Session 2. 3. A.

Relationships are a fundamental aspect of our social lives. As relational beings, we have evolved to connect with others, and the quality of these connections significantly influences our emotions, thoughts, and behaviors. However, a key question remains: can the quality of these relationships also impact how we collectively manage common pool resources (CPRs)? To address this, we developed an analytical framework to measure relationship quality within groups, focusing on emotional, perceptual, and closeness-related aspects experienced by group members. Through controlled social experiments, we tested whether the quality of relationships within groups affects CPR management. We manipulated relational quality via cooperative, competitive, and individual effort tasks, followed by a CPR game. Our results indicate that the quality of relationships significantly influences resource management. Positive perceptions of self and others’ behaviors, along with a sense of engagement and closeness, led to lower CPR extractions, while negative emotional states and perceptions resulted in higher resource uptake. These findings underscore the actionable role of relationships in CPR management, identifying relational quality as a crucial determinant of collective action and advocating for fostering high-quality connections to improve CPR outcomes.

Addressing pressing social-environmental challenges requires the involvement and connection of interdependent actors with varying perspectives. Inducing perspective-taking can heighten other-regarding considerations and actions in favour of socially desirable outcomes in such situations. By encouraging decision-makers to consider broader perspectives, perspective-taking can foster concern for the well-being or expectations of others and/or for upholding personal and social norms. As a result, perspective-taking can compel prosocial behaviour. In this presentation, we draw on an extensive literature review and behavioural data obtained from fieldwork to explore how perspective-taking alters individuals' assessments of decision situations. Specifically, we examine how perspective-taking induces decision-makers to connect with, appreciate, and feel compelled to address others' needs when feasible and convenient (i.e., helping is within the realm of possibilities and not detrimental to their well-being). Our data comprises the behaviour of 206 farmers in a Peruvian watershed who learned through videos or field trips about the watershed's social and ecological conditions and interactions. A subset of these downstream farmers was asked to consider the perspectives of farmers living and working upstream while undertaking this learning activity.

The relational view moves beyond the ontological notion of the autonomous ego, deciding on self-interested versus cooperative behavior, to that of connected beings --i.e., from cogito ergo sum to curae ergo sum (we care therefore we are). We present the relational theory of collective action and proceed to sum up some of the supporting evidence that has arisen over decades. And just as connectedness can foster collective action, we note how disconnectedness lies at the origins of environmental injustice. We then spend the rest of the talk on implications for managing the commons. Relationality provides us with new strategies for engendering collective behavior. These strategies are not meant to exclude other, more conventional institutional routes to sustainable governance of the commons but, rather, can be employed in concert with other mechanisms. We reflect on the significance of the relational perspective on these critical times and pose the question, "How do we motivate busy urbanites to care for melting glaciers half a world away?"

The cryosphere is rapidly transforming due to climate change, with a shortening ice season, thawing permafrost, and glacial retreat becoming increasingly prevalent. These changes contribute to "Arctic amplification," causing the region to warm four times faster than the rest of the world. Ice has historically been a key indicator of climate change, and the Earth is becoming less 'frozen.' The cryosphere is critical for global climate stability and human populations. Rockstrom et al. (2024) recently identified the Arctic Cryosphere as a planetary commons, spanning national and supranational boundaries. Unlike conventional global commons, the Arctic has been populated for millenia, particularly by Indigenous Peoples. We urgently call for treating Arctic ice, snow, and permafrost as a critical planetary commons – a collectively governed common pool resource important at the planetary scale. Sustaining these frozen commons requires engagement from diverse actors and diverse ways of knowing at local, regional, national, and global levels, extending beyond nation-to-nation decision-making. Building on experience from Interior Alaska and northern Mongolia, this presentation highlights the importance of the concept of frozen commons for current discussions about sustainability and resilience of complex systems. We argue that bringing perspectives, amplifying voices, and elevating ethics of care for human and non-human relations in historically marginalized communities, such as Indigenous Peoples and nomadic herders in decision making and planning efforts is necessary to address climate change in a just and equitable way.