Publications

Elsler, L., Frawley, T., Britten, G., Crowder, L., DuBois, T., Radosavljevic, S., Gilly, W., Crépin, A., Schlüter, M.. 2021. Social relationship dynamics mediate climate impacts on income inequality: evidence from the Mexican Humboldt squid fishery. Regional Environmental Change. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10113-021-01747-5

Small-scale fisheries are critically important for livelihoods around the world, particularly in tropical regions. However, climate variability and anthropogenic climate change may seriously impact small-scale fisheries by altering the abundance and distribution of target species. Social relationships between fishery users, such as fish traders, can determine how each individual responds and is affected by changes in fisheries...

Schlüter, M., Lindkvist, E., Basurto, X.. 2021. The interplay between top-down interventions and bottom-up self-organization shapes opportunities for transforming self-governance in small-scale fisheries. Marine Policy. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.marpol.2021.104485

Small-scale fisheries (SSF) contribute substantially to global food security, sustainable marine ecosystems and poverty alleviation. Yet many SSF face problems of overexploitation and poverty calling for novel governance approaches that enhance human-wellbeing, equity and ecological sustainability. External policies and interventions to support such governance transformations, however, need to take their often self-governed na...

Biggs, R., de Vos, A., Preiser, R., Clements, H., Maciejewski, K. & Schlüter, M. 2021. The Routledge Handbook of Research Methods for Social-Ecological Systems, Taylor & Francis Group.

The Routledge Handbook of Research Methods for Social-Ecological Systems provides a synthetic guide to the range of methods that can be employed in social-ecological systems (SES) research. The book is primarily targeted at graduate students, lecturers and researchers working on SES, and has been written in a style that is accessible to readers entering the field from a variety of different disciplinary backgrounds. Each chap...

Donges, J., Lucht, W., Cornell, S., Heitzig, J., Barfuss, W., Lade, S., Schlüter, M.. 2021. Taxonomies for structuring models for World–Earth systems analysis of the Anthropocene: subsystems, their interactions and social–ecological feedback loops. Earth System Dynamics. http://dx.doi.org/10.5194/esd-12-1115-2021

In the Anthropocene, the social dynamics of human societies have become critical to understanding planetary-scale Earth system dynamics. The conceptual foundations of Earth system modelling have externalised social processes in ways that now hinder progress in understanding Earth resilience and informing governance of global environmental change.New approaches to global modelling of the human World are needed to address these ...

Constantino, S., Schlüter, M., Weber, E., Wijermans, N.. 2021. Cognition and behavior in context: a framework and theories to explain natural resource use decisions in social-ecological systems. Sustainability Science. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11625-021-00989-w

The complex, context-dependent, and dynamic nature of human behavior is increasingly recognized as both an important cause of sustainability problems and potential leverage for their solution. Human beings are diverse, as are the social, ecological, and institutional settings in which they are embedded. Despite this recognition and extensive knowledge about human decision-making in the behavioral sciences, empirical analysis,...

Orach, K., Schlüter, M.. 2021. Understanding the dynamics of fish politics: The role of diverse actor interactions in transformations towards co-management. Environmental Science & Policy. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.envsci.2021.06.010

Co-management is often put forward as a way to foster sustainability and improve the adaptive capacity of small-scale fisheries. Transformations towards co-management are enabled by processes that support social change, such as nurturing leadership, collective action and learning, as well as political processes that change legislative frameworks from centralized to decentralized decision-making. However, major policy changes c...

Elsler, L.G., Frawley, T.H., Britten, G.L. et al. Social relationship dynamics mediate climate impacts on income inequality: evidence from the Mexican Humboldt squid fishery. Reg Environ Change 21, 35 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10113-021-01747-5

Small-scale fisheries are critically important for livelihoods around the world, particularly in tropical regions. However, climate variability and anthropogenic climate change may seriously impact small-scale fisheries by altering the abundance and distribution of target species. Social relationships between fishery users, such as fish traders, can determine how each individual responds and is affected by changes in fisheries...

Haider, L.J., Schlüter, M., Folke, C. et al. Rethinking resilience and development: A coevolutionary perspective. Ambio 50, 1304–1312 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-020-01485-8

The interdependence of social and ecological processes is broadly acknowledged in the pursuit to enhance human wellbeing and prosperity for all. Yet, development interventions continue to prioritise economic development and short-term goals with little consideration of social-ecological interdependencies, ultimately undermining resilience and therefore efforts to deliver development outcomes. We propose and advance a coevolut...

Gonzalez-Mon, B., Bodin, O., Lindkvist, E., Frawley, T.H., Giron-Nava, A., Basurto, X., Nenadovic, M. & Schluter, M. 2021. Spatial diversification as a mechanism to adapt to environmental changes in small-scale fisheries. Environmental Science & Policy 116, 246–257.

Small-scale fisheries’ actors increasingly face new challenges, including climate driven shifts in marine resource distribution and productivity. Diversification of target species and fishing locations is a key mechanism to adapt to such changes and maintain fisheries livelihoods. Here we explore environmental and institutional factors mediating how patterns of spatial diversification (i.e., utilization of alternative fishing ...

Herrfahrdt-Pähle, E., Schlüter, M., Olsson, P., Folke, C., Gelcich, S. and Pahl-Wostl, C., 2020. Sustainability transformations: socio-political shocks as opportunities for governance transitions. Global Environmental Change, 63.

Faced with accelerating environmental challenges, research on social-ecological systems is increasingly focused on the need for transformative change towards sustainable stewardship of natural resources. This paper analyses the potential of rapid, large-scale socio-political change as a window of opportunity for transformative change of natural resources governance. We hypothesize that shocks at higher levels of social organiz...