A network perspective of human–nature interactions in dynamic and fast-changing landscapes

Abstract

Increasing and intensifying use of land represent a prominent sustainability challenge of particular importance in regions undergoing rapid change while at the same time exhibit large natural and anthropocentrically induced variability. To reconcile the needs for both human prosperity and healthy ecosystems, a more integrated understanding of key biophysical and adaptation processes is paramount in such dynamic and deeply entangled social and environmental contexts. Interdisciplinary research utilizing a network perspective provides a novel methodological and theoretical approach to that end. We review and synthesize recent network-centric studies, and use this network perspective to show how rangeland managers in a dynamic pastoral region in the Qinghai Province of China form social relationships based on geographic proximity, social status, and shared grazing areas. The results indicate that adaption to biophysical and socioeconomic changes is partly a social process in that rangeland managers develop their adaptive capacity jointly and in concert with others they trust and with whom they share grazing areas with. Avenues for further developments of this network perspective in contributing to important new insights on how to sustainably use land in dynamic landscapes undergoing rapid change are suggested.

Hub‐and‐spoke social networks among Indonesian cocoa farmers homogenise farming practices

“…ALAAMs are used for cross‐sectional network data to test, by Markov Chain Monte Carlo maximum likelihood estimations, if certain network patterns can explain nodal attributes. As demonstrated in recent studies of socio‐environmental systems, ALAAM can fruitfully tackle questions concerning the role of social connections among pairs of actors for adaptive capacity within networks in remote communities (for an example from costal‐reef communities, see Barnes et al., 2020; for pastoral communities, see Bodin & Chen, 2023). Here ALAAM was used to test whether pairs of actors with social connections are more likely to adopt the same value on the nodal binary attribute describing fertiliser practice (more in Supporting Information).…”

Coupling human and natural systems for sustainable development

“…Bodin and Chen [ 5 ] review and synthesize recent network-centric studies, and use this network perspective to show how rangeland managers in a dynamic pastoral region in the Qinghai Province of China formed social relationships based on geographic proximity, social status and shared grazing areas. Liu [ 6 ] provides an overview of the metacoupling framework, highlights major advances in scientific discoveries and illustrates implications for global sustainability based on the existing applications of the framework, and also offers future perspectives with regard to filling important knowledge gaps and the need for tools and policy innovations.…”