits of nonjudicial regulatory approaches to support human rights redress within decentered contexts of transnational regulation where both regulatory power and agency are widely diffused.
... In addition to vertical integration at all levels, horizontal connections within the same level are the key to achieving successful CPR management (Steenbergen et al. 2017). Additionally, we must consider disparities of resources, background, and status among stakeholders and cannot neutralize the differentiation between advantaged and disadvantaged groups (Edmunds and Wollenberg 2001). ...
This study proposes a framework of multilevel governing networks to analyse issues of multiple-use common-pool resource management in a complex socio-ecological system. By exploring the case study of the Golden Corridor Program in Yunlin, Taiwan, we found that self-governance at the community level is a partial way to govern multiple-use common-pool resources. Farmland here is facing the impact of land subsidence, and the high-speed rail construction has overweighted the surface. Although the Golden Corridor Program attempts to mitigate this effect of land subsidence on rail traffic safety through rewards for water-saving farming activities for farmers, the implementation lacks the intensive vertical integration and horizontal connections required to promote the collaborative platform among stakeholders. Local farmers still care about agricultural revenue. Thus, the loose self-governing capacity cannot generate institutional collective actions to improve the agri-environment here. The premature multilevel governing network has caused the governance failure to regulate this multiple-use common-pool resource.
... A variety of techniques are available for helping people to get to know each other and learn to work together, including those developed in terms of facilitation, public participation, community engagement, dialogue and deliberation, and alternative dispute resolution. More specialized processes such as multi-stakeholder dialogue Edmunds and Wollenberg 2001;Focht and Trachtenberg 2005;Ratner and Smith 2014), may be particularly suitable for facilitating cooperation among diverse interests and organizations, but need due attention to differences among participants. Where adequate funding is available, it can be useful to hire specialized facilitators, especially in cases where there are severe and long-standing conflicts, or major differences in knowledge and power among participants. ...
... Importantly, it recognizes its positive potential, especially in terms of collective action and agency (see VeneKlasen and Miller 2007;White et al. 2015 Partzsch (2016: 196) summarizes that from this viewpoint, "[a]s there are no subordinates from this power perspective, no imperative to resist follows". If we approach this stance critically, however, we could argue that it would miss the strategies chosen by groups that refuse to participate in an MSF because of their own recognition that participation may not serve their own strategic purposes (see Edmunds and Wollenberg 2001;Faysee et al. 2006). That is, this viewpoint often overlooks the real place of unequal power relations between MSF participants, and how power may structure how stakeholders engage with each other outside the MSF. ...
The study aimed to reveal the effectiveness of the use of the negotiating approach in obtaining social studies material and developing historical thinking skills. The researcher used the quasi-experimental approach, and a study sample which consisted of (53) students from the Seventh Grade students from Al-Rawda School for Basic Education in North Eastern Province in the Sultanate of Oman. The sample was divided into two groups: the experimental included (27) students and the control which included (26) students. The researcher used two tools to achieve the goals of the study: the achievement test and the test of historical thinking skills. The researcher verified the validity of these tools by presenting them to a group of arbitrators. The stability of tools were varied through the cronbach Alva laboratory, where it reached (0.75) for the achievement test, and (0.71) for the test of historical thinking skills., The study found that there are statistically significant differences at the level of significance (0.05 ≥α) between the mean female students ’grades in the achievement test and the post-historical thinking skills test for the benefit of the experimental group. This finding confirms the effectiveness of the negotiating approach in obtaining the subject of social studies and the development of historical thinking skills among students of the class Basic seventh. In light of this, the study recommended the need to take advantage of the negotiating approach in teaching subject studies, especially history teaching, and training social studies teachers on how to use the negotiating approach in teaching social studies
The study aimed to reveal the effectiveness of the use of the negotiating approach in obtaining social studies material and developing historical thinking skills. The researcher used the quasi-experimental approach, and a study sample which consisted of (53) students from the Seventh Grade students from Al-Rawda School for Basic Education in North Eastern Province in the Sultanate of Oman. The sample was divided into two groups: the experimental included (27) students and the control which included (26) students. The researcher used two tools to achieve the goals of the study: the achievement test and the test of historical thinking skills. The researcher verified the validity of these tools by presenting them to a group of arbitrators. The stability of tools were varied through the cronbach Alva laboratory, where it reached (0.75) for the achievement test, and (0.71) for the test of historical thinking skills., The study found that there are statistically significant differences at the level of significance (0.05 ≥α) between the mean female students ’grades in the achievement test and the post-historical thinking skills test for the benefit of the experimental group. This finding confirms the effectiveness of the negotiating approach in obtaining the subject of social studies and the development of historical thinking skills among students of the class Basic seventh. In light of this, the study recommended the need to take advantage of the negotiating approach in teaching subject studies, especially history teaching, and training social studies teachers on how to use the negotiating approach in teaching social studies.
Forest conservation has long faced conflicts between traditionally-living indigenous peoples and other more modern stakeholders. Often such conflicts are rooted in differences between the perceived interests of indigenous peoples and other stakeholders, or in ineffective negotiations due to a power-disparity between involved stakeholders. Thus far conservationists have tried to overcome such conflicts by creating different types of collaborative management systems with indigenous peoples. Although co-management appears a good solution to guide all stakeholders towards a conservation target, in practice few such arrangements have proven successful. The co-management model offers a greater potential for success when it is approached as a conflict-prone system. This paper presents a methodology for aligning the interests of different stakeholders during the creation of a co-management system in Suriname. Using the Model for the Analysis of Potential Conflict in Development (MAPCID), we demonstrate that timely identification of conflict and balancing of power made the system preemptive and adaptive, two factors essential to the successful creation of the South Suriname Conservation Corridor.
The co-creation of knowledge through a process of mutual learning between scientists and societal actors is an important avenue to advance science and resolve complex problems in society. While the value and principles for such transdisciplinary water research have been well established, the power and empowerment dimensions continue to pose a challenge, even more so in international processes that bring together participants from the Global North and Global South. We build on earlier research to combine known phases, activities, and principles for transdisciplinary water research with a negotiated approach to stakeholder empowerment. Combining these elements, we unpack the power and empowerment dimension in transdisciplinary research for peri-urban groundwater management in the Ganges Delta. Our case experiences show that a negotiated approach offers a useful and needed complement to existing transdisciplinary guidelines. Based on the results, we identify responses to the power and empowerment challenges, which add to existing strategies for transdisciplinary research. A resulting overarching recommendation is to engage with power and politics more explicitly and to do so already from the inception of transdisciplinary activities as a key input for problem framing and research agenda setting.
Food systems are made of a myriad of actors, visions and interests. Collaborative governance arrangement may foster their transformation towards greater sustainability when conventional means, such as state-oriented planning, technological developments or social innovations provide insufficient impetus. However, such arrangements may achieve transformative results only under certain conditions and in specific contexts. Despite an abundant literature on participatory schemes, the success for collaborative governance arrangements remains partially understood and deserves academic attention, in particular in the field of food systems reform. This article provides an in-depth analysis of an empirical case study in the Walloon Region (Belgium), where the administration for sustainable development initiated a six-month participatory process to collectively construct a roadmap towards a sustainable regional food system. The article explores the extent to which the process has allowed transformative voices to emerge, and assesses whether the outcome provides a promising tool for adopting a transformative policy at the regional scale. It argues that the facilitation process insufficiently attenuated existing power relations and highlights key underlying factors (including time, resources, expertise and coalition building) that, like in classical negotiation settings, strengthen or weaken specific actors. It discusses the link between the results of the participatory process and the potential for policy-makers to build upon these to guide further the region’s food system towards a sustainable future.
The aim of this paper is to analyse social and organizational dimensions of the environmental licensing and implementation process of the mining project Minas-Rio, discussing methodological and managerial frailties highlighted by the accumulation of reports regarding irregularities, socioenvironmental conflicts, and flaws in the venture’s masterplan. This situation reveals authoritarian systems of business management and territorial governance, which fail to sustain local development, subjecting families to the disruption of their traditional livelihood. In 10 years (2007-2017) following the case, qualitative methods - participative techniques - were used to collect data, allowing the comprehension of the environmental licensing processes, negotiations and conflicting clashes between actors. It was observed that tools for public corporate planning did not prove to be able to guarantee the management of the impacts on water resources: watercourses had springs and stretches trapped and communities declared themselves affected by the water drying and pollution, being assisted only with precarious supply solutions.
Taken together, the works of Jurgen Habermas and Michel Foucault highlight an essential tension in modernity. This is the tension between the normative and the real, between what should be done and what is actually done. Understanding this tension is crucial to understanding modern democracy, what it is and what it could be. It has been argued that an effective way of making democracy stronger is to strengthen civil society. This article contains a comparative analysis of the central ideas of Habermas and Foucault as they pertain to the question of democracy and civil society. More specifically, the discourse ethics of Habermas is contrasted with the power analytics and ethics of Foucault evaluating their usefulness for those interested in understanding, and bringing about, democratic social change.
Because it assumes that multiple values and worldviews exist, the political philosophy of pluralism is a compelling foundation for the design of participatory processes in natural resource management and rural development. It provides a basis for critiquing much of the public participation tradition that dates back almost three decades in many natural resource and environmental management agencies. Certainly the recent pattern of seemingly intractable conflicts has revealed that the traditional methods that agencies have used to involve the public in management decisions have significant limitations. A learning-oriented collaborative approach would be a public participation orientation more compatible with pluralism. This paper presents and compares five methods for collaboration: Transactive Planning, Communities of Interests-Open Decision-making (sic), Search Conferencing- Participative Design Workshop, Constructive Confrontation, and Collaborative Learning. It also introduces the "Progress Triangle" as a framework for assessing the collaborative potential of a given environmental or natural resource conflict situation. Revoir la participation du public dans l'aménagement des ressources naturelles: Concepts issus du pluralisme et cinq méthodes émergentes Sommaire Basée sur l'existence d'une multitude de valeurs et des visions du monde, la philosophie politique du pluralisme représente un fondement indispensable dans la conception de méthodes participatives pour l'aménagement des ressources naturelles et le développement rural. Elle permet de faire la
In the past, indigenous people have often been entirely excluded from social impact assessments (SIAs) of projects or activities that affect them, or have faced major financial and cultural barriers in participating effectively and in having their perspectives accepted as legitimate. More recently, indigenous groups have achieved greater success in influencing SIA, but a fundamental problem remains. Their enhanced input into SIA has generally not increased the capacity of indigenous people to shape the outcomes of development projects in ways that favor their interests. This problem reflects a wider failure, extensively documented in the literature, to integrate SIA into decision-making. Drawing on case studies from Australia's Cape York Peninsula, this article shows how SIA can be integrated into the negotiation of legally binding agreements between developers and indigenous groups, offering a practical and effective way of ensuring that SIA findings influence the development and operationof resource projects. While the case studies relate to specific regional, political, and cultural contexts, the general approach outlined in the article should be of interest to indigenous communities and SIA practitioners.
The study of identity forms a critical cornerstone within modern sociological thought. Introduced by the works of Cooley and Mead, identity studies have evolved and grown central to current sociological discourse. Microsociological perspectives dominated work published through the 1970s. Sociologists focused primarily on the formation of the "me," exploring the ways in which interpersonal interactions mold an individual's sense of self. Recent literature constitutes an antithesis to such concerns. Many works refocus attention from the individual to the collective; others prioritize discourse over the systematic scrutiny of behavior; some researchers approach identity as a source of mobilization rather than a product of it; and the analysis of virtual identities now competes with research on identities established in the copresent world. This essay explores all such agenda as raised in key works published since 1980. I close with a look toward the future, suggesting trajectories aimed at synthesizing traditional and current concerns.
Summary Recent approaches to community-based natural resource management frequently present ‘communities’ as consensual units, able to act collectively in restoring population-resource imbalances or reestablishing harmonious relations between local livelihoods and stable environments. Arguing that these underlying assumptions and policy narratives are flawed as guidelines for policy, this article presents an alternative perspective which starts from the politics of resource access and control among diverse social actors, and sees patterns of environmental change as the outcomes of negotiation or contestation between their conflicting perspectives. The notion of ‘environmental entitlements’ encapsulates this shift in perspective, and provides analytical tools to specify the benefits that people gain from die environment which contribute to their well-being. The processes by which people gain environmental endowments and entitlements are, in turn, shaped by diverse institutions, both formal and informal.
The multiple commons is an important context in a world facing the eco-challenge. The platform for land use negotiation is a perspective concerning the good governance of the multiple commons. Platforms are devices or procedures for social learning and negotiation about effective collective action. They create collective decision making capacity at eco-system levels at which critical ecological services need to be managed. Taking platforms seriously as an option for designing a more sustainable society assumes a belief in the human capacity to engage in collective action. Unfortunately, human thinking about humans is dominated by perspectives that emphasize either technical solutions to given human ends, or perspectives that emphasize the selfish nature of human ends. This article focuses especially on the latter: the strategic narratives that have become dominant as society increasingly becomes designed on economic principles. The paper seeks to explain the dominance of strategic narratives and provides social science evidence for alternative perspectives. It concludes with cornerstones for an alternative narrative.
Collective action processes in complex, multiple-use common-pool resources (CPRs) have only recently become a focus of study. When CPRs evolve into more complex systems, resource use by separate user groups becomes increasingly interdependent. This implies, amongst others, that the institutional framework governing resource use has to be re-negotiated to avoid adverse impacts associated with the increased access of any new stakeholders, such as overexploitation, alienation of traditional users, and inter-user conflicts. The establishment of platforms for resource use negotiation is a way of dealing with complex natural resource management problems. Platforms arise when stakeholders perceive the same resource management problem, realize their interdependence in solving it, and come together to agree on action strategies for solving the problem (Rling, 1994). This article sets the scene for a discussion in this Special Issue about the potential of nested platforms for resource use negotiation in facilitating collective action in the management of complex, multiple-use CPRs. The article has five objectives. First, we define collective action in the context of this paper. Second, we discuss the importance of collective action in multiple-use CPRs. Third, we introduce the concept of platforms to coordinate collective action by multiple users. Fourth, we address some issues that emerge from evidence in the field regarding the role and potential of nested platforms for managing complex CPRs. Finally, we raise five discussion statements. These will form the basis for the collection of articles in this special issue.
The multiple commons is an important context in a world facing the eco-challenge. The platform for land use negotiation is a perspective concerning the good governance of the multiple commons. Platforms are devices or procedures for social learning and negotiation about effective collective action. They create collective decision making capacity at eco-system levels at which critical ecological services need to be managed. Taking platforms seriously as an option for designing a more sustainable society assumes a belief in the human capacity to engage in collective action. Unfortunately, human thinking about humans is dominated by perspectives that emphasize either technical solutions to given human ends, or perspectives that emphasize the selfish nature of human ends. This article focuses especially on the latter: the strategic narratives that have become dominant as society increasingly becomes designed on economic principles. The paper seeks to explain the dominance of stra- tegic narratives and provides social science evidence for alternative perspectives. It concludes with cornerstones for an alternative narrative.
Alternatives 23 (1998), 149-173 Social Movements and the Problem of Globalization Cecelia Lynch* There is a developing understanding among some “progressive” con- temporary social movement groups that economic globalization poses the primary obstacle to the fulfillment of their goals. This un- derstanding is well placed and overdue. Yet any effective response to globalization is predicated upon the ability of social movements to articulate a meaningful normative, or discursive, challenge. The par- ticular form of contemporary social movements’ inherited interna- tionalist focus, along with both activists’ and theorists’ past rejection of issues and politics deemed too class-based, has resulted in what we might call the discursive demobilization of movements on questions of economic praxis. This article thus seeks to open dialogue about the ability of what currently constitutes the normative challenge to globalization on the part of contemporary movements to reverse this discursive demobilization. “Globalization,” a phenomenon that succeeds the concepts of “modernization” and “interdependence,” now constitutes the touch- stone of any discussion of the contemporary world political economy. At the same time, there is heightened interest in the role of social movements in processes of change in world politics, and conse- quently in what is termed by some “transnational” or “global” civil so- ciety.1 As Stephen Gill points out, economic globalization affects so- ciety, on the group, national, and transnational levels: “[T]here are connections between the processes of economic globalization, and the way the outlook, expectations, and social choices of individuals and groups are being reshaped and reconfigured”? Although globalization is much discussed, disparaged, or touted, de- pending on the audience, disagreement remains concerning whether it is highly or marginally significant, new or old, and a phenomenon of *Dept. of Political Science, Northwestern University, Scott Hall, 601 University Place, Evanston, Ill., 60208-1006 149
Conflicts over natural resources are becoming more frequent due to increasing populations, the clash between different value systems, and the greater economic and environmental demands on finite resources. The dynamics of conflict are complex as a result of interacting factors related to the parties involved, the nature of the resource, and the stage of development of the conflict. Where people are denied access to resources or are continually marginalised from resource-planning processes, disputes may escalate to civil strife. While the underlying causes of conflict may be clear, there is an urgent need for practical methods to address and resolve conflict. Mechanisms are required to promote understanding and cooperation of an increasing number of stakeholders, especially if resources are to be sustained to support present and future generations. The International Model Forest Program is one example of a multi-stakeholder approach in conflict prevention and resolution at the landscape level of resource management.
This essay brings together two contemporary literatures: theories of pluralism that focus our attention on inequality between groups and theories of identity that emphasize its multiple and constructed character. I use these debates to construct a lens through which to analyze the institutional representation of disadvantaged groups. Group identity is orchestrated and produced in part through political institutional processes; thus attempts at democratic reform have to address normative questions about what forms of citizenship should be produced and enabled by representative institutions. I argue that representative reforms must take into account multiple forms of political collectivity and provide political space for citizens to deliberate about the effects of social structures on their lives and identities. Democratic theorists cannot treat group identity as fixed, but neither can we dismiss "identity politics." Guinier's (1994) model enables a multiple and variegated citizen identity, encourages coalitions between groups, and has the potential to engender citizen action beyond the electoral moment.
This paper extends debates about social capital to an analysis of the role of local institutions in establishing environmentally-sustainable development in the Bolivian Andes. Currently, neo-liberal orthodoxies assume an Andean environmental crisis without acknowledging that local adaptation by local inhabitants may reduce exposure to risk, and also enhance economic performance. Conversely alternative development orthodoxy refuses to accept that some regions may indeed be irreversible decline. The paper questions each of these 'orthodoxies'. It begins by outlining a framework linking environmental and rural economic regeneration to social capital formation, and then illustrates this in relation to case studies from the departments of Potosi and La Paz. Evidence suggests that local organizations have helped localities negotiate more effectively with state, market, and other civil society actors, as well as provide access to new, cleaner technology, financial resources, and new markets. However, the impact of local institutions in reversing processes of rural decline varies among locations, and for some areas progressive decline and out-migration seem likely. Rural regeneration is only likely to occur in these areas through concerted policy commitment to highland small farm production. This is unlikely in the absence of effective social mobilization at a national level.
The 16 Chapters are divided into 4 parts: conservation ideologies in Africa; wildlife, parks and pastoralists; conservation priorities and rural communities; and consequences for conservation and development. Papers are abstracted separately.-K.Riches
Abstracts
Over the past decade in Brazil, the convergence between international environmentalism and indigenous cultural survival concerns led to an unprecedented internationalization of local A native struggles. The Indian‐environmentalist alliance has benefited both parties, but recent events suggest that it may be unstable and may pose political risks for native people. The limitations of transnational symbolic politics as a vehicle for indigenous activism reflect tensions and contradictions in outsiders' symbolic constructions of Indian identity.
Monitoring groundwater fluctuations and flow at the coast is of both practical and research interest to a range of coastal engineering applications. These include the operation of water supply and sewage waste disposal facilities in coastal dunes, foundation design for coastal structures, coastal flora and fauna impact studies, the investigation of sediment transport mechanisms at the foreshore, and coastline stability. An overview of instrumentation and deployment requirements is provided, making specific reference to techniques that have proven successful in coastal investigations. Groundwater monitoring is not a new science, but the application of these techniques to the littoral zone is enabling new measurements to be made. To assist coastal engineers and scientists in the planning and implementation of groundwater monitoring projects, five successful field deployments are described, and the data obtained illustrated.
Contemporary sustainable development theory recognizes the need for participants in resource management issues to work in partnership to build consensus on options for moving forward. Thus, building consensus within cooperative multi-stakeholder partnership settings is receiving considerable attention from governments and resource managers alike. In Canada, the Model Forest Program was developed with aneye to bringing traditional adversaries in forest resource management issues to the same table to build consensus on programs, policies, and approaches to achieving sustainable forest management. This article applies the "Guiding Prin ciples" for building consensus for a sustainable future, developed by the Round Tables on the Environment and Economy in Canada, to the Canadian Model Forest Program, in general, and specifically tothe Manitoba Model Forest. This is done to illuminate the approaches to working together to build consensus on sus tainable forest management attempted by disparate stakeholder organizations.
A decade after widespread incorporation of community participation in rural primary health programs, researchers continue to scrutinize its impact on policy development. This paper examines community participation in a nationwide health program in rural Mexico. Research was conducted between 1986 and 1988 in administrative offices in Mexico City, Puebla, and Oaxaca, as well as in villages. Results suggest that the effects of formal and informal community participation on policy development differ. Formal participation—such as required community health activities, membership on health committees, participation in volunteer groups—has considerable impact on local health program implementation, but only limited influence on policy development. Informal community participation—which includes day-to-day interactions between program supervisors and local authorities, and interactions between clinic doctors and villagers—also has an impact on local program implementation, and, in addition, affects policy develop...
The seimotic expansion of capital and the resurgence of ecological ethnicities. With the globalization of the economy, the world has entered as 'ecological phase' in which capital is naturalized, while simultaneously nature is capitalized. In this phase, whatever was previously considered as 'external' or off-limits to the market is included as 'internal'. Put simply, if capital is nature, nature is capital too. Saving nature becomes equivalent to ensuring the reproduction of capital. As expressed in the post-Rio environmental discourse, 'the planet as a whole is our capital which must be sustainably managed'. Today, the relationship of capital to nature and humans has acquired a qualitatively different dimension. In this phase, the expansion of capital confronts ecological ethnicities in a serious way, because ecological ethnicities have to negotiate constantly with their immediate environments and have evolved a 'give-and-take' relationship with their respective ecosystems. By utilizing the notion of ecological ethnicity, the notions of ecology as well as ethnicity can be altered and enhanced. My formulation of ecological ethnicity not only offers a structural critique of capitalism for its gaps in distribution and social justice, but also explores the challenges posed in the realm of traditions of knowledge, cosmo-visions and discourses. I explicate the question of how, when faced with the crises of survival, identity and nature, ecological ethnicities use their own resilience to protect environmental niches. This way, I intend to transcend the socialist apologia which was engaged in a make-believe world, as if equal distribution of capitalist growth could take care of the crisis of nature. Transcending both the capitalist and socialist approaches to nature, the notion of ecological ethnicity is premissed upon a different equation between humans and the ecosystem.
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The abstract for this document is available on CSA Illumina.To view the Abstract, click the Abstract button above the document title.
This paper examines the discourse of Canadian multiculturalism. The author argues that, because it is grounded in presuppositions about culture and how culture serves to identify a people or nation, this discourse constructs culturally defined ethnic identities as categories of ethnic difference that both permit and deny inclusion within the Canadian nation. This argument is illustrated by an examination of the struggle of Aboriginal peoples to claim a place within the nation. The author concludes that, despite the possibilities it allows, the discourse of multiculturalism is close to a racialist discourse, and that it allows difference only in circumscribed ways.
Indigenous populations are seldom recognized as subjects engaged in innovative projects of their own making. The anthropology of indigenous Amazonian societies has tended to reflect a basic view that sees change in native culture as involving processes where the distinct characteristics of the original native are gradually dissolved. The native and the native culture may then begin to reflect imagery borrowed from mainstream national society through an adaptive process of homogenization. This perspective, and the images and vocabulary which go along with it, has allowed little scope for conceptualizing ongoing indigenous activism, its message, and its outcomes as anything but elements in this homogenization process. Observers of ethnic conflicts, social movements, or cultural rebellions in other settings tend to conceive of these phenomena as socially constructed and continuously negotiated processes and action systems through which the world is being reimagined and reshaped. Yet when it comes to similar cultural or social manifestations among indigenous populations in the Third World, analysts have hesitated to follow this line of interpretation. As often as not, interpretations have continued to rely on conceptual frameworks that are part of the inherited baggage of modernity and not very well suited to answering the kinds of questions raised by the indigenous movements. This article discusses interpretations of the social conflict and political organizing activities of the Pajonal Ash6ninka, an indigenous population in a remote Upper Amazon region in eastern Peru that has seen some highly unexpected and unforeseeable social and political changes in what for a long time counted as the established order of things in this part of the Amazon. These changes, moreover, have been brought about mainly through the agency of the indigenous ("nonmodern") rather than the immigrant, nonnative ("modern") local population. In conventional social analysis and development discourse, as well as in some of the more recent interpretations of current changes in indigenous cultures, the latter has generally been considered the promoter of change while the former has been perceived as merely adapting, if sometimes even
A partir du cas de l'expulsion des Tukano par les soldats de l'armee bresilienne, l'A. analyse l'evolution des associations laiques indigenistes et la maniere dont les indiens sont consideres depuis que les groupes de soutien, comme les organisations non gouvernementales, ont adopte un systeme bureaucratique (« routinisation de l'heroisme » selon Weber). Creation de l'image de l'Indien parfait et hyperrealite. Le probleme des relations entre l'Indien et les organisations se posent tout comme celles de l'Indien avec les ethnographes : anthropologie et indigenisme formeraient un bon partenariat.
The Chiapas uprising of 1994 rallied an international community of supporters, largely organized through activities on the Internet, that provided an example of the possi- bilities and limitations of the Net as a tool for social movements. This article models the Internet as a form of rhizome: an intermediate and contested social space composed of flows that transcend boundaries and forge new connections between events and places. The suc- cess of Internet organizing in southern Mexico is due to the constant and reciprocal connec- tions between cyberspace and other social spaces, which avoided the restriction of events to a contained space and scale. Keywords: cyberspace, Mexico, social movements, Zapatistas.
One potential source of the controversy over forest management in the Pacific Northwest is differences in stakeholders' conceptualizations, or perspectives, on appropriate forest management. This study explores the nature of stakeholders' perspectives and identifies some of the differences and commonalities among them. Study participants included 23 individuals from 3 forest stakeholder groups: the USDA Forest Service, timber industry, and environmentalists. Participants' perspectives on appropriate forest management were assessed using a conceptual content cognitive map (3CM) task. Results indicate the existence of a wide range of concerns including issues related to the focus, setting, and process of management. The pattern of differences and similarities among stakeholder groups with respect to these concerns was found to be complex and to deviate substantially from common stereotypes. In addition, participants' perceptions of the other stakeholder groups were found to be highly stereotypical and were not supported by the data. For. Sci. 45(1):62-73.
Indigenous ethnic identity among the Páez has been shaped by changing strategies of resistance to the political and economic domination and cultural hegemony of the Colombian nation‐state. This resistance has historically sustained a territorial and cultural entity, Nasa Kiwe (Páez Nation), that has incorporated both counterhege‐monic displacement of the nation‐state and a pervasive accession to hegemonic forms and institutions. My collaboration in agricultural experiments in the Páez village of Pitayó constituted an attempt to advocate for Paez cultural and territorial rights as well as to challenge anthropology's complicit relationship with nation‐building. However, the attempt reproduced the contradictions between resistance and the project of nation‐building recurrent in Latin American history.
ABSTRACTS
The people of the Rural Federation of Zambrana‐Chacuey, in the Dominican Republic, are engaged in complex and multivalent struggles over resources in a forest and farm landscape subject to rapid land use change. Acacia mangium , a fast growing tree recently introduced as a timber cash crop, has become an object, a site and a tool of struggle in conflicts between local and state interests, and between women and men. Until recently, tree cutting has been illegal, so the government‐approved acacia has reversed the role of trees from liabilities to assets in land tenure. The acacia has also begun to alter the pattern of land use, land cover, and the species composition of the region's forests, gardens, and fields, and could replace women's diverse gardens with single species blocks of timber.
This article presents a social learning perspective as a means to analyze and facilitate collective decision making and action in managed resource systems such as platforms. First, the social learning perspective is developed in terms of a normative and analytical framework. The normative framework entails three value principles, namely, systems thinking, experimentation, and communicative rationality. The analytical framework is built up around the following questions: who learns, what is learned, why it is learned, and how. Next, this perspective is used to analyze two managed resource systems: Fishery management in Lake Aheme, Benin and water resources management in Gelderland, The Netherlands. To assess platform performance in resource use negotiation, emerging lessons from the case studies are combined with propositions concerning membership of platforms, accessibility of platform meetings, skills and relations of platform members, realization of platforms, and third party facilitation of platform activities.
"For over a hundred years in India forests were under government control with very little peoples' participation. It was only in the late 1980s when the policy makers realised that the strategy of bringing uncultivated lands under government management and using them to produce industrial raw material had neither checked deforestation nor improved the economic condition of millions of people whose livelihoods were dependent on these forests. This led to a fundamental change in the Indian Forest Policy in 1988. Now forests are not to be commercially exploited, but have to conserve soil and environment, and meet the subsistence requirements of the local people. The implementation of the Policy was facilitated by the Government of India issuing a resolution in 1990 making it possible for the Forest Departments to involve people in the management of forests. Almost all major states have passed enabling resolutions to implement what is now popularly called the Joint Forest Management(JFM) programme. This is likely to be the focus of future forest development projects funded by governments and donor agencies. However, the implementation of participatory programmes has so far been uneven and halting. It is also not very well known under what conditions JFM does well, and whether these conditions are internal to the group or more influenced by governmental policies. Although experience from a diverse range of ecological and social contexts from many states is now available, where Forest Departments and communities are effectively working together to restore the productivity of forest lands, there has been a dearth of literature which attempts to synthesise such experiments, and link theories of collective action with empirical evidence. There is as yet no identification of the key factors that must be evaluated in order to explain, predict or improve the outcome of Joint Forest Management in different socio-economic conditions."
An increasing ecological awareness and greater efforts on a global scale to reverse processes of environmental degradation give rise to new forms of social and economic conflict-a ''politics of resource stabilization''-which political ecology theorists have vet to fully explore. Blaikie and Brookfield (1987) argue that the long-term payback period of capital-intensive and natural reclamation processes may potentially lead resource ''managers'' to adopt coercive labor mobilization tactics or seek out opportunities to capture inequitable subsidies in achieving stabilization goals. Both of these tendencies express themselves quite clearly in a lucrative horticultural production district on the North Bank of the River Gambia in West Africa. Two decades of drought, since the early 1970s, have prompted hundreds of women's groups in The Gambia to intensify fruit and vegetable production in low-lying communal garden projects. In an attempt at promoting environmental stabilization through tree planting, developers have encouraged male landholders to take advantage of the female labor power invested in the irrigation of garden plots by planting orchards on the same locations. Shade canopy closure eventually undermines gardeners' usufruct rights, restoring the plots to male control. The case thus serves as an illustration of the need to critically examine the political economy of stabilization initiatives. It also raises questions regarding a growing practice in Africa and elsewhere of planning voluntaristic environmental programs around the use of unpaid female labor resources.
Migrants, Locals, and Government Powers: Sulawesi's Cocoa-Forest Frontier.' Paper presented at the Center for International Forestry Research
- Tania Murray Li
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Making Social Impact Assessment Count: A Negotiation-based Approach for Indigenous PeoplesBeyond Capitalized Nature: Ecological Ethnicity as an Arena of Conflict in the Regime of GlobalizationOn the Practical Relevance of Habermas' Theory of Communicative Action
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Rich Forests, Poor People, Resource Control and Resistance in Java Collaborative Planning for Wetlands and Wildlife: Issues and Examples
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Whose Trees? Proprietary Dimensions of ForestryRethinking the Public Sphere: A Contribution to the Critique of Actually Existing DemocracyThe CyberspacèWar of Ink and Internet'' in Chiapas
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