Conference Agenda

Earth System Governance scholars have repeatedly pointed out the urgency to overcome the traditional dichotomies of humans versus nature. However, many governance frameworks capture social and ecological factors separately and conceptualize the ecological as contextual factors. In this panel, we present an innovative approach, the Social-Ecological Action Situations (SE-AS) framework, which helps to understand complex adaptive systems and multi-scale structured interactions between humans and nature to capture emergent social-ecological phenomena, such as governance outcomes. The first presentation of this panel introduces the nascent SE-AS framework. Although the framework’s initial purpose was to map system understanding with respect to a particular phenomenon and support hypotheses formulation, the presentation shows how researchers have used it in recent years for various alternative purposes. The following three presentations demonstrate examples of how the framework could be used: (1) for comparison of case studies analysing fisher-trader relationships in small-scale fisheries, (2) as a transdisciplinary boundary object to bridge between domain-specific knowledge systems and support scenario thinking, and (3) to map a social-ecological trap in biodiversity conservation. The panel will discuss the strength and challenges of the SE-AS framework in overcoming the dichotomy of humans and nature in Earth System Governance research. The panel will be complemented by a second panel on navigating a landscape of different frameworks and an innovative session exploring the different uses of the SE-AS framework and providing room for more in-depth discussions in smaller groups.

The social-ecological action-situation (SE-AS) framework is a thinking tool that incorporates understanding about complex adaptive systems, and multi-scale structured interactions between humans and nature to make sense of emergent social-ecological phenomena. Although the framework’s initial purpose was to map system understanding and support hypotheses formulation, researchers have used it for various alternative purposes, including explanation making. This reveals an unexpected breadth in its functionality but raises questions about the role of conceptual ambiguity, what practices enable its multiple functions, explanatory power, and underlying causal reasoning. In this paper we review the studies that have taken up the SE-AS framework since its publication in 2019 to scrutinize how it has been used and in what constellation of practices. We also report the outcomes of a seminar series where authors discussed possibilities and limitations for the multiple uses, as well as the framework’s ability to capture for key dependencies that explain social-ecological phenomena.

The framework’s underlying causal reasoning spans social-ecological intertwinedness, macro-to-micro influence on agents, agents’ interaction, emergence of causal configurations within and between action situations, and across scales, co-evolutionary processes, and transformational change. Explanations are context-dependent and must consider alternative mechanisms, but the framework helps to account for them. The need to be explicit about the causal dimension of the framework varies in degree when it is used for non-explanatory purposes, but it allows thinking systematically across functions.

On addition to explaining phenomena, we identified seven alternative functions: as a means to compare case studies and theorising; as boundary object to create shared systemic understanding in participatory processes; as a kit to build scenarios; as a visual resource to map one's own understanding of a case; as tool to describe case studies and explore interesting interactions; as a way to operationalise meta-theory from other traditions into a SES approach; and as an interphase between case studies and agent-based modelling that allows to account for social-ecological intertwinedness. We found that the visual representation of action situations, arrows connecting them, and the emerging phenomenon provides heuristic guidance across uses; likewise, the ambiguity of these elements allows the framework’s flexibility and multifunctionality. Each of the different uses is enabled by a different set of practices into which authors embed the framework. Since we believe that it is key to specify these practices to keep methodological and conceptual rigour, we systematically disclose them to provide further guidance to scholars interested in using the framework.

Small-scale fisheries (SSF) are likely to experience an increasing frequency and magnitude of environmental and socio-economic change. These affect the well-being of fishery actors and the overall social-ecological system (SES). The way SSF respond to impacts of global change is in many cases influenced by fishers’ relations to traders. Such fisher-trader relations (FTR) constitute a link between markets, small-scale fishers and the marine ecosystems they are dependent on. The dynamics of how FTRs respond to fast and slow change and how their responses then influence other relations and fishery’s capacity to respond to various disturbances are, however, poorly understood. Our contribution to this research gap focuses on relations within the fishery, such as the FTR, to understand its responses to change, rather than properties of actors or institutional structures. Here, we explore how FTR, embedded within other social, ecological, and social-ecological relations mediate change, such as environmental disasters, new policies or market demand. We do this through mapping of the interactions, key for understanding the mediating role of the FTR, and a qualitative synthesis across five published case studies of small-scale fisheries.

To map a constellation of interactions, which together with FTR influence fishery response to change we use a social-ecological action situation framework (SE-AS). The framework also works as collaborative tool to co-develop representations of causal pathways that link social-ecological change and FTR responses together with case study experts. Using the SE-AS representations we develop an analytical framework, which allows us to reconstruct the mediating role of FTR across cases and address how their interplay with change in a social and ecological context influences SSF responses. Comparing the case studies with the help of the analytical framework, we develop a typology of interactions that affect capacity of SSF adaptability and highlight the diversity of mechanisms that lead to different adaptation outcomes. FTR can carry out a diversity of roles within the fishery and in doing so they may amplify or absorb the effects of change for the whole fishery. This process depends on the nature of the change, but also on internal characteristics of the FTR. This advance allows other cases to more systematically analyse FTRs and draw on the relevant theories. It highlights the importance of adaptation of relations and combinations of relations rather than individual behaviours.

Freshwater biodiversity is under pressure from multiple global and local stressors. Particularly lakes experience a combination of climate induced stressors like heat waves interacting with eutrophication from land use which create highly uncertain outcomes for biodiversity and ecosystem services. Diverse interests for the use of lakes as a resource create trade-offs and synergies among them and interactions with the wider water catchment, as well as multi-level governance constituting the complexity of managing lakes as SES. The interpretation of current ecological and socio-economic evidence thus needs to be accompanied by continuous learning among stakeholders to enable adaptive management and even anticipatory governance in the face of unexpected change.

Scenario thinking as a participatory method enables to explore uncertain future pathways and deliberate over strategies that support diverse outcomes to unfold. A combination of participatory modelling, visioning and backcasting was conducted with stakeholder groups around two case study lakes in the project [project’s name removed for anonymous review process] to reflect on learning processes in lake governance. Here, we explore the use of social-ecological action-situations (SE-AS) as a transdisciplinary boundary object to bridge between domain specific interactions, enable a reflection over emerging outcomes and demonstrate how they link to each other. Our conceptual model of lake management within the SE-AS framework represents diverse social-ecological interactions various actors are engaging in around a lake. They comprise drivers for degrading water quality through excessive nutrient input in the catchment, responsive and potentially proactive monitoring and restoration activities, as well as the main ecosystem services and benefits.

We hypothesize that SE-AS representations in a transdisciplinary process support the reflection over SES as ‚moving targets‘, the need for continuous adaptation, reframing of goals, norms and values, and by this transformative learning.

Biodiversity conservation has been on the agenda of the Government of Quebec, in Canada, for several decades now. In recent years, following global trends, the provincial government has attempted to engage in conservation efforts on private lands. In doing so, the need to shift conservation governance from a mostly top-down process to one which involves the participation of stakeholders became manifest to attenuate perceived social and environmental injustice in the face of imposed conservation efforts. However, citizen participation has mostly focused so far on symbolic participation, with a lack of true citizen involvement beyond consultation sessions.

In this work, we illustrate a double-loop social-ecological trap (SET) that we foresee for conservation measures deployed on private lands in Quebec when those lands are used for production purposes. To do so, we use the SE‑AS framework, developed by [authors' names removed for anonymous review process]. The framework proposes to design a stylized model of a social-ecological system (SES). This includes action-situations (AS), in which interactions take place between and among actors and ecosystem elements; outcomes that result from those AS; a configuration formed by the ensemble of AS and their outcomes; which together give rise to an emergent phenomenon. Hence, focusing on a SET as the emergent outcome, we design an AS configuration illustrating the potential evolution of conservation efforts on private lands.

We propose that including merely symbolic landowner participation to design collaborative measures might lead to a misunderstanding of the production ecosystem dynamics and of landowners’ needs, interests and concerns. This could lead to conservation efforts on private lands that are not harmonized with production objectives, hence to a deficit in production and to the disengagement of landowners. This could in turn result in a perceived failure, by decision-makers, of participative efforts, and a return of top-down decision-making with the resulting perceived social and environmental injustice and none-compliance, hence completing the double-loop SET. We conclude by arguing that only true citizen, or in our case, landowner participation through active involvement in cooperative planning could lead to the development of venues that would allow integration of landowners’ knowledge and concerns, which in turn, could lead to a more harmonized integration of conservation efforts with production activities.