Natural resource management methodology : lessons for complex community settings.

Natural resource management (NRM) is being seen increasingly as involving complex ecological and social/political settings and thus requiring changes to the research and development (R&D) adopted in the past. NRM R&D has been characterised by predominately positivistic and reductionistic methodologies. Recent attempts to deal with complexity in NRM settings required input from many scientific disciplines including the social sciences. It also involved the use of contextual approaches the nature of the substantive domain is understood in the framing of questions. In using a substantive approach, the importance of considering NRM R&D as a human activity has been recognised and this offers opportunities for community psychologists. In dealing with complex ecological and social systems, there is also opportunity for a reciprocity between NRM methodologies and the development of applied methodologies in community psychology

Reimagining spaces of innovation for water efficiency and demand management: An exploration of professional practices in the English water sector

Social practice theories have established an important counter narrative to conventional accounts of demand. The core argument of this body of research is that, having focused on informing and incentivising behavioural change, demand management has largely neglected the social and material dimensions of everyday action that shape how and why resources are used. Despite making a compelling case for reframing demand management, there is limited evidence of practice-based approaches having gained a foothold in policy and business practices. This raises important questions regarding how and why certain modes of intervention are pursued at the expense of others and, more broadly, the factors that shape the pace and direction of innovation in demand management. In this paper we turn a practice-lens towards the professional practices of demand management. Using mixed methods, we demonstrate how specific modes of intervention emerge as priorities within a social, political, semiotic and material landscape of professional practice. Our empirical analysis highlights four particular contingencies of demand management that constrain the scope of interventions pursued. These are industry expectations and ideals; modes of collaboration; processes of evidencing action; and hydrosocial disturbances. We discuss the implications of these findings, making suggestions as to how innovation in the practices of demand management might be facilitated, and the role of academic research in this process

Powershifts, organisational value, and water management: digital transformation of Ghana's public water utility

There are fundamental unresolved questions about the nature of the interplay between digital innovations and water management processes. However, there has been little research on how increasing digital transformation impacts water management and infrastructure in the Global South. This article draws on a socio-technical lens and primary field data to analyse the digital transformation of water management in Ghana's state water utility company. Digital water innovations were found to be recent and delivering relatively limited impacts yet, with value mainly accruing at the utility's operational rather than strategic level, and incremental, not transformative. Digitalisation and datafication also present avenues for power shifts, internal and external struggles, and changes in water management structures and responsibilities. The paper ends with a brief discussion of the implications for water service governance and research and suggestions for using data and information generated from digital water infrastructure to improve services

Addressing water poverty under climate crisis: implications for social policy

Access to safe, clean and affordable water is a basic human right and a global goal towards which climate change poses new challenges that heavily impact the health and wellbeing of people across the globe and exacerbate or create new inequalities. These challenges are shaped by a number of geographical and social conditions that, apart from the risks of weather-driven impacts on water, include water governance and management arrangements in place, including pricing tariffs, and the interplay of social and economic inequalities. Building on examples from Australia, Scotland and England and Wales that illustrate access to water in different types of water provision systems, and regarding to aspects of access, quality and affordability, this paper explores the types of challenges related to water poverty in the context of climate crisis and reflects on the multiple dimensions of water poverty oriented social policy at the interplay of climate change associated risks

Accessing novel fluorinated heterocycles with the hypervalent fluoroiodane reagent by solution and mechanochemical synthesis

A new and efficient strategy for the rapid formation of novel fluorinated tetrahydropyridazines and dihydrooxazines has been developed by fluorocyclisation of β,γ-unsaturated hydrazones and oximes with the fluoroiodane reagent. Mechanochemical synthesis delivered fluorinated tetrahydropyridazines in similar excellent yields to conventional solution synthesis, whereas fluorinated dihydrooxazines were prepared in much better yields by ball-milling