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Sustainability
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Social Sustainability and Social Learning
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Social Sustainability and Social Learning

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Psychology of Sustainability and Sustainable Development".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (7 June 2021) | Viewed by 19502

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Tasos Hovardas

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Research in Science and Technology Education Group, University of Cyprus, Nicosia, Cyprus; Wildlife and Nature Conservation Society – CALLISTO
Interests: stakeholder engagement in natural resource management and wildlife conservation; environmental discourse analysis; human dimensions of environmental protection and governance; science, technology, and society studies

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Stakeholder engagement is increasingly gaining salience and attention in natural resource management, wildlife conservation, and protected area governance. During the last decade, several perspectives have underlined the need for facilitating a transition from mere stakeholder consultation to a more active involvement of stakeholders under a comprehensive participatory approach, which would allow stakeholders to take control and ownership of these processes and related developments. Such a rationale has been manifested in many localities in the establishment of multistakeholder schemes, which provide the basis for ongoing stakeholder interaction, moving beyond initiatives undertaken by external actors. Institutionalizing stakeholder collaboration to sustain and support their joint action in the mid- and long-term may pave the way for social learning, with multifarious benefits expected out of the operation of multistakeholder schemes for adaptive management and risk management. At the same time, these features present a marked overlap with core conceptualizations of social sustainability.

This Special Issue welcomes submissions building on a cross-fertilization of social sustainability and social learning in the fields of natural resource management, wildlife conservation, and protected area governance. The main objective is to document concrete examples of social learning and social sustainability and showcase how social learning can prove instrumental for fostering social sustainability, or how social learning can be reflected in examples of social sustainability. The emphasis should be on —but is not necessarily restricted to—the dynamic and constructive character of stakeholder engagement, on identifying and addressing positive and negative feedback loops, and on novel ways of dealing with complexity and uncertainty. Contributions can take the form of: (1) case studies or comparison between case studies of stakeholder joint action reporting on lessons learnt, good practice, and theoretical/methodological implications; (2) exemplification of deliberation processes, conflict resolution approaches, and decision-making heuristics tested by stakeholders in particular localities; (3) innovative theoretical/methodological perspectives; (4) literature reviews or (5) policy reviews including robust methods and implications sections. 

Dr. Tasos Hovardas
Guest Editor

Abstract Submission Information

Potential contributors are kindly requested to submit to the Guest Editor, Dr. Tasos Hovardas ([email protected]), an extended abstract of no more than 1000 words, including: (1) The title of their contribution; (2) Authors’ names and affiliations; (3) keywords; (4) the main rationale/research objectives/research questions of the contribution; (5) a detailed methods section; (6) the main results/findings; (7) implications for social sustainability and social learning with a concrete concentration on the innovative aspects of the contribution. Authors, whose abstract will be accepted, will be asked to submit their full manuscript within a period of four months upon abstract acceptance. In addition, these Authors will be asked to serve as Reviewers for at least one manuscript submitted for this Special Issue.

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Social sustainability
  • Social learning
  • Stakeholder engagement
  • Multistakeholder schemes
  • Natural resource management
  • Wildlife conservation
  • Protected area governance
  • Adaptive management
  • Risk management
  • Participatory approaches

Published Papers (6 papers)

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Research

20 pages, 492 KiB  
Article
Social Sustainability as Social Learning: Insights from Multi-Stakeholder Environmental Governance
by Tasos Hovardas
Sustainability 2021, 13(14), 7744; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13147744 - 12 Jul 2021
Cited by 12 | Viewed by 2785
Abstract
Social sustainability has for long been either neglected or downplayed in scientific literature and policy making and it remains an unsettled concept. The present paper critically examines several explanations for the unequal development of the social component of sustainability and suggests that social [...] Read more.
Social sustainability has for long been either neglected or downplayed in scientific literature and policy making and it remains an unsettled concept. The present paper critically examines several explanations for the unequal development of the social component of sustainability and suggests that social learning can serve as an insightful anchor for conceptualizing and operationalizing social sustainability. Collaborative governance is used to showcase this approach, specifically, a targeted review of multi-stakeholder schemes in natural resource management, wildlife conservation, and protected area governance. These schemes can exemplify a wide array of commonalities between the fields of social sustainability and social learning and reveal a fruitful cross-fertilization of the two concepts. The paper wishes to make two contributions. First, a specific dialectic between stakeholder collaboration and conflict under power asymmetries will be illustrated, which is characteristic in the operation of many multi-stakeholder governance schemes. Second, the need for scaffolding social learning in such schemes will be demonstrated so that a process-oriented account of social sustainability is attained. The way out offered by the present paper is that the dynamics between collaboration and conflict, properly managed by means of a toolkit with social learning templates for multi-stakeholder environmental governance schemes, may serve as a precondition for innovations sought. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Social Sustainability and Social Learning)
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20 pages, 1788 KiB  
Article
Using Participatory Approaches to Enhance Women’s Engagement in Natural Resource Management in Northern Ghana
by Peter Cronkleton, Kristen Evans, Thomas Addoah, Emilie Smith Dumont, Mathurin Zida and Houria Djoudi
Sustainability 2021, 13(13), 7072; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13137072 - 23 Jun 2021
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 3202
Abstract
From 2016–2019, the West African Forest-Farm Interface (WAFFI) project engaged with smallholder farmers in northern Ghana to explore mechanisms to improve the influence of under-represented peoples, particularly women, in decision-making processes and platforms that affect their access to natural resources. Through a multi-phase [...] Read more.
From 2016–2019, the West African Forest-Farm Interface (WAFFI) project engaged with smallholder farmers in northern Ghana to explore mechanisms to improve the influence of under-represented peoples, particularly women, in decision-making processes and platforms that affect their access to natural resources. Through a multi-phase process of participatory activities, including auto-appraisal, participatory action research (PAR) and facilitated knowledge exchange, villagers and researchers worked together to document and develop a better understanding of the challenges and changes facing women and men in the region to generate social learning. Among these challenges, the degradation of forest resources due to over exploitation, weak governance and conflict of use over shea trees (Vitellaria paradoxa) were particularly important for women. The WAFFI approach created a scaffold for social learning that strengthened the capacity of local stakeholders to share their perspectives and opinions more effectively in multi-stakeholder forums and dialogue related to resource use and land use change initiatives. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Social Sustainability and Social Learning)
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15 pages, 516 KiB  
Article
Game-Based Social Learning for Socially Sustainable Water Management
by Joop de Kraker, Astrid Offermans and Merel M. van der Wal
Sustainability 2021, 13(9), 4646; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13094646 - 22 Apr 2021
Cited by 9 | Viewed by 2406
Abstract
An important aspect of the social sustainability of a proposed solution is acceptance by societal stakeholders. Acceptance is determined by the extent to which the solution matches with stakeholder perspectives on the problem and preferred ways to deal with it. Social learning can [...] Read more.
An important aspect of the social sustainability of a proposed solution is acceptance by societal stakeholders. Acceptance is determined by the extent to which the solution matches with stakeholder perspectives on the problem and preferred ways to deal with it. Social learning can contribute to the social sustainability of water management strategies by achieving a convergence in perspectives among societal stakeholders. Serious games have proven to be effective in generating this type of social learning outcomes, but the underlying mechanisms are still unclear. This article aims to clarify how a multi-player serious game on river management (Sustainable Delta) supports social learning among participants with initially diverging perspectives. Based on a conceptual framework for game-based social learning, hypotheses and expectations were formulated and tested with quantitative and qualitative analyses of game sessions. Convergence of perspectives was observed in 10 out of 12 gaming sessions, but could not, or could only to a limited extent, be explained by the presumed learning support mechanisms in the game’s design. This underlines the importance of opening up the black box of serious games to determine how and why they work. If this is neglected, there is a clear risk that the design of games will be based on wrong, untested assumptions and will be less effective in supporting social learning and social sustainability. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Social Sustainability and Social Learning)
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24 pages, 1473 KiB  
Article
Are Large Carnivores the Real Issue? Solutions for Improving Conflict Management through Stakeholder Participation
by Valeria Salvatori, Estelle Balian, Juan Carlos Blanco, Xavier Carbonell, Paolo Ciucci, László Demeter, Agnese Marino, Andrea Panzavolta, Andrea Sólyom, Yorck von Korff and Juliette Claire Young
Sustainability 2021, 13(8), 4482; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13084482 - 16 Apr 2021
Cited by 21 | Viewed by 4448
Abstract
Social conflicts around large carnivores are increasing in Europe, often associated to the species expansion into human-modified and agricultural landscapes. Large carnivores can be seen as an added value by some but as a source of difficulties by others, depending on different values, [...] Read more.
Social conflicts around large carnivores are increasing in Europe, often associated to the species expansion into human-modified and agricultural landscapes. Large carnivores can be seen as an added value by some but as a source of difficulties by others, depending on different values, attitudes, livelihoods, and everyday activities. Therefore, the effective involvement of the different interest groups is important to identify and shape tailored solutions that can potentially be implemented, complementing top-down approaches that might, on their own, result in lack of implementation and buy-in. To improve dialogue in conflictual situations, as part of a European project promoted by the European Parliament, we assessed the practical implementation of participatory processes in three sample areas in Europe where wolves and bears have recently been increasingly impacting human activities. Our results demonstrate that collaboration among different and generally contrasting groups is possible. Even in situations where large-carnivore impacts were seen as unsatisfactorily managed for many years, people were still willing and eager to be involved in alternative discussion processes hoping this would lead to concrete solutions. An important and common highlight among the three study areas was that all the management interventions agreed upon shared the general scope of improving the conditions of the groups most impacted by large carnivores. The process showed the importance of building trust and supporting dialogue for knowledge co-production and mitigation of conflicts between stakeholders and that controversial environmental issues have the potential to trigger a meaningful dialogue about broader societal issues. The direct involvement and support of competent authorities, as well as the upscaling of this process at larger administrative and social scales, remain important challenges. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Social Sustainability and Social Learning)
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21 pages, 2040 KiB  
Article
Achieving Social and Ecological Outcomes in Collaborative Environmental Governance: Good Examples from Swedish Moose Management
by Sabrina Dressel, Annelie Sjölander-Lindqvist, Maria Johansson, Göran Ericsson and Camilla Sandström
Sustainability 2021, 13(4), 2329; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13042329 - 21 Feb 2021
Cited by 11 | Viewed by 3813
Abstract
Collaborative governance approaches have been suggested as strategies to handle wicked environmental problems. Evaluations have found promising examples of effective natural resource governance, but also highlighted the importance of social-ecological context and institutional design. The aim of this study was to identify factors [...] Read more.
Collaborative governance approaches have been suggested as strategies to handle wicked environmental problems. Evaluations have found promising examples of effective natural resource governance, but also highlighted the importance of social-ecological context and institutional design. The aim of this study was to identify factors that contribute to the achievement of social and ecological sustainability within Swedish moose (Alces alces) management. In 2012, a multi-level collaborative governance regime was implemented to decrease conflicts among stakeholders. We carried out semi-structured interviews with six ‘good examples’ (i.e., Moose Management Groups that showed positive social and ecological outcomes). We found that ‘good examples’ collectively identified existing knowledge gaps and management challenges and used their discretionary power to develop procedural arrangements that are adapted to the social-ecological context, their theory of change, and attributes of local actors. This contributed to the creation of bridging social capital and principled engagement across governance levels. Thus, our results indicate the existence of higher-order social learning as well as a positive feedback from within-level collaboration dynamics to between-level collaboration. Furthermore, our study illustrates the importance of institutional flexibility to utilize the existing knowledge across stakeholder groups and to allow for adaptations based on the social learning process. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Social Sustainability and Social Learning)
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25 pages, 20352 KiB  
Article
A Goal Programming Model to Guide Decision-Making Processes towards Conservation Consensuses
by Mónica de Castro-Pardo and João C. Azevedo
Sustainability 2021, 13(4), 1959; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13041959 - 11 Feb 2021
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2016
Abstract
In this paper we propose a goal programming model that provides a consensual aggregated solution minimizing conflicts to guide multi-stakeholder decision-making processes and generates information regarding stakeholder groups to be exploited for negotiation purposes. This model permits to quantify variations in conflicts when [...] Read more.
In this paper we propose a goal programming model that provides a consensual aggregated solution minimizing conflicts to guide multi-stakeholder decision-making processes and generates information regarding stakeholder groups to be exploited for negotiation purposes. This model permits to quantify variations in conflicts when the relative contribution of each criteria changes and gives insight to negotiation strategies with application in conservation areas. A dataset of a case study in the Meseta Ibérica Biosphere Reserve (Portugal-Spain) was used to test and validate the model. Fifty people belonging to four groups (scientists, government, farmers and businesspersons) assessed 20 management objectives in four dimensions: conservation, logistical support, development, and governance. The results showed the highest conflicts to be found for fauna and flora, education, and guarantees objectives while the most conflictive groups were scientists and farmers. The proposed model substantially reduced the global and intergroup conflicts associated to the same objectives, modelling the weights assigned to each objective in each dimension to find the most consensual/least conflictive solutions. This model can be a useful tool to improve complex decision-making processes in conservation areas with strong conflicts between stakeholders, such as transboundary biosphere reserves. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Social Sustainability and Social Learning)
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