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In Common explores the connections between humans, their environment and each other through stories told by scholars and practitioners. In-depth interviews and methods webinars explore interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary work on commons governance, conservation and development, social-ecological resilience, and sustainability.
Episodes
Monday Aug 07, 2023
Monday Aug 07, 2023
In this episode, Michael speaks with Lance Robinson, a Research Scientist studying Human Dimensions of Sustainable Resource Development at the Center for Northern Forest Ecosystem Research in Ontario, Canada. Lance has studied rangelands as social-ecological systems for many years, and has contributed to an alternative way of viewing them that departs from some of the traditional assumptions about commons and governance. In this conversation, Michael and Lance make specific reference to the design principles for community-based resource management developed by Elinor Ostrom in her famous book, Governing the Commons. Much of the conversation has to do with Ostrom’s first principle, which stipulated that communities are aided by boundaries that delineate who is and who isn’t a community member, and where the community’s resources are. Lance’s work unpacks the importance of boundaries in part through what he calls a complex landscape mosaic, which reflects the fact that in real systems, particularly in rangelands, there are many overlapping and shifting boundaries that are designed to help resource users adapt to resource scarcity, not to prevent the overuse of the commons, which is how they are usually interpreted.
This conversation builds on a previous interview with Mark Moritz on pastoralists and open property, and you should check that interview out as well if this one interests you.
References:
https://landscapewanderer.link/
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Lance-Robinson
Ostrom, Elinor. 1990. Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action. Cambridge University Press.
Schlager, Edella, and Elinor Ostrom. 1992. “Property-Rights Regimes and Natural Resources: A Conceptual Analysis.” Land Economics 68 (3): 249–62.
Robinson, Lance W., and Fikret Berkes. 2010. “Applying Resilience Thinking to Questions of Policy for Pastoralist Systems: Lessons from the Gabra of Northern Kenya.” Human Ecology 38 (3): 335–50. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10745-010-9327-1.
Robinson, Lance W. 2019. “Open Property and Complex Mosaics: Variants in Tenure Regimes across Pastoralist Social-Ecological Systems” 13 (1): 804.
Wednesday Aug 02, 2023
Science and practice #12: Nature-based solutions with Margot Clarvis
Wednesday Aug 02, 2023
Wednesday Aug 02, 2023
In this episode, Michael speaks with Margot Clarvis, the head of Nature-based solutions at C-Quest Capital. They talk about Margot's current work on promoting nature-based solutions, which is a family of approaches designed to combat climate change. Margot helps Michael unpack what is and isn't a nature-based solution, which is important to do given the diversity of projects that might be placed within this umbrella of approaches.
A central question that Margot and Michael focus on during their conversation is how the primary goals of such projects, say carbon storage, relate to broader social and ecological outcomes, with one concern being that a singular focus on a small number of outcomes could crowd out important co-benefits. In contrast to this, Margot describes the goal and the hope that such projects could leverage funding for carbon storage to provide a suite of more holistic benefits for ecosystems and the communities that depend on them.
Monday Jul 03, 2023
Monday Jul 03, 2023
In this episode, Michael speaks with with Shauna Mahajan, lead social scientist with the global science team of the World Wildlife Fund, or WWF.
During their conversation, Shauna shares her thoughts about her educational experiences and her time at WWF, during which she has focused on helping conservation projects become more inclusive and holistic. Shauna has done this in part by developing decision support tools, including a tool called Elinor, so named in honor of Elinor Ostrom. This tool helps researchers and practitioners, in the language of the Elinor website, “track attributes critical to the success of area-based conservation over time, and share this information with decision makers and conservation supporters”. Shauna also discusses her experiences on the ground to support inclusive and holistic conservation, and a new program at WWF that is encouraging the career development of underrepresented groups at the organization.
Shauna’s website: https://www.worldwildlife.org/experts/shauna-mahajan
References
Deveson, A. (2005). Resilience (First Edition). Roundhouse Publishing Group.
Mahajan, S. L., Estradivari, E., Ojwang, L., & Ahmadia, G. N. (2022). The good, the bad, and the ugly: reflections on co-designing science for impact between the Global South and Global North. ICES Journal of Marine Science: Journal Du Conseil. https://doi.org/10.1093/icesjms/fsac115
Mahajan, S. L., Glew, L., Rieder, E., Ahmadia, G., Darling, E., Fox, H. E., Mascia, M. B., & McKinnon, M. (2019). Systems thinking for planning and evaluating conservation interventions. Conservation Science and Practice, 1(7), e44. https://doi.org/10.1111/csp2.44
https://www.worldwildlife.org/projects/the-art-and-craft-of-systems-change
Monday May 22, 2023
Monday May 22, 2023
In this episode, Michael speaks with Gustavo Gordillo de Anda. Gustavo has worked for the Mexican government as its vice minister of agriculture, and in this capacity he played a prominent role on the Mexican agrarian reforms of the early 1990s. He has also served as the assistant director general for the Food and Agriculture Organization, or FAO, in Rome.
Gustavo and Michael talk about the institution of the Mexican ejido, which is a well-known example of community-based resource management that relies in part on common property ownership of fields and forests across the country. Gustavo describes the history of this institution and its relationship to the Mexican state as well as his views on the 1990s Mexican agrarian reforms. Gustavo also discussed several secular changes that have occurred within the ejido sector, including the increased empowerment of women in ejido communities as well as the increasing prominence of non-members in or near ejido lands.
They conclude by talking about Gustavo’s current and future steps, which include finalizing a book on the 1990s agrarian reforms and a refocusing on literature, which has always been another passion of his.
References:
Bray, D. B. (2020). Mexico’s Community Forest Enterprises: Success on the Commons and the Seeds of a Good Anthropocene. University of Arizona Press.
Gordillo de Anda, G., Janvry, A. de, & Sadoulet, E. (1998). Between political control and efficiency gains: the evolution of agrarian property rights in Mexico. CEPAL Review 66.
Thursday May 04, 2023
Science and Practice #9: Social justice in STEM and tech with Lauren Quigley Thomas
Thursday May 04, 2023
Thursday May 04, 2023
In this episode, Stefan speaks with Lauren Thomas Quigley. Lauren is a research scientist at IBM Research and an Affiliate Assistant Professor at the University of Washington, Department of Human Centered Design & Engineering. She researches and develops practical data-centric solutions at the intersection of technology, data, and social justice with emphasis on collaboration with nonprofit organizations and community. Lauren has led education at scale efforts in government, higher education, nonprofits, and the tech industry, many of which have focused on learning outside of the traditional classroom. A core goal of her work is to improve interdisciplinary and intersectional pathways into STEM and ensuring that people have access to technology that works for them.
https://laurenthomasquigley.com/
Friday Apr 07, 2023
Insight Episode #49: Achim Schluter on privatization
Friday Apr 07, 2023
Friday Apr 07, 2023
This insight episode comes from full episode eighty-eight with Achim Schluter.
Achim is a Professor Social Systems and Ecological Economics at Jacobs University in Bremen, Germany, as well as the Social Science Department leader and head of the Institutional and Behavioral Economics working group at the Leibniz Center for Tropical Marine Research.
Achim talks with Stefan about the privatization of the ocean, specifically thinking about both the problems it creates and the potential to use it as a method of ensuring the rights of local actors and long-term sustainability.
Achim's Institutional Webpage: https://www.leibniz-zmt.de/en/marine-tropics-research/who-we-are/achim-schlueter-en.html
Achim's Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.de/citations?user=L5ONyegAAAAJ&hl=de
Monday Mar 27, 2023
Science and Practice #8: Paying for Conservation with Eddy Niesten
Monday Mar 27, 2023
Monday Mar 27, 2023
In this episode, Michael speaks with Eddy Niesten, an independent consultant who spent more than a decade working for Conservation International as a conservation economist.
During his time at Conservation International, Eddy played a role in developing and implementing what is known as the Conservation Stewards Program, an example of the payment for ecosystem services (PES) approach. In a recent episode of the podcast, Michael spoke with Sarah Milne about a book that she wrote in which she is critical of the conservation stewards program as it was implemented in Cambodia. In this discussion, Eddy helps Michael understand the various components of the program and its logic.
Eddy and Michael conclude their conversation by discussing the steps that Eddy has taken since leaving Conservation International and some of the changes within the organization that he experienced during his career there.
Resources:
Friday Mar 10, 2023
Friday Mar 10, 2023
This insight episode comes from full episode eighty-four with Mark Moritz.
Mark is a professor of anthropology at the Ohio State University who has studied pastoralist communities around the world.
Mark talks with Michael about his interpretation of open property regimes as an adaptation to resource scarcity and vulnerability in pastoralist systems, specifically discussing the Pashtun system in Afghanistan and his research in Cameroon to illustrate his interpretation, and the different understanding of rights in these communities.
Mark’s website: https://anthropology.osu.edu/people/moritz.42
Moritz, M. (2016). Open property regimes. International Journal of the Commons, 10(2), 688.
Moritz, M., et al. 2018. Emergent Sustainability in Open Property Regimes. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 115 (51): 12859–67.
Monday Feb 13, 2023
114: Collaboration starts with Coffee, with Tony Sutton
Monday Feb 13, 2023
Monday Feb 13, 2023
In this episode, Michael speaks with Tony Sutton, Assistant professor of Native American Food Systems at the University of Maine. Michael and Tony talk about the role of academics and researchers working with local communities and Tony’s research with the Wabanaki people who he works with as an equal partner. Tony also discusses how he views the distinction between scientific and indigenous knowledge as artificial and unhelpful. Finally, they discuss a project that Tony is involved in called the Maine Shellfish Learning Network (https://themudflat.org/). This network seeks to build relationships and communication around issues facing clam and mussel harvesters in Maine. One particularly pressing issue that Tony discusses with Michael is the loss of access such harvesters are facing as a result of displacement by incoming homeowners who purchase houses on the coast of Maine, as well as through Maine state policy that privileges sedentarism, requiring residence in a town as a criterion for fishery access, which marginalizes the Wabanaki and other people whose lifeways involve moving through a landscape to adapt to changes in resource availability.
Monday Feb 06, 2023
113: Conducting research on a large scale with Johan Oldekop
Monday Feb 06, 2023
Monday Feb 06, 2023
In this episode, Divya speaks with Dr. Johan Oldekop. Johan is a senior lecturer at the Global Development Institute at the University of Manchester. He conducts interdisciplinary research and uses large-scale publicly available datasets to understand tradeoffs and synergies between conservation and development outcomes.
In this conversation, they primarily focused on Johan’s work on the impact evaluation of the zero hunger program in Brazil and his parallel research exploring the links between forests and livelihoods in the global south.
For both these projects, Johan conducted large-scale research and worked with big datasets. As we discussed these projects, it was interesting to learn what working on a large scale with big datasets looks like, including its advantages and also some of the key limitations.
Johan shared that in his research on the impact evaluation of the zero hunger program, a program that was implemented to meet the sustainable development goal of reducing hunger in Brazil, he found that in addition to addressing hunger, the program also improves households’ access to nutrition and address the supply chain issues of agriculture production. Johan emphasized that it is important to evaluate and understand the multidimensional impacts of social protection programs so they can be implemented to their fullest potential and yield maximum benefits.
For his research on exploring forest-livelihood linkages in the global south, Johan’s research showed that forest management and restoration programs that prioritized community rights are more likely to reduce deforestation and poverty and eventually align with global goals for climate mitigation, environmental justice, and sustainable development.
In the end, Divya and Johan wrapped up the conversation with a discussion on Johan’s upcoming research project, which aims to examine the drivers of reforestation and sustainable forest transitions in India, Nepal, Brazil, and Mexico.
References:
Oldekop, J. A., Holmes, G., Harris, W. E., & Evans, K. L. (2016). A global assessment of the social and conservation outcomes of protected areas. Conservation Biology, 30(1), 133-141.
Oldekop, J. A., Sims, K. R., Karna, B. K., Whittingham, M. J., & Agrawal, A. (2019). Reductions in deforestation and poverty from decentralized forest management in Nepal. Nature Sustainability, 2(5), 421-428.
Hajjar, R., Oldekop, J. A., Cronkleton, P., Newton, P., Russell, A. J., & Zhou, W. (2021). A global analysis of the social and environmental outcomes of community forests. Nature Sustainability, 4(3), 216-224.
Oldekop, J. A., Rasmussen, L. V., Agrawal, A., Bebbington, A. J., Meyfroidt, P., Bengston, D. N., … & Wilson, S. J. (2020). Forest-linked livelihoods in a globalized world. Nature Plants, 6(12), 1400-1407.
Erbaugh, J. T., & Oldekop, J. A. (2018). Forest landscape restoration for livelihoods and well-being. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, 32, 76-83.
Oldekop, J. A., Chappell, M. J., Peixoto, F. E. B., Paglia, A. P., do Prado Rodrigues, M. S., & Evans, K. L. (2015). Linking Brazil’s food security policies to agricultural change. Food Security, 7, 779-793.