Browsing by Author "Brown, Rebekah R."

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A Diagnostic Procedure for Transformative Change Based on Transitions, Resilience, and Institutional Thinking
(2013) Ferguson, Briony C.; Brown, Rebekah R.; Deletic, Ana
"Urban water governance regimes around the world have traditionally planned large-scale, centralized infrastructure systems that aim to control variables and reduce uncertainties. There is growing sectoral awareness that a transition toward sustainable alternatives is necessary if systems are to meet society’s future water needs in the context of drivers such as climate change and variability, demographic changes, environmental degradation, and resource scarcity. However, there is minimal understanding of how the urban water sector should operationalize its strategic planning for such change to facilitate the transition to a sustainable water future. We have integrated concepts from transitions, resilience, and institutional theory to develop a diagnostic procedure for revealing insights into which types of strategic action are most likely to influence the direction and pace of change in the overall system toward a desired trajectory. The procedure used the multipattern approach, from transition theory, to identify the system conditions and type of changes necessary for enabling system transformation. It incorporated the adaptive cycle, from resilience theory, to identify the current phase of change for different parts of the system. Finally, it drew on the concepts of institutional pillars and institutional work to identify mechanisms that are likely to be most effective in influencing the transformative dynamics of the system toward a desired trajectory. We have demonstrated application of the proposed diagnostic procedure on a case study of recent transformative change in the urban water system of Melbourne, Australia. We have proposed that an operational diagnostic procedure provides a useful platform from which planners, policy analysts, and decision makers could follow a process of deduction that identifies which types of strategic action best fit the current system conditions."
Exploring Institutional Adaptive Capacity in Practice: Examining Water Governance Adaptation in Australia
(2015) Bettini, Yvette; Brown, Rebekah R.; de Haan, Fjalar J.
"Adaptive capacity is widely held as a key property of resilient and transformative social-ecological systems. However, current knowledge of the term does not yet address key questions of how to operationalize this system condition to address sustainability challenges through research and policy. This paper explores temporal and agency dimensions of adaptive capacity in practice to better understand how system conditions and attributes enable adaptation. An institutional dynamics lens is employed to systemically examine empirical cases of change in urban water management. Comparative analysis of two Australian cities' drought response is conducted using institutional analysis and qualitative system dynamics mapping techniques. The study finds that three forms of adaptive capacity appear critical: the ability to learn, decide, and act. The analytical approach developed provides insight into change dynamics and the agency mechanisms that generate them. The paper proposes a typology of adaptive capacity by characterizing these change dynamics and mechanisms for locked-in, crisis, reorganizing, and stabilizing systems. This set of propositions on institutional conditions and forms of adaptive capacity is offered to further advance research on the topic and help to operationalize adaptive capacity in practice."