Capacity to adapt to environmental change: evidence from a network of organizations concerned with increasing wildfire risk

ArticleThis is the final version of the article. Available from Resilience Alliance via the DOI in this record.Because wildfire size and frequency are expected to increase in many forested areas in the United States, organizations involved in forest and wildfire management could arguably benefit from working together and sharing information to develop strategies for how to adapt to this increasing risk. Social capital theory suggests that actors in cohesive networks are positioned to build trust and mutual understanding of problems and act collectively to address these problems, and that actors engaged with diverse partners are positioned to access new information and resources that are important for innovation and complex problem solving. We investigated the patterns of interaction within a network of organizations involved in forest and wildfire management in Oregon, USA, for evidence of structural conditions that create opportunities for collective action and learning. We used descriptive statistical analysis of social network data gathered through interviews to characterize the structure of the network and exponential random graph modeling to identify key factors in the formation of network ties. We interpreted our findings through the lens of social capital theory to identify implications for the network’s capacity to engage in collective action and complex problem-solving about how to adapt to environmental change. We found that tendencies to associate with others with similar management goals, geographic emphases, and attitudes toward wildfire were strong mechanisms shaping network structure, potentially constraining interactions among organizations with diverse information and resources and limiting opportunities for learning and complex problem-solving needed for adaptation. In particular, we found that organizations with fire protection and forest restoration goals comprised distinct networks despite sharing concern about the problem of increasing wildfire risk.The National Science Foundation's (NSF) Coupled Human and Natural Systems Program (NSF Grant CNH-1013296) and the U.S. Forest Service PNW Research Station provided the funding for this research. Support was also provided by the National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center (SESYNC; DBI-1052875). The authors would like to acknowledge all the interview informants who generously gave their time to participate in the study. The authors would also like to acknowledge Örjan Bodin for reviewing the study plan for the research; Susan Charnley, Emily Platt, and Kerry Grimm for assisting with data collection; Maribel Vidrio for assisting with data management; and Ken Vance-Borland for assisting with preliminary data analysis

Why are we here? Patterns of intersectional motivations across the resistance

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Mobilization via the DOI in this recordCan a crowd of individuals who are motivated by a range of issues related to racial identity, class, gender and sexuality mobilize around a shared issue, and, if so, how does this process work in practice? To date, limited research has explored intersectionality as a mobilization tool for social movements. This paper expands recent work on how intersectional motivations influence the constituencies at protest events by comparing across some of the largest events that have taken place in Washington, DC since the Resistance began. We explore patterns of motivations of participants in marches over the first year of the Trump Presidency. Our analyses demonstrate how individuals’ motivations to participate represented an intersectional set of issues and how patterns of issues emerge. However, when we look across the marches, we find that the patterns are not durable, indicating the limitations of interpretations of the Resistance as a unified intersectional movement

The power of peers: how transnational advocacy networks shape NGO strategies on climate change

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from CUP via the DOI in this record.What explains variation in the tactical choices of NGOs? This paper uses network autocorrelation models to establish how the tactical choices of climate change NGOs are shaped by their embeddedness in transnational advocacy networks. Specifically, we find that NGOs are more likely to adopt protest tactics when adjacent organizations – those with whom they have direct ties – have already done so. The choices of equivalent organizations – those that occupy similar relational roles in the network – do not appear to be influential. Qualitative evidence also shows that NGOs are affected by relational pressure from their peers, altering their perception of costs and benefits. These findings enhance our understanding of how networks influence the behavior of actors and offer insight into the relational processes that generate protest in global politics