Stakeholder meanings and robustness in social-ecological systems : implications for managing change.
Year: 2015
Type: dissertation
Abstract: Alignment of stakeholder behaviour with policies and rules is a key concern where natural \nresources are managed in the public interest. This thesis is based on the premise that behaviours \nare founded upon meanings as meanings direct stakeholder preferences for resource benefits. I \ndeveloped a framework representing a social-ecological system and drew on the theories of \nsymbolic interactionism and ecosystem services to illustrate the dynamic relationship between \nmeaning, context, behaviour, perception of benefits and public infrastructure (policies). I \npropose that by incorporating meanings into the design of institutions, public infrastructure will \ncontinually reflect adjustments in meaning reordering in relation to the meanings of the \ncollective to promote supportive stakeholder behaviour and enhancing system robustness during \ntimes of slow as well as rapid, disruptive change. The validity of the framework was tested \nusing a case study from Tokai, South Africa. An interpretive and post-normal paradigm \nprovided the foundation for the detection of stakeholder meanings brought to the fore by semistructured \nnarrative interviews. Computer aided software and a combination of inductive and \ndeductive analysis were used to generate themes and expressions to illustrate the construction \nand evolution of meanings during two distinctive phases in the social-ecological history of \nTokai. \nUsing the framework to interpret results I was able to illustrate how meanings and meaning \nprioritisation influence the perception of benefits and how these aspects direct behaviours. The \nfindings indicated the importance of procedural and distributive justice in the negotiated design \nof public infrastructure and I was able to illustrate the implications for sustaining system \nrobustness. The framework was helpful as a model to interpret the dynamic relationship \nbetween meanings, behaviours and institutional design but additional frameworks were needed \nto facilitate the construction of scenarios that incorporate vulnerability of robustness as reflected \nby varying levels of relational connectedness and relational capital during cycles of change. I \nsuggest incorporating relational connectedness together with attention to meanings as an \napproach to fostering relational capital that is likely to direct behaviours to align more \nconstructively with the meanings of the collective, and the associated public infrastructure. \nMy research exposes opportunities for further inquiry: (1) Deeper insights into the relationship \nbetween meanings, collective identity and behaviours; (2) Understanding the influence of \norganisational culture on the adaptive management of collective identity and (3) Greater \nunderstanding of how these theoretical aspects should be applied in the practice of adaptive \nmanagement and governance.
Author: E. Van Wyk
Language: English
Subfield: Global and Planetary Change
Field: Environmental Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2178933252