ESADE, University Ramon Llull, Spain

Exploring the emergence of a shared conception of sustainability within collaborative natural resource governance institutions

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Abstract

Collaborative governance institutions have been advanced as a solution to reach sustainable natural resource management in social-ecological systems. Nonetheless, this causal relationship is not clearly established, either conceptually or empirically. Conceptions of sustainability may vary widely among the stakeholders involved in those institutions. From an institutional perspective, it’s been argued that “addressing topics like “ecologically sustainable organizations” requires first understanding how consensus is built around the meaning of “sustainability”” (Jennings & Zandbergen, 1995, p.1016). We take a first step towards understanding the relationship between collaborative governance and sustainable natural resource management, by first questioning whether and how a shared conception of sustainability appears in those institutions, based on the diversity of conceptions present among the stakeholders. To do so, we pursue a longitudinal qualitative study of French river basin committees, including considerations for power dynamics and for the stakeholders’ relationship to the ecological components of those social-ecological systems.

Biography

Lucie Baudoin is a PhD candidate at ESADE, University Ramon Llull, Barcelona. Her research interests are in the relation of institutions to their natural environment and in sustainable natural resource management from a system perspective. She has published in Organization & Environment.