Frances Westley

Socioeconomic Mechanisms Preventing Optimum Use of Ecosystem Services: An Interdisciplinary Theoretical Analysis

Ecosystems provide a wide range of services to society. Some forms of use affect the quality of the ecosystem, reducing its value for other users. This leads to a conflict of interest that is often settled through political processes, resulting in some form of regulation. We link theory on ecosystem response to theories from the socioeconomic branches of science to analyze the mechanisms behind two widespread problems associated with such political solutions. First, they often represent a compromise rather than an integrative solution. We demonstrate that, particularly in sensitive ecosystems, integrative solutions yield a higher average social utility and imply a higher ecosystem quality. Integrative solutions require insight into ecosystems responses to different forms of use and a complete overview of ecosystem services to society. Second, there is a systematic bias away from optimal shared use toward activities that are detrimental to ecosystem quality. This bias arises from the fact that utilities depending on ecosystem quality are often shared by large diffuse groups, whereas pollution and harvesting activities can usually be traced to relatively small and well-organized groups. Theory and data indicate that this type of concentrated group is systematically better at mustering political power than large groups, which find it difficult to realize collective action due to what is known in game theory as “free-rider problems.”Our analysis suggests that the following three key ingredients are needed to correct the problems of bias and compromise: (a) clear insight into ecosystem dynamic responses to human use, (b) a broad inventory of credible measurements of ecosystem utilities, (c) avoidance of bias due to differences in the organizational power of groups of stakeholders. We argue that good ecosystem models, institutionalized ecosystem valuation, and innovative tax-setting schedules are essential to achieving a socially fair and sustainable use of ecosystems by societies. In addition, we highlight the fact that many environmental problems remain unresolved for a long time and briefly identify the social mechanisms responsible for this delay.

Navigating the Back Loop: Fostering Social Innovation and Transformation in Ecosystem Management

Addressing the environmental challenges of the 21st century requires substantial changes to the way modern society views and manages ecosystems. In particular, many authors contend that fundamental transformation of the largely sectoral, expert-centered ecosystem-management institutions of modern, Western societies is needed. There is increasing agreement that more adaptive, integrated, collaborative ecosystem-management approaches, interlinked at multiple scales, would improve societys ability to sustainably manage complex social-ecological systems. Therefore, understanding processes of transformation, and factors that may enable transformation in ecosystem management, has become an active research area. We explore ecosystem-management transformations using a social-innovation framework. Based on three local-level case studies of transformation in freshwater management, we provide a pilot assessment of factors that may promote the emergence and adoption of integrated, collaborative ecosystem-management approaches. Our analysis suggests that ongoing environmental degradation, increasing environmental awareness, and shifting societal values are creating fertile ground for the emergence and adoption of new approaches to ecosystem management. Based on the case studies we examined, we suggest that initiatives that foster environmental awareness and attachment to local ecosystems, develop capacity for social entrepreneurship in the environmental arena, promote dialogue between key stakeholders, and provide institutional support to new institutions may facilitate the emergence of integrated, collaborative ecosystem-management approaches.

A Theory of Transformative Agency in Linked Social-Ecological Systems

We reviewed the literature on leadership in linked social-ecological systems and combined it with the literature on institutional entrepreneurship in complex adaptive systems to develop a new theory of transformative agency in linked social- ecological systems. Although there is evidence of the importance of strategic agency in introducing innovation and transforming approaches to management and governance of such systems, there is no coherent theory to explain the wide diversity of strategies identified. Using Hollings adaptive cycle as a model of phases present in innovation and transformation of resilient social- ecological systems, overlaid by Dorados model of opportunity context (opaque, hazy, transparent) in complex adaptive systems, we propose a more coherent theory of strategic agency, which links particular strategies, on the part of transformative agents, to phases of system change.

Slow Response of Societies to New Problems: Causes and Costs

Human societies are confronted with a continuous stream of new problems. Many of these problems are caused by a limited sector of society but cause “spillover costs” to society as a whole. Here we show how a combination of mechanisms tends to delay effective regualtion of such situations. Obviously, problems may remain undetected for some time, especially if they are unlike those experienced in the past. However, it is at least as important to address the dynamics preceding the solution because societies that are systematically slow in suppressing problems in the early phases will pay a high overall cost. Here we show how a combination of mechanisms tends to delay effective regulation. Obviously, problems may remain undetected for some time, especially if it is unlike those experienced in the past. However, even if a problem is recognized by experts, the time lag before society in general recognizes that something should be done can be long because of the hysteresis in change of opinion. This causes abrupt but late shifts in opinion, much as described for Kuhn’s paradigm shifts. We use a mathematical model and review empirical evidence to show that this phenomenon will be particularly pronounced for complex problems and in societies that have strong social control, whereas key individuals such as charismatic leaders may catalyze earlier opinion shifts, reducing the time lag between problem and solution. An opinion shift may also be inhibited by downplay of a problem by a credible authority and by competition for attention by simultaneously occurring problems. Even if a problem is generally recognized, actual regulation may come late. We argue that this last phase of delay tends to be longer if a central decision-making authority is lacking and if disproportionately powerful stakeholders that benefit from the unregulated status quo are involved.

The Evolutionary Basis of Rigidity: Locks in Cells, Minds, and Society

Feedbacks leading to alternative stable modes of behavior occur on levels varying from the cell and the mind to societies. The tendency to lock into a certain pattern comes at the cost of the ability to adjust to new situations. The resulting rigidity limits the ability of persons, groups, and companies to respond to new problems, and some even suggest that it may have contributed to the collapse of ancient societies. In the face of these negative effects, it may seem surprising that lock-in situations are so ubiquitous. Here, we show that the tendency to lock into one of several alternative modes usually serves an apparent purpose. In cells, it filters out noise, and allows a well-defined and consistent behavior once a certain threshold is passed. Basically, the same holds for the attitudes and behavior of individuals and groups. This functionality is not surprising as it has evolved through selection for fitness. Understanding why rigidity makes sense may help in finding ways to avoid traps in situations where flexible response and innovation are needed.

Resilience: Accounting for the Noncomputable

Plans to solve complex environmental problems should always consider the role of surprise. Nevertheless, there is a tendency to emphasize known computable aspects of a problem while neglecting aspects that are unknown and failing to ask questions about them. The tendency to ignore the noncomputable can be countered by considering a wide range of perspectives, encouraging transparency with regard to conflicting viewpoints, stimulating a diversity of models, and managing for the emergence of new syntheses that reorganize fragmentary knowledge.

Strategic Bridging: A Role for the Multinational Corporation in Third World Development:

The traditional lending paradigms adopted by international development funding agencies have not been very successful in fostering genuine economic development at the grassroots level in developing Third World countries. Despite good intentions on the part of these multilateral agencies, they sometimes lack perspectives on the unique social, cultural, and ecological conditions affecting development in these countries. Multinational corporations with a more permanent presence and long-term commitment of resources in these countries have egoistic interests in long-term relationship building with stakeholders in host Third World countries. They can provide collaborative mechanisms for partnering international development funding agencies to foster grassroots development efforts in developing countries. Collaboration theory and the concept of strategic bridging as a unique form of collaboration are used as frameworks to analyze a case study involving the role of a multinational firm as an unofficial strategic bridge between an international development bank and a state government in a West African country to bring about a successful outcome to an infrastructural funds lending exercise.

The Eye of the Needle: Cultural and Personal Transformation in a Traditional Organization

This paper, based on ethnographic material gathered in interviews in a North American automobile manufacturing company, explores a particular, idiosyncratic culture in the process of change. It is argued that resistence to the planned change (a socio-technical re-design) demonstrated by organizational participants resulted in part from the clash between deeply held cultural assumptions and those implicit in the socio-technical re-design. Transformation when it occurred tended to be spearheaded by ideological conversion on the individual level facilitated by internal change agents as much as by the consultants. This case illustrates the truly systematic nature of change and the need to take into account structural, cultural, and personal transformation in any change effort.

Bob Geldof and Live Aid: The Affective Side of Global Social Innovation

This paper examines the case of Bob Geldof and Live Aid from the point of view of the relationship between visionary leadership and global social innovation. It briefly reviews the case. It then analyzes it in terms of four aspects of visionary leadership: the personal background of the visionary, the skills used in enacting the vision, the structural context in which the visionary operates, and the historical moment in which the visionary acts. It further reviews music as a symbolic system with powerful abilities to mobilize affect. It concludes that Geldof succeeded in initiating global action through the skillful juxtaposition of structures and processes from the music industry to the aid context and by the equally skillful linking of the affect generated by popular music with that generated by famine imagery to trigger philanthropic activity among consumers of popular music.

The Cult of Man: Durkheim's Predictions And New Religious Movements

This paper provides a theoretical discussion of Durkheims predictions concerning religious evolution and their applicability to the new religious movements of the 1970s. Initially, the paper attempts to elicit from Durkheims work on the past and future of religion a series of precise hypotheses concerning the causes, expressions, and functions of religion in complex societies. Then the paper examines the significance of these hypotheses as alternative explanations for some of the debated features of these movements: the middle class origins of their adherents, their system of ethics and their relationship to scientific and socio-scientific rationalism. Finally, the paper examines ethnographic data on two new religious movements to suggest that if Durkheims predictions concerning the relationship of ritual, belief and social organization hold up in a variety of movements, they mayform the basis of comparative work in this area.