Welcome to Stockholm Resilience Centre– Research for Governance of Social-Ecological Systems

Governance networks in a changing climate

Christian Stein

Symposium The Governance of Adaptation22-23 March 2012 - Amsterdam, Netherlands

Outline

1. Why a network perspective might be useful2. Social network analysis as a method & theory 3. Agricultural water management an example4. Preliminary findings and reflections

Governance of adaptation…

• involves a range of actors related to each other through complex governance arrangements, i.e. networks

Figure: adapted from Bodin and Crona 2009

Adaptive governance

• recognize the crucial role of cross-scale interactions and argue for tapping into or establishing boundary spanning social networks

• entails “an implicit assumption about the establishment of social networks“, i.e. a notion of network management or network governance.

Carlsson and Sandström 2008

Why a network perspective?

• Adaptation strategies are often biophysically and/or socially linked

• Functional interdependencies occur, and• Actors are forced to operate in the context of

networks to find comprehensive solutions to interconnected problems

Source: Young 2002; Koppenjan and Klijn 2004

• Can be used for analyzing across different sectors and scales

• Focuses on relationships between social entities and the implications of these relationships

Figure: Ernstson et al 2010

Social network analysis

Social networks…• are more than just neat pictures

(also analytical)

1 2 3 4 5 6 ROW | Attributes

6

5

4

3

2

1

CO

LUM

N

25 Female

23 Male

22 Male

56 Female

18 Female

Governance networks are:

• reoccurring (formally or informally) institutionalized relationships that shape governance processes and outcomes

Source: Newig et al 2010

The AgWater Solutions Project

Aims to improve the livelihoods of poor and marginalized smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia through agricultural water management (AWM) solutions.

Agriculture in a changing climate

Burkina Faso: Relation between rainfall and cereal production

The need for adaptation

• Dry spells impact yields 2 out of every 3 harvests and cause the failure of 1 out of 5 in sub-Saharan Africa

• Increasing variability in precipitation patterns and extreme weather events due to climate change

• Agricultural water management -key for adaptation to climate change

Stylized networks illustrating the network approach

Analyse the social network structure

Identify opportunities and constrains

Figure: Ernstson et al 2010

Summary of case study areas

Country Watershed No of actors (surveyed)

Size (km2)

Burkina Faso Nariale 76 1060Tanzania Mkindo 70 913Zambia Mwembeshi 71 4118

Basic building blocks for modelling a system as a network• Actors

o Organizations influencing NRM in the watersheds• Relationships

o Reciprocated collaborative relationships regarding NRM

• Attributes o Type of organization, up-/downstream, scale etc.

• Boundarieso “Problemsheds” (def. spatially and relationally)

Data collection

• Social-ecological inventory• Interviews, group

discussions and organisational survey

• Multi-scale assessment, complemented by PGIS livelihood assessment and hydrological modelling

Networks of collaborative relations

Key actors in the system

Cohesive subgroups

Tanzania, Mkindo

Findings

• Informal networks play a crucial role in the management and governance of natural resources

• Local (informal) governance arrangements are often not recognized by higher level authorities

Finding cont.

• At the landscape level the social networks become more fragmented, i.e. limited horizontal interaction

• Local governance arrangements are often disconnected from the broader (formal) governance context, i.e. limited vertical interaction

Implications for the governance of adaptation

• Lack of clear implementation pathways • Adaptation strategies should acknowledge and

may benefit from building upon existing social structures

• Social network analysis provides a promising approach to systematically describe and analyse certain aspects of social complexity

Some reflections

• Social network analysis– is an interesting approach to systematically describe

and analyse multi-actor and multi-scalar governance arrangements

– can makes hidden actors and relationships visible – does not capture the political nature of (cross scale)

interactions, e.g. weak conceptualization of power

Thank you for listening!

Future research

• Scale-crossing brokers– A quantitative approach

• Intermediary & boundary organizations – What functions do they perform and why?

• The problem of institutional fit– Politics of rescaling

Social networks - just one perspective

Overall research context

How to…balance water for humans and nature in agricultural systems

Multi scalar challenge

Figure: Barron 2008

Cross-scale interactions in SES

Figure: adapted from Ernstson 2010

Cross-scale interactions

Figure: Cash et al 2006

Scale

• Multi-scale assessment

• Focal scale – Meso-scale (10-

10.000km2)

Research questions

• What actors are there? • How do they relate to each other:

– Horizontally, and – Vertically

• Who are the influential actors? • What influence do relational patterns have on

governance process and outcomes?

Analytical dimension

• Institutional interplay – Horizontally – Vertically

• Key actors– Influence– Scale crossing

brokers