Sustaining Interdisciplinary Collaboration Across Continents and Cultures: Lessons from the Mongolian Rangelands and Resilience Project

Fernández‐Giménez, María E.; Allegretti, Arren Mendezona; Angerer, Jay P.; Baival, Batkhishig; Batbuyan, B.; Fassnacht, S. R.; Jamsranjav, Chantsallkham; Jamiyansharav, Khishigbayar; Laituri, Melinda; Reid, Robin S.; Thompson, Jessica; Ulambayar, Tungalag; Venable, N. B. H.

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-13827-1_6

Cited by 7 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…Within the framework of the "Sustaining Interdisciplinary Collaboration Across Continents and Cultures: Lessons from the Mongolian Rangelands and Resilience Project" the livestock breeders in Mongolia were surveyed in order to assess the climatic and socio-economic changes and their impact on environmental and social living conditions [67].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Theoretical Approaches and Practical Assessment of Socio-Economic Effects of Desertification in Mongolia

Санжеев

Mikheeva

Osodoev

et al. 2020

IJERPH

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In this paper, we consider the effects of desertification in Mongolia, where the area of degraded land has increased significantly in the recent decade. Currently, almost the entire territory of the country is subject to varying degrees of degradation. The intensity of the desertification processes in different natural zones is influenced by both natural climatic and anthropogenic factors. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the impact of desertification on environmental and socio-economic living conditions, as well as on living standards of the local population. In this work, for the first time, the socio-economic aspects of desertification have been studied on a common methodological basis in different Mongolian aimags over a ten-year period. In order to carry out in-depth research, we used the submeridional and sublatitudinal principles for selecting the model study areas, as well as specific criteria and expert assessment. We used a sociological survey as the main method, based on a designed questionnaire, which was translated into Mongolian. The questionnaire includes questions regarding the influence of desertification on traditional nomadic farming, health of family members, water supply of households, water quality, living standards, etc. The results of the sociological surveys made it possible to draw conclusions on the impact of desertification on households, to identify the main problems of local people, and to describe the dynamics of the socio-economic status of the population living in the model areas. Our studies have demonstrated the intensification of the impact of desertification processes in different natural zones, administrative-territorial units and settlement systems in Mongolia.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Theoretical Approaches and Practical Assessment of Socio-Economic Effects of Desertification in Mongolia

Санжеев

Mikheeva

Osodoev

et al. 2020

IJERPH

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“…The focal issues originated from a national workshop before the major grant for the project was written, allowing pastoral and governmental priorities to strongly shape the goals of the project. The partnership particularly excelled at inclusion of both Mongolian and American scientists, and the deep reflections about the team science conducted by this project (Fernández-Giménez et al, 2019a). They emphasized processes like intensive social learning and reflection, comprehensive capacity building, integration of knowledges and reframing of narratives about pastoralism.…”

Section: Mor2 Project Mongoliamentioning

confidence: 94%

“…These enabled new knowledge to be more robust, more relevant, and locally owned by pastoralists and ranchers. In Mongolia, co-produced knowledge may have impacted policy development through the many meetings project members had with policy makers during the project and after it ended [(Fernández-Giménez et al, 2019a), Reid interview].…”

Section: Theory Of Change: Connecting Partnership Process Outputs To mentioning

confidence: 99%

Using Research to Support Transformative Impacts on Complex, “Wicked Problems” With Pastoral Peoples in Rangelands

Reid

Fernández‐Giménez

Wilmer

et al. 2021

Front. Sustain. Food Syst.

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Pastoralists and researchers (and others) are finding new ways of working together worldwide, attempting to sustain pastoral livelihoods and rangelands in the face of rapid and profound changes driven by globalization, growing consumption, land-use change, and climate change. They are doing this partly because of a greater need to address increasing complex or “wicked” problems, but also because local pastoral voices (and sometimes science) still have little impact on decision-making in the governmental and private sectors. We describe here, using six worldwide cases, how collaborative rangelands partnerships are transforming how we learn about rangelands and pastoralists, whose knowledge gets considered, how science can support societal action, and even our fundamental model of how science gets done. Over the long-term, collaborative partnerships are transforming social-ecological systems by implementing processes like building collaborative relationships, co-production/co-generation of knowledge, integration of knowledges, social learning, capacity building, networking and implementing action. These processes are changing mental models and paradigms, creating strong and effective leaders, changing power relations, providing more robust understanding of rangeland systems, reducing polarization and supporting the implementation of new practices and policies. Collaborative partnerships have recurring challenges and much work is yet to be done. These challenges rest on the enduring complexity of social-ecological problems in rangelands. At a practical level, partnerships struggle with listening, amplifying and partnering with diverse (and sometimes marginalized) voices, the time commitment needed to make partnerships work, the bias and naivete of scientists, the recognition that partnerships can promote negative transformations, management of power relations within the partnership, and the need to attribute impacts to partnership activities. We think that the future of this work will have more focus on systems transformations, morals and ethics, intangible and long-term impacts, critical self-assessment, paradigm shifts and mental models, and power. Overall, we conclude that these partnerships are transformative in unexpected and sometimes intangible ways. Key transformations include changing mental models and building the next generation of transformative leaders. Just as important is serendipity, where participants in partnerships take advantage of new windows of opportunity to change policy or create new governance institutions. We also conclude that collaborative partnerships are changing how we do science, creating new and transformative ways that science and society interact that could be called “transformative science with society.”

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“…The Kazakhs in western Mongolia struggle not only with the effects of climate change, they are also increasingly impacted by Mongolian nationalism that privileges the dominant Khalkha social and such support in herding communities is noted in other regions of Mongolia as well (Baival and Fernández-Giménez 2012;Fernández-Giménez et al 2019). The Kazakhs also maintain active ties to tribe (taipa) and clan (ru) that can extend these support systems beyond the family unit.…”

Section: Journal Ofmentioning

confidence: 99%

Songs, Settings, Sociality: Human and Ecological Well-Being in Western Mongolia

Post

2019

Journal of Ethnobiology

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Sustaining Interdisciplinary Collaboration Across Continents and Cultures: Lessons from the Mongolian Rangelands and Resilience Project

Cited by 7 publications

References 26 publications

Theoretical Approaches and Practical Assessment of Socio-Economic Effects of Desertification in Mongolia

Theoretical Approaches and Practical Assessment of Socio-Economic Effects of Desertification in Mongolia

Using Research to Support Transformative Impacts on Complex, “Wicked Problems” With Pastoral Peoples in Rangelands

Songs, Settings, Sociality: Human and Ecological Well-Being in Western Mongolia

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