Learning about social-ecological trade-offs

TY - JOUR

T1 - Learning about social-ecological trade-offs

AU - Galafassi, Diego

AU - Daw, Tim M.

AU - Munyi, Lydiah

AU - Brown, Katrina

AU - Barnaud, Cecile

AU - Fazey, Ioan

N1 - Funding Information: The primary and secondary stakeholders of the Nyali Beach fishery in focus groups and workshops is gratefully acknowledged. Arthur Tuda, Sheila Heymans, Allister McGregor, and Rapha?l Mathevet advised on the design of the project. This paper is a result of the project "Participatory Modelling Frameworks to Understand Well-being Trade-offs in Coastal Ecosystem Services" (P-mowtick) funded by the Ecosystem Services and Poverty Alleviation (ESPA) program (ref number: NE/I00324X/1) and received further support from K. Brown's ESRC Professorial Fellowship (RES-051-27-0263). The ESPA program is funded by the Department for International Development (DFID), the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC). Diego Galafassi also acknowledges the support of the Strategic Research Program EkoKlim at Stockholm University through the Swedish Research Council for Environment, Agricultural Sciences and Spatial Planning (FORMAS). Publisher Copyright: © 2017 by the author(s).

PY - 2017

Y1 - 2017

N2 - Trade-offs are manifestations of the complex dynamics in interdependent social-ecological systems. Addressing trade-offs involves challenges of perception due to the dynamics of interdependence. We outline the challenges associated with addressing trade-offs and analyze knowledge coproduction as a practice that may contribute to tackling trade-offs in social-ecological systems. We discuss this through a case study in coastal Kenya in which an iterative knowledge coproduction process was facilitated to reveal social-ecological trade-offs in the face of ecological and socioeconomic change. Representatives of communities, government, and NGOs attended two integrative workshops in which methods derived from systems thinking, dialogue, participatory modeling, and scenarios were applied to encourage participants to engage and evaluate trade-offs. Based on process observation and interviews with participants and scientists, our analysis suggests that this process lead to increased appreciation of interdependences and the way in which trade-offs emerge from complex dynamics of interdependent factors. The process seemed to provoke a reflection of knowledge assumptions and narratives, and management goals for the social-ecological system. We also discuss how stakeholders link these insights to their practices.

AB - Trade-offs are manifestations of the complex dynamics in interdependent social-ecological systems. Addressing trade-offs involves challenges of perception due to the dynamics of interdependence. We outline the challenges associated with addressing trade-offs and analyze knowledge coproduction as a practice that may contribute to tackling trade-offs in social-ecological systems. We discuss this through a case study in coastal Kenya in which an iterative knowledge coproduction process was facilitated to reveal social-ecological trade-offs in the face of ecological and socioeconomic change. Representatives of communities, government, and NGOs attended two integrative workshops in which methods derived from systems thinking, dialogue, participatory modeling, and scenarios were applied to encourage participants to engage and evaluate trade-offs. Based on process observation and interviews with participants and scientists, our analysis suggests that this process lead to increased appreciation of interdependences and the way in which trade-offs emerge from complex dynamics of interdependent factors. The process seemed to provoke a reflection of knowledge assumptions and narratives, and management goals for the social-ecological system. We also discuss how stakeholders link these insights to their practices.

KW - Complexity thinking

KW - Coproduction

KW - Knowledge

KW - Participatory modeling

KW - Scenarios

KW - Well-being

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85016750267&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.5751/ES-08920-220102

DO - 10.5751/ES-08920-220102

M3 - Article

SN - 1708-3087

VL - 22

JO - Ecology and Society

JF - Ecology and Society

IS - 1

M1 - 2

ER -