Abstract
We examine networks of collaboration among civic environmental stewardship organizations in Philadelphia and New York City to understand which factors shape collaborative ties between organizations. Environmental issues in cities are increasingly complicated and often involve many actors, including citizens, governments, and organizations. Organizations frequently collaborate to tackle collective action problems related to environmental management. Here, we study two such networks collected as part of the U.S. Forest Service's Stewardship Mapping and Assessment (STEW-MAP) project that monitors and maps the organizational characteristics of local environmental groups. We apply Exponential Random Graph models to demonstrate that network motifs, spatial proximity, organizational attributes, neighborhood context, and main issue focus all play different roles in explaining organizational collaboration among civic groups, but in very different ways across the two cities. Our findings reveal that civic networks are more correlated with homophily by social issues in Philadelphia, whereas civic networks in New York City are often correlated with geography proximity and homophily in land use. The comparative framework, still relatively rare in studies of environmental stewardship organizations, shows that different types of homophily, corresponding to different theoretical motivations, are at work in these cities. We conclude with some speculation as to the causes of these differences and their implications.
Highlights
Civic environmental stewardship is on the rise in many cities and regions throughout the world
Our findings reveal that civic networks are more correlated with homophily by social issues in Philadelphia, whereas civic networks in New York City are often correlated with geography proximity and homophily in land use
These demonstrate that the New York City network is much larger than the Philadelphia network, with over twice the number of respondents but almost the same number of mentioned organizations who were not included in the original sample (431 in Philadelphia and 440 in New York City; Table 2)
Summary
Civic environmental stewardship is on the rise in many cities and regions throughout the world. Organizational networks are important mechanisms for groups to share information and resources that can strengthen capacity and outcomes and address environmental problems frequently too complex or at too large a scale for any one organization to tackle alone (Lubell et al 2010, Ingold and Fischer 2014). We focus on the ways in which homophily, the tendency for organizations with similar characteristics to be more likely to work together (McPherson et al (2001), predicts social structure; we examine proximity through geographic space, organizational characteristics, and neighborhood context Each of these types of homophily is understood in the literature to represent different kinds of underlying processes. Understanding these patterns is a first step in both understanding the structure and function of these networks as well as their potential for effective stewardship
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