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Agency and Resilience: Teachings of Pikangikum First Nation Elders, Northwestern Ontario
(2013) Miller, Andrew M.; Davidson-Hunt, Iain
"Although scholars of social-ecological resilience propose unity between humans and the natural world, much of this work remains based on Cartesian division of mind and body that denies it. We present an example of a unified system of resilience thinking shared with us by Anishinaabe (Ojibway) elders of Pikangikum First Nation, northwestern Ontario. The elders’ views of boreal forest disturbance and renewal are distinct from western scientific approaches in their recognition of agency, the ability to individually express free will in nonhuman beings including animals, plants, rocks, and forest fire within their landscape. Pikangikum elders perceive that, if relationships based on respect, reciprocity, and noninterference are maintained with other agents, renewal will continue. The proposition of living landscapes composed of diverse nonhuman agents poses challenges to collaboration with western worldviews, which view nature largely as mechanistic and without moral standing. We suggest that a greater attention to nonwestern ontologies can contribute to productive cross-cultural partnerships directed toward fostering resilience."
Does Agency Matter and do Microfinance Self-help Groups Empower Women? A Case Study of a Joint-microfinance and Coffee Cooperative from the Mountains of the Moon in Uganda
(2012) Selhausen, Felix Meier
"Collective action in the form of microfinance self-help groups (SHGs) has been increasingly hailed for its positive economic impact and its empowerment of women but also for excluding those most in need of collective action. This study examines womens agency from two perspectives suggested by Amartya Sen using a case study 26 self-help groups of a joint microfinance and coffee co-operative from Western Uganda. Firstly, the study attempts to provide a new framework for exploring self-selection by comparing levels of agency of female non-SHG members and members before participation in SHGs. Results indicate that women who join and stay in SHGs are initially wealthier in terms of land than their female cohort from the community whereas autonomy over marriage and human capital formation are not systematically different. Secondly, this paper investigates the impacts of collective action on womens decisionmaking agency in particular whether length of membership matters. The paper finds that length of membership has no effect over spouses joint decision-making and income pooling but reduces wives tolerance of gender-based violence. However, other indicators such as inheritance patters, daughters age at first marriage, occurrence of domestic violence, and freedom of movement are not statistically significant, indicating that empowerment is a process of internal change of power within and behaviors that is neither lineal, nor can be achieved over night."
Enclosure Within and Without the Commons
(2004) McCann, Anthony
"Over the last number of years I have been focusing on the expansion of intellectual property discourses and practices among those who involve themselves in Irish traditional culture. In particular, my theoretical focus has turned to the analysis of expansionary social dynamics that involve the accelerative commodification of everyday life. "In this paper I address some of the ways in which my attempts to use resource management models of common property theory have left me unable to explain many of the aspects of the social situations and social dynamics that I have encountered. I will also explain how it is that I have turned from models of 'the commons' to a model of 'enclosure' in a bid to come to less partial and more adequate analyses of expansion and commodification, and to more reflective and reflexive understandings of whatever 'the commons' is taken to mean. A brief overview of a new theory of commodification is presented, and through this it will be argued that many of the social situations that we characterize as environments of common property may also be characterized as environments of enclosure, thus providing us with far greater explanatory power than the limiting models of resource management. It will further be suggested that our emphasis on common property and the commons may be seriously misleading, and that we might be better served focusing on the relational implications of expansion and commodification, that is, enclosure (without the commons)."
Female Agency and Collective Action: What Determines the Intensity of Participation? A Case Study from a Joint-Microfinance and Coffee Cooperative in the Mountains of the Moon, Western Uganda
(2012) zu Selhausen, Felix Meier
"Collective action has become an important strategy for rural women in developing countries to access both financial services and markets. However, within self-help groups the intensity of participation and commitment can vary given the different motivations, perceived benefits and trust into collective action. Using household data of female members of a Ugandan coffee and microfinance cooperative I investigate whether (1) women's decision-making agency, (2) individual characteristics and (3) group characteristics determine the intensity of participation in the group-based cooperative. Its uses number of shares per member as proxy for participation and commitment in the institution for collective action. The results suggest that women's decision-making agency, spousal household cooperation, level of income, literacy, length of membership, and trust between members are necessary factors for the intensity in women's efforts to participate within the cooperative. Increased participation can function as an important catalysts, as women are likely to gain to more bargaining power."
Institutional Stability and Change: A Logic Sequence for Studying Instituitonal Dynamics
(2004) Costejá Florensa, Meritxell
From Pages 2-3: "This paper focuses on the dynamics of institutions in an attempt to identify some of the main variables that affect institutional stability and change. I will begin by introducing some of the main processes contributing to institutional stability, opposed to the factors that can introduce change at a particular level of the institutional structure. A description of the main patterns of change will follow. I will then propose a framework to study institutional change which identifies a dynamic sequence of stages driven by multi-actor interaction processes. The last section will conclude with some questions for future research."
Institutions and Agency in Creating Collective Action for Common Pool Resources
(2012) Ishihara, Hiroe; Pascual, Unai
"This paper argues that despite the importance of agency in the creation of collective action and common pool resource (CPR) management, the relationship between agency and institutions has not been appropriately linked in the CPR literature. We argue that one school of thought in the CPR literature, namely the Collective Action School (CAS) based on rational choice model, has largely disregarded the recursive relationship between agency and CPR institutions, i.e. the fact that agency is enabled as well as constrained by the CPR institutions and different type of rationalities, such as ‘deontological rationality’ which play a key role in making decisions regarding the CPR institution. Similarly, the Structure Based School (SBS) of thought, does not take into account a key aspect regarding agency: its ability to create institutional change and to introduce new institutions based on ‘reflexive deliberation’. The paper links agency and institution through utilization of the concept of ‘collective intentionality’. This creates room for both (a) ‘habitus’/ habitualized thought for action which ultimately leads to the reproduction of the CPR institution, and (b) ‘reflexive deliberation’ which leads to a new way of action which leads to the production of the new CPR institutions. We argue that individual decision which leads to creation of collective action prescribed by CPR institution depends on the complex interplay of these ‘habitus’ and ‘reflexive deliberation’."
The Interplay of Well-being and Resilience in Applying a Social-Ecological Perspective
(2012) Armitage, Derek; Béné, Christophe; Charles, Anthony T.; Johnson, Derek; Allison, Edward H.
"Innovative combinations of social and ecological theory are required to deal with complexity and change in human-ecological systems. We examined the interplay and complementarities that emerge by linking resilience and social well-being approaches. First, we reflected on the limitations of applying ecological resilience concepts to social systems from the perspective of social theory, and particularly, the concept of well-being. Second, we examined the interplay of resilience and well-being concepts in fostering a social-ecological perspective that promises more appropriate management and policy actions. We examined five key points of interplay: (1) the limits of optimization thinking (e.g., maximum sustainable yield), (2) the role of human agency and values, (3) understandings of scale, (4) insights on 'controlling variables,' and (5) perspectives on thresholds and boundaries. Based on this synthesis, we offer insights to move incrementally towards interdisciplinary research and governance for complex social-ecological systems."
Surmountable Chasms: Networks and Social Innovation for Resilient Systems
(2011) Moore, Michele-Lee; Westley, Frances
"Complex challenges demand complex solutions. By their very nature, these problems are difficult to define and are often the result of rigid social structures that effectively act as 'traps'. However, resilience theory and the adaptive cycle can serve as a useful framework for understanding how humans may move beyond these traps and towards the social innovation that is required to address many complex problems. This paper explores the critical question of whether networks help facilitate innovations to bridge the seemingly insurmountable chasms of complex problems to create change across scales, thereby increasing resilience. The argument is made that research has not yet adequately articulated the strategic agency that must be present within the network in order for cross scale interactions to occur. By examining institutional entrepreneurship through case studies and examples, this paper proposes that agency within networks requires specific skills from entrepreneurs, including ones that enable pattern generation, relationship building and brokering, knowledge and resource brokering, and network recharging. Ultimately, this begins to build a more complete understanding of how networks may improve human capacity to respond to complex problems and heighten overall resilience."
Toward an Integrated History to Guide the Future
(2011) van der Leeuw, Sander; Costanza, Robert; Aulenbach, Steve
"Many contemporary societal challenges manifest themselves in the domain of human-environment interactions. There is a growing recognition that responses to these challenges formulated within current disciplinary boundaries, in isolation from their wider contexts, cannot adequately address them. Here, we outline the need for an integrated, transdisciplinary synthesis that allows for a holistic approach, and, above all, a much longer time perspective. We outline both the need for and the fundamental characteristics of what we call 'integrated history.' This approach promises to yield new understandings of the relationship between the past, present, and possible futures of our integrated human-environment system. We recommend a unique new focus of our historical efforts on the future, rather than the past, concentrated on learning about future possibilities from history. A growing worldwide community of transdisciplinary scholars is forming around building this Integrated History and future of People on Earth (IHOPE). Building integrated models of past human societies and their interactions with their environments yields new insights into those interactions and can help to create a more sustainable and desirable future. The activity has become a major focus within the global change community."

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