TY - JOUR

T1 - Advancing understanding of natural resource governance

T2 - a post-Ostrom research agenda

AU - Cumming, Graeme S.

AU - Epstein, Graham

AU - Anderies, John Marty

AU - Apetrei, Cristina-Ioana

AU - Baggio, Jacopo Alessandro

AU - Bodin, Örjan

AU - Chawla, S.

AU - Clements, Hayley S.

AU - Cox, Michael E.

AU - Egli, Lukas

AU - Gurney, Georgina G.

AU - Lubell, Mark N.

AU - Magliocca, Nicholas R.

AU - Morrison, Tiffany H.

AU - Müller, Birgit

AU - Seppelt, Ralf

AU - Schlüter, Maja

AU - Unnikrishnan, Hita

AU - Villamayor-Tomas, Sergio

AU - Weible, Christopher M.

PY - 2020/6/1

Y1 - 2020/6/1

N2 - Institutions are vital to the sustainability of social-ecological systems, balancing individual and group interests and coordinating responses to change. Ecological decline and social conflict in many places, however, indicate that our understanding and fostering of effective institutions for natural resource management is still lacking. We assess theoretical and methodological challenges facing positivist institutional analysis, focusing on natural resource governance according to Ostrom's social-ecological systems (SES) framework. Rather than adding more variables, progress requires a clearer, more consistent approach to selecting, defining and measuring institutional elements; stronger links between theory and empirical research; a greater focus on mechanisms and causality; and the development and application of new methods, including quantitative approaches. Strengthening the connections between theory, models, and data suggests several promising avenues for advancing institutional analysis through the study of relationships between institutional structure, process, function, context, and outcomes.

AB - Institutions are vital to the sustainability of social-ecological systems, balancing individual and group interests and coordinating responses to change. Ecological decline and social conflict in many places, however, indicate that our understanding and fostering of effective institutions for natural resource management is still lacking. We assess theoretical and methodological challenges facing positivist institutional analysis, focusing on natural resource governance according to Ostrom's social-ecological systems (SES) framework. Rather than adding more variables, progress requires a clearer, more consistent approach to selecting, defining and measuring institutional elements; stronger links between theory and empirical research; a greater focus on mechanisms and causality; and the development and application of new methods, including quantitative approaches. Strengthening the connections between theory, models, and data suggests several promising avenues for advancing institutional analysis through the study of relationships between institutional structure, process, function, context, and outcomes.

KW - Sustainability Governance

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85084076083&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/j.cosust.2020.02.005

DO - 10.1016/j.cosust.2020.02.005

M3 - Scientific review articles

AN - SCOPUS:85084076083

VL - 44

SP - 26

EP - 34

JO - Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability

JF - Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability

SN - 1877-3435

ER -