The governance of shared resources by diverse groups underlies every key sustainability challenge in the modern world. Yet, researchers struggle to understand when and how the basic principles that foster the effective governance of shared resources in small groups can scale-up to large populations with diverse beliefs and interests. To help fill this knowledge gap, in this paper we propose an embedded Model of Adaptive Capacity (the eACM). The eACM synthesizes basic insights from resource economics, team dynamics, and the behavioral science of stress to advance our understanding of how the effective governance of shared resources emerges across scales. The eACM proposes that the adaptive capacity of groups depends on key feedbacks between the stress responses of individuals, the impact of stress on group cognition, and changes in the structure and availability of shared resources. Here, we build a computational model to investigate the consequences of these basic feedback dynamics. We find that convergence towards joint solutions increases the ability of groups to adapt to changing environments and manage common pool resources sustainably. However, the achievement of a joint solution depends on a narrow window of stress arousal, a group's ability to assess resources, and a group's ability to communicate and diffuse conflict effectively. These results generate hypotheses for future empirical studies of effective resource governance.
Land degradation, driven by various human-induced activities such as agricultural practices, presents a major challenge for countries around the globe, including Tunisia. Land degradation reduces soil fertility, severely impacting agricultural productivity and jeopardizing food security (World Bank 2019). While various laws and policies to halt land degradation have been implemented in Tunisia since the 1990s, these efforts remain largely ineffective. To understand the underlying reasons, we build on literature on social-ecological fit. This literature argues that the failure of policies and degradation of ecosystems can be a result of a misfit between institutions and the characteristic of the social-ecological systems in which they operate. Governance arrangement and institutions thus need to fit the characteristics of the particular problem they address in order to be effective (Young 2008, Epstein et al. 2015).
This paper aims to understand the fit between the institutional arrangements of soil governance in Tunisia, and the social-ecological characteristics of soil problems. Specifically, we analyse whether the actors involved, i.e., state actors and farmers, are capable of addressing the soil management challenges posed by the specific social-ecological context. Or, in other words, how well the characteristics of social-ecological problems and capacities of farmers and state actors fit together. To do so, we build on transaction costs literature to characterize problems of soil management (Thiel and Moser 2019), and analyse the administrative capacities of state actors (Wegrich und Lodge 2014), along with the orientations, incentives, and capacities of farmers. The paper draws upon three local case studies, situated in the governorates of Siliana, Kairouan, and Kef. The analysis is based on data gathered through stakeholder interviews at the national, regional, and local levels, as well as stakeholder workshops and policy documents. The findings suggest that the misalignment between the needs dictated by the social-ecological problem characteristics on the one hand, and the interests and incentives of farmers, as well as the administrative capacities of state actors on the other, contributes to explain failures in soil management.
Studies of the commons predominantly focus on identifying and testing the ‘right’ governance conditions. In Indonesia, so-called ‘design principles’ are embedded into policies aimed at the forest commons, but lack attention to the ‘why’, ‘who’, and ‘how’ the commons are shaped and governed, i.e., processes of commoning. Addressing these questions repositions relational dimensions between ‘commoners’, ‘non-commoners’, and the State, elucidating dynamics between human and non-humans, and provides insights into broader implications of commons governance.
We argue for centering the processes and practices of commons governance, including a focus on the abandonment of the commons; as well as for more explicitly understanding and nurturing the corollary movements towards commoning. As (participatory action) researchers we aim to at once diagnose and facilitate the shaping of conditions that enable commoning processes to emerge among existing and new commons. In this presentation, we underscore our position by critically reflecting on longstanding engagements in Adaptive Collaborative Management (ACM) projects initiated by the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) in the early 2000s.
Past research views ACM as “an emergent governance approach for complex social-ecological systems that connects the learning function of adaptive management with the linking function of co-management.” We reflect on these learning and linking modalities and scrutinize the added value of fostering enabling conditions for commoning. We specifically seek answers on the extent to which ACM enables conditions for commoning to take shape as a social practice as well as the ways it catalyzes rules and procedures for use, distribution, stewardship, and responsibility for given resources.
We examine two Indonesian cases from Jambi (central Sumatra) and Sulawesi through their attendant commoning processes, specifically the who’s, why’s, and how’s. Doing so allows us to focus on both the possibilities of ACM while also remaining clear-eyed on what gets overlooked in shaping the conditions of commons governance.
© 2025 | Privacy & Cookies Policy
