**6. Discussion**

This research intends to achieve a greater understanding of how evolving multi-actor and multi-level ties influence the level of information sharing, inter-organisational trust, and views of shared goals in emerging transformative spaces over time. Our work has underscored the potential benefits and challenges of establishing a transformative space that includes multiple actors across and within scales, i.e., natural resource users, traditional leaders, key governmen<sup>t</sup> departments, and researchers. Without overstating the claims of our results, the data support the two hypotheses: firstly, transformative spaces enable broader levels of participation among actors between and within scales; and secondly, strong social-relational linkages (i.e., network ties) increase over time across and within scales. Overall, our findings depict that bringing together a diverse network enabled open dialogue and reflexive learning among key actors within and across scales in Machubeni, mirroring what has been written about transformative spaces [30,32]. Below we discuss our findings from the perspective of transformative spaces, social networks, social capital, and polycentric governance literature.

Results presented in this study show that the proportion of strong ties across three governance networks (common goals, inter-organisational trust, and information sharing) increased over time. This increase may sugges<sup>t</sup> that broader levels of participation and interaction of di fferent actors across scales may be necessary for enhancing collaboration and coordination in transformative spaces. For example, multi-actor ties among governmen<sup>t</sup> institutes, local hubs, and the research team contributed to the increase in knowledge sharing and coordination. That multi-level ties connected actors vertically (across multiple levels) demonstrates that polycentrism might be essential in enhancing cross-scale learning and knowledge sharing in transformative spaces. Furthermore, evidence from interviews suggests that inter-organisational trust played an essential role in enhancing knowledge sharing and coordination in transformative spaces. This finding supports points elucidated by Newel and Swan [90], who suggested that inter-organisational trust is central for the e ffective operation of governance networks. Therefore, we argue that increased social capital can enhance collaboration and coordination in multi-actor and multi-level networks.

Another important finding that emerged from our study is that it takes time to develop and nurture multi-level trust. Network members highlighted that high turnover of governmen<sup>t</sup> and municipality o fficers a ffected inter-organisational trust and knowledge-sharing networks. For example, whenever a new governmen<sup>t</sup> or municipality o fficial joined the transformative space, it meant that new trust-building, learning, and engagemen<sup>t</sup> processes must take place, thereby making it challenging to develop and nurture trust [80]. Cundill and Fabricius [80] highlighted that mistrust from governmen<sup>t</sup> or municipality will remain there until they can solve their operational challenges. It is therefore critical for governmen<sup>t</sup> or municipality o fficials to take charge in building trust with local communities. This requires building social capital and resilience and strengthening human capacities of rural communities. Therefore, we urge researchers and governmen<sup>t</sup> agencies involved in transformative spaces to continuously monitor and track network perceptions that influence trust throughout the stages of network development.

Results from the SNA analysis indicate that Rhodes University plays a vital role as a transformative space-maker within the transformative space. Compared to other organisations within the transformative space, Rhodes University recorded significantly high metric scores in both phases, demonstrating its importance as a convenor, facilitator, and knowledge provider. On the other hand, significantly high metric scores (e.g., in Phase 1) might mean that the transformative space is highly centralised around Rhodes University. Given that university-supported transformative spaces have limited funding and strict time frames [32], we sugges<sup>t</sup> that it is necessary to foster and strengthen capacities of other semi-autonomous organisations within the network, especially the local hubs. Building network redundancy of other semi-autonomous organisations within transformative spaces might help reduce exposure to institutional failure [55,63,69]. For instance, capacity building of local hubs may help build network resilience and, in turn, improve multi-level connectivity.

Our study has highlighted the importance of analysing the administrative powers of key actors. We propose that it is "more than just engaging with any governmen<sup>t</sup> o fficial"; there is a need to balance engagemen<sup>t</sup> between junior-, middle-, and senior-ranking o fficials when establishing a transformative space. Our case analysis has demonstrated that the absence of senior-ranking o fficials in transformative spaces hinders decision-making and transformative institutional change. Both juniorand middle-ranking o fficials do not have administrative powers to implement crucial decisions that may enable e ffective collaboration and coordination. Given the complex nature of the administrative setup of governmen<sup>t</sup> organisation, we acknowledge that there is no 'silver bullet' in addressing these power imbalances, but transformative learning is a critical prerequisite for finding solutions to address structural dimensions [91]. Furthermore, we propose that the community services department at the local municipality is best suited to e ffect transformations in Machubeni, given that its role is to contribute towards a safe and secure environment. However, this requires skills capacity development and training in systems thinking. Improving the institutional capacity of local municipalities might necessitate e ffective coordination of multiple municipality departments and knowledge sharing [92,93].

Governance literature highlights the importance of scale-crossing brokers' collaboration in networks [94]. In South Africa, local governmen<sup>t</sup> is identified as a critical administrative level to effect transformations [95], considering that it is the first point of contact between local communities and governmen<sup>t</sup> [96]. Furthermore, local municipalities are identified as the most appropriate policy implementers at the local level [97]. However, we pinpointed a weakness in their connectivity within the transformative space. The relatively weak ties between the local municipality and the rest of the network implied their low capacity to influence knowledge exchange in transformative spaces. Given the low capacity to influence knowledge exchange and collaboration, the local municipality might not be able to e ffect transformations and knowledge sharing within Machubeni [95]. Failure to e ffect transformations might exacerbate the rate of land degradation, thereby eroding people's livelihoods and pushing them further into poverty. Failure to e ffect transformations might depress innovation and productivity in the area, which is highly dependent on social grants. We recommend that transformative and robust leadership are needed to steer implementation in the right direction at the local municipality level.

Prell et al. [98] suggested that actors sharing weak ties may find it challenging to engage in open dialogue. Our results depict that the weak ties between the traditional leaders and MMF executive at the local level might hinder or fracture transformations and collaboration at the local level. Interview data revealed that the tensions at the local level might have been caused by jealousy and ine ffective communication channels. However, a more in-depth analysis revealed that the creation of multiple semi-autonomous hubs at the local level created tensions, because it diluted the influence of the traditional leaders in the area. We attributed this to the power of hubs to make individual decisions without consulting the traditional leaders. The question as to whether the current governance arrangements foster long-term cooperation or whether they are prone to disintegrate further remains to be seen. Some authors argue that it is di fficult to merge democratic and traditional structures in South Africa because of possible dictatorial tendencies of traditional leaders [99,100]. However, we argue that the traditional leadership is compatible with modern democracy and has the potential to improve governance and collaboration, and also e ffect transformations in rural South Africa for two reasons. Firstly, from a SLM perspective, the Communal Land Tenure Policy (CLTP) mandates the traditional

leaders to distribute land in their areas [101]. As such, it is their role as traditional leaders to ensure that community needs and interests are factored into local and district planning. Secondly, the Municipal Structures Act allows traditional leaders to attend and participate in council meetings as ex-o fficio members, thereby enhancing co-operative governance across scales [92].

Despite the importance of traditional leadership in a modern democracy, we identified three institutional gaps that may hinder transformations in rural South Africa. Firstly, we identified traditional leaders' inadequate skills and knowledge to pursue their mandate e ffectively as a major barrier. For example, our study highlighted that traditional leadership was ine ffective in managing partnerships for the benefit of the whole community. Secondly, our results showed that traditional leadership structures (e.g., headman and sub-headman) were ine ffective in consulting and engaging with communities. Thirdly, our analysis revealed that women were not represented in traditional structures in Machubeni, which is far below the 33.3% national policy requirement [102]. Therefore, it is necessary to strengthen and capacitate traditional leaders as a way of enhancing transformative governance to promote sustainability in rural South Africa. Lack of female representation might lead to the exclusion of women from participating in transformative spaces, making it an "all men a ffair." Women constitute 70% of the Machubeni population and their main source of livelihood is farming and livestock [103]. For transformation to occur, we propose that transformative spaces need to be inclusive of all key actors, including women.

Furthermore, our paper demonstrates the importance of longitudinal data and M&E for elucidating transformationsin transformative spaces. With growinginterestin transformations to sustainability [30,32,82], there is a need for adequate M&E. Lessons learned from this study include the importance of monitoring network dynamics and system perceptions as a way of tracking the actual performance of transformative spaces. Without an understanding of network dynamics and system perceptions, we believe it will be di fficult to envisage network pathways that influence institutional change in transformative spaces. We reason that project teams or research institutions involved in land degradation initiatives should consider strengthening M&E. This might be crucial in achieving developmental impacts and detecting institutional change that is attributed to transformative change [32]. M&E might help in informing transformations and identifying barriers to transformations. We also recommend that M&E can be used as an e ffective tool for learning. We argue for future researchers to employ Exponential Random Graph Models (ERGM) to test for more specific propositions, such as analysing the conditions of institutional fit within transformative spaces [104].
