Systems and Structures
The Interaction of Heterogeneous Actors in the Production and Mobilization of Sustainable Knowledge: The Case of “Community and Biodiversity" and of the “Participatory Socio-Ecological Observatories” View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Gerardo Camacho
The urgency to comply with the Sustainable Development Goals has led to discussing the need for useful knowledge to make decisions and coordinate actions. Added to this are the constant statements about the importance of incorporating different actors, as well as different types of knowledge, in the co-production of knowledge and in decision-making. This has occurred in particular ways in sustainability issues. For decades, various models of participatory research, or interactive research, have been designed, where academics coordinate with actors from other social sectors – such as businessmen, rulers, and civil society organizations – in the production and mobilization of useful knowledge. Given this context, the purpose of this work is to explore alternatives that are based on the participation of heterogeneous actors and present potential to build useful knowledge and to build frameworks for sustainable action. To this end, two cases of interactive research structured in Mexico are analyzed: the case of “Community and Biodiversity”, an organization that practices participatory research, monitoring and intervention; and the case of the “Participatory Socio-Ecological Observatories”, local laboratories where participatory methodologies are applied and where action frameworks are also explored in a participatory manner. From this analysis, it is pointed out how these participatory methods enable the building of courses of sustainable action based on local and public knowledge. It is also suggested how the recognition and equal treatment of different types of knowledge – public, local, encoded, tacit, specialized– leads to conceiving these participatory mechanisms as democratic processes.
How Socio-ecological Systems May Support Sustainability in Land-sea Interface : A Portuguese Case Study
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Maria Da Luz Fernandes
Maritime Spatial Planning has arrived at Europe, first as an idea, after as a directive and finally as a plan. In 2022, most Member States, Portugal included, have plans in place, but the challenge now lies in delivering social cohesion, economic growth, and sustainable development. In an era of resource extraction, we must ensure that our communities and populations at the Land-Sea Interface (LSI) see their ecosystems preserved and their life improved by the maritime and coastal activities they support. However, there is a lack of studies incorporating spatial information on the social and ecological dynamics at the LSI. I believe the Socio-Ecological Systems (SES) framework, may be used to address this issue. The SES concept aims to merge the human and ecological systems effort towards sustainability. This work adapts a methodology used in the Mediterranean Coast to explore how coastal-marine areas in the Portuguese Mainland Subdivision differ in socioeconomic and marine environmental characteristics. The outputs of this work, Marine Socio-Ecological Categories mapped along the coast, show contrasting ecological and societal conditions across the coastal municipalities and are valuable to understanding how different conditions may be dealt with in regional and national contexts in future management and planning policies. Mapping socio-ecological systems aids sustainable economic development, but further research is needed to improve the categorization. This study shows that there is no land-sea divide as these complex systems are closely interlinked, the connections between both systems and their socioeconomic impacts should be reflected in the existent policy framework.
(Socially) Sustainable Environmental Management: A Multi-case Study Perspective View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Federica Panzarella
The social dimension of sustainability, despite being acknowledged, is often overlooked in sustainability appraisal tools used within the field of environmental remediation. This study responds to the lack of empirical research on the inclusion of social sustainability into the management of contaminated sites through the application of an asset-based community development approach, namely the Community Capitals Framework. The framework is applied to one case study in Italy and one in Belgium through a multi-modal qualitative research design, consisting of document analysis and interviews with community members and technical experts. Results from this study open up new opportunities for the applicability of the framework that go beyond its original theoretical formulation.
