Ecosystem services, social interdependencies, and collective action: a conceptual framework
By Barnaud, C., E. Corbera, R. Muradian, N. Salliou, C. Sirami, A. Vialatte, J.-P. Choisis, N. Dendoncker, R. Mathevet, C. Moreau, V. Reyes-García, M. Boada, M. Deconchat, C. Cibien, S. Garnier, R. Maneja, and M. Antona, 2018
The governance of ecosystem services (ES) has been predominantly thought of in terms of market or state-based
instruments. Comparatively, collective action mechanisms have rarely been considered. This paper addresses this gap by proposing a conceptual framework that brings together ES, social interdependencies, and collective action thinking. We use an ES conceptual lens to highlight social interdependencies among people so as to reflect on existing or potential collective actions among them. This framework can also contribute to increasing people’s awareness of their mutual interdependencies and thereby fostering, framing, or enriching collective action, in ways that take into account the diversity and complexity of ecological processes underlying human activities. Our approach can contribute in particular to agroecological transitions that require landscape level innovations and coordination mechanisms among land users and managers. The framework distinguishes three types of social interdependencies: (i) between ES beneficiaries and ES providers, (ii) among beneficiaries, and (iii) among providers. These social interdependencies are in turn analyzed according to four main dimensions that are critical for collective action: (i) cognitive framing of interdependencies, (ii) levels of organization, (iii) formal and informal institutions, and (iv) power relations. Finally, we propose a strategy to turn this framework into action in contexts of participatory action research, a strategy grounded on a number of methodological principles and tools that convey complexity and increase people’s awareness of interdependencies in agrarian social-ecological systems.
Europe and the Mediterranean: An Area of Growing Interdependence
By Daniel Gugan, 2013
The aim of this study is to show several areas (societal sectors) of interdependence between the two halves of the Euro-Mediterranean region. The northern half of the region (in its widest geographical sense the EU) and the southern half (Maghreb and Mashreq countries on the southern shore of the Mediterranean Sea) have several common security issues and interests which makes them highly interdependent. After going through the main issue areas of interdependence, the core assumption of the study will be lined out, which argues that Europe and the Mediterranean reached such a high level of security interdependence that they can be treated now as a single security complex.
 Gugan (2013) Europe and the Mediterranean | [ ] |
