A social-ecological systems framework for food systems research: accommodating transformation systems and their products

Graham R. Marshall

doi:10.18352/ijc.587

Abstract

The social-ecological systems (SES) framework was developed to support communication across the multiple disciplines concerned with sustainable provision and/or appropriation of common-pool resources (CPRs). Transformation activities (e.g. processing, distribution, retailing) in which value is added to resource units appropriated from CPRs were assumed in developing the framework to be exogenous to the SES of focal concern. However, provision and appropriation of CPRs are nowadays often closely integrated with the market economy, so significant interdependence exists between many CPR provision/appropriation activities and the activities in which appropriated resource units are transformed into the products ultimately marketed. This paper presents a modified version of the SES framework designed to better account for transformation activities in order to be more suitable for diagnosing those sustainability problems where it is inappropriate to define all such activities as exogenous to the SES of focal concern. The need for such modification was identified in a research project examining the challenges faced by Cambodian cattle-owning smallholders in accessing value chains for premium-priced beef. Hence the immediate focus was on strengthening the SES framework’s value for facilitating a multi-disciplinary diagnostic approach to food system research projects of this kind. The modified SES framework’s potential in this respect was illustrated by a preliminary application that drew on literature reviewed for the Cambodian project. Significant further potential exists in using the modified framework as a foundation from which to develop a version that is suitable for application to SESs in which transformation systems are appropriately represented as endogenous. Maintaining consistency with the standard SES framework will enable communication to occur more effectively between food system researchers and CPR scholars more generally.

Highlights

The social-ecological systems (SES) framework was developed to facilitate cross-disciplinary communication among scholars interested in diagnosis of the sustainability of SESs in which provision and/or appropriation of commonpool resources (CPRs) occurs (Ostrom 2007, 2009)
Provision and appropriation of common-pool resources (CPRs) are nowadays often closely integrated with the market economy, so significant interdependence exists between many CPR provision/appropriation activities and the activities in which appropriated resource units are transformed into the products marketed or consumed
This paper presents a modified version of the SES framework designed to better account for transformation activities in order to be more suitable for diagnosing those sustainability problems where it is inappropriate to define all such activities as exogenous to the SES of focal concern

Summary

Introduction

The social-ecological systems (SES) framework was developed to facilitate cross-disciplinary communication among scholars interested in diagnosis of the sustainability of SESs in which provision and/or appropriation of commonpool resources (CPRs) occurs (Ostrom 2007, 2009). The SES framework’s focus on diagnosing the sustainability of natural resource provision and appropriation processes remains relevant for projects of this kind which aim to promote adoption by smallholders and other value-chain actors (e.g. slaughterhouse operators) of technologies and practices which may impact on natural resources (e.g. slaughterhouses require water supplies for their operation and may dispose of wastes to land and/or water systems) The Cambodian case is employed in this paper to highlight the value of modifying the SES framework to accommodate transformation activities and thereby a more comprehensive array of SESs within which occurs provision and appropriation of CPRs and environmental systems more generally It is used in an illustrative exercise to highlight how the proposed modifications to the framework – to include ‘transformation systems’ and their ‘products’ as potential first-tier attributes of a focal SES in addition to the four represented in the existing SES framework as presented by McGinnis and Ostrom (2014)

The project in global context

Value chains

Food systems

A role for the SES framework

Overview

Scope of resource system and resource units

Revisions to first-tier attributes

Revisions to second-tier attributes

Closing comments

Findings

Literature cited