Humans and our environments exist as systems of interacting components, but appropriately conceptualizing and studying these socio-environmental systems and their associated problems can be a boundary to understanding. A useful method for expanding this frontier is synthesis, a research approach that generates insight by combining existing data in novel ways. This approach is particularly well suited to understanding socio-environmental systems, because they display aggregate behavior resulting from large-scale interactions among social and environmental components. Despite the power of the synthesis method, there are few starting resources available for researchers interested in using it. This panel will introduce the concept of synthesis as an interdisciplinary research method, share strategies related to employing the synthesis method, and present case studies that illustrate the potential and the challenges of socio-environmental systems research. Our panel shares strategies for researchers working to cross boundaries and expand frontiers within and among disciplines when conducting real-world socio-environmental research. Our four-presentation panel consists of postdoctoral fellows from the University of Maryland’s NSF Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center located in Annapolis, Maryland.
Dr. William Burnside, PhD
What is Socio-Environmental Synthesis, and Why is it useful for understanding environmental issues?
Environmental scholars and practitioners appreciate the importance of a holistic approach to understanding and acting on environmental issues. In our modern data-rich world, synthesis is a particularly powerful way to study these issues, one that can illuminate new patterns and suggest underlying processes and whose practice requires mastering transferable skills. So how does one get started “doing” socio-environmental synthesis? This presentation provides a general overview of the synthesis approach and explains its applicability to understanding environmental systems and issues, laying a groundwork for the three presentations that follow. We first define and explain basic terms and concepts associated with systems thinking and synthesis research. From this shared understanding, we highlight how synthesis can be used to translate environmentally and socially-relevant questions to research hypotheses. We then give an overview of how to begin the process of doing synthesis research by outlining four key steps: conceptualizing your system(s); choosing and using (or not using) existing frameworks; finding, wrangling, and analyzing data; and achieving a desired outcome (e.g. producing actionable results). Working through these steps often involves surmounting one or more challenges, which we consider in the next presentation.
Mary Collins, PhD
Challenges to Consider When Conducting Socio-Environmental Synthesis?
As introduced in the previous presentation, there are four key steps to consider when doing socio-environmental synthesis: system conceptualization; choosing and using (or not using) existing frameworks; finding, wrangling, and analyzing data; and achieving a desired outcome (including action orientation). This presentation goes into more depth regarding each of these steps. For example, conceptualizing your system often involves drawing a concept map, which can identify and relate relevant processes with directional relationships, including feedbacks. Although iterative at times, system conceptualization should be the start of synthesis-based approaches. Such conceptualization helps guide the researcher in determining what parts of existing theoretical frameworks (e.g. Ostrom SE system, resilience, transition/tipping point, coupled human/natural system theory, sustainably livelihood, etc.) might be useful and where gaps may lie. Additionally the system conceptualization process helps identify existing and needed data sources, in turn suggesting appropriate methods for managing and analyzing that data. Finally, it is our experience that, in addition to making scholarly contributions, many socio-environmental synthesis researchers also strive to produce actionable results. This presentation ends with an overview of action-ability and a foreshadowing of the two case studies that are to follow.
Judy Che-Castaldo, PhD
Socio-Environmental Synthesis Case Study: Recovery under the U.S. Endangered Species Act
The federal agencies that implement the U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA) are required to complete a recovery plan for every listed species. These plans describe the management actions for each species and specify the recovery criteria that determine when the species can be considered “recovered.” My research aims to improve the use of science in the development of these recovery plans and criteria. This involves a synthesis across the different facets of recovery planning (e.g., the statutory requirements of the ESA, bureaucratic procedures and policies, relevant scientific literature and tools, species biology, and conservation theory) in order to bridge the gap between the science that is being produced and the science that is needed to inform endangered species management. This case study illustrates two types of S-E synthesis challenges that were described in the previous presentations: the constraint imposed by the available data on the questions a researcher can ask, and how best to translate results from synthesis research into actionable outcomes.
Jampel Dell'Angelo, PhD
Working Together: Research and Water Governance on Mount Kenya
Socio-environmental synthesis is commonly the end stage of longer-term effort to synthesize information, methods, and ideas from different disciplines. This interdisciplinary and often transdisciplinary work usually starts “in the field.” In this presentation we will show such a prologue in the form of the ~13 minutes video documentary “Working Together” and follow it with a discussion. “Working together” describes the efforts of a team from Indiana and Princeton Universities researching water governance and institutional adaptation to climate change among community water projects in the Upper Ewaso Ng’iro river basin, Kenya. The documentary highlights the struggle and the beauty of collecting and integrating biophysical/hydrological and social data in this region. It exemplifies how the paradigmatic scientific shift implied by a transition towards inter- and transdisciplinary approaches to socio-environmental researc, translates in the practice of fieldwork. The project itself is part of a larger project entitled ‘Institutional Dynamics of Adaptation to Climate Change: Longitudinal Analysis of Snowmelt-Dependent Agricultural Systems,’ supported by NSF’s Dynamics of Coupled Natural and Human Systems program and the last research grant awarded to Elinor Ostrom.