Campus sustainability and natural area stewardship: student involvement in adaptive comanagement
University campus sustainability initiatives have proliferated over the last decade. We contend that such initiatives benefit from applying conceptual frameworks to help understand and guide their activities and from a focus on campus open space and natural areas management. Informed by an adaptive...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Resilience Alliance
2014-09-01
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| Series: | Ecology and Society |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol19/iss3/art27/ |
| _version_ | 1818989705358737408 |
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| author | Marianne E. Krasny Jesse Delia |
| author_facet | Marianne E. Krasny Jesse Delia |
| author_sort | Marianne E. Krasny |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | University campus sustainability initiatives have proliferated over the last decade. We contend that such initiatives benefit from applying conceptual frameworks to help understand and guide their activities and from a focus on campus open space and natural areas management. Informed by an adaptive comanagement framework encompassing social learning, social capital, and shared action, we used semistructured interviews to examine student participation in the immediate response and longer-term policy formulation following a crisis that occurred in a campus natural area. Students exhibited social learning as demonstrated by reflection and the integration of new ideas through discussions with administrators and peers, as well as social capital through increased social trust, which led to a shift in perspective regarding norms of student-administrator interactions. Further, students participated in shared action, such as posting warning signs in dangerous areas, and importantly, through their contributions to longer-term campus natural area safety and recreational access policy. Three conditions explain student engagement in the adaptive comanagement process: the presence of a pre-existing student organization that had built bonding social capital and was committed to campus natural area stewardship, openness to multiple stakeholder viewpoints and commitment to action on the part of the university administration, and the presence of a crisis that spurred emotions and action. Based on these findings, we assert that student organizations can contribute to an adaptive comanagement process and that such a process is consistent with university and campus sustainability values related to the importance of student engagement, mental health, and learning. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-20T19:42:43Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-be9baa5bfc4a4540953b77dd46206d62 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1708-3087 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-20T19:42:43Z |
| publishDate | 2014-09-01 |
| publisher | Resilience Alliance |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Ecology and Society |
| spelling | doaj.art-be9baa5bfc4a4540953b77dd46206d622022-12-21T19:28:29ZengResilience AllianceEcology and Society1708-30872014-09-011932710.5751/ES-06787-1903276787Campus sustainability and natural area stewardship: student involvement in adaptive comanagementMarianne E. Krasny0Jesse DeliaCornell UniversityUniversity campus sustainability initiatives have proliferated over the last decade. We contend that such initiatives benefit from applying conceptual frameworks to help understand and guide their activities and from a focus on campus open space and natural areas management. Informed by an adaptive comanagement framework encompassing social learning, social capital, and shared action, we used semistructured interviews to examine student participation in the immediate response and longer-term policy formulation following a crisis that occurred in a campus natural area. Students exhibited social learning as demonstrated by reflection and the integration of new ideas through discussions with administrators and peers, as well as social capital through increased social trust, which led to a shift in perspective regarding norms of student-administrator interactions. Further, students participated in shared action, such as posting warning signs in dangerous areas, and importantly, through their contributions to longer-term campus natural area safety and recreational access policy. Three conditions explain student engagement in the adaptive comanagement process: the presence of a pre-existing student organization that had built bonding social capital and was committed to campus natural area stewardship, openness to multiple stakeholder viewpoints and commitment to action on the part of the university administration, and the presence of a crisis that spurred emotions and action. Based on these findings, we assert that student organizations can contribute to an adaptive comanagement process and that such a process is consistent with university and campus sustainability values related to the importance of student engagement, mental health, and learning.http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol19/iss3/art27/adaptive comanagementnatural areassustainabilityuniversity |
| spellingShingle | Marianne E. Krasny Jesse Delia Campus sustainability and natural area stewardship: student involvement in adaptive comanagement Ecology and Society adaptive comanagement natural areas sustainability university |
| title | Campus sustainability and natural area stewardship: student involvement in adaptive comanagement |
| title_full | Campus sustainability and natural area stewardship: student involvement in adaptive comanagement |
| title_fullStr | Campus sustainability and natural area stewardship: student involvement in adaptive comanagement |
| title_full_unstemmed | Campus sustainability and natural area stewardship: student involvement in adaptive comanagement |
| title_short | Campus sustainability and natural area stewardship: student involvement in adaptive comanagement |
| title_sort | campus sustainability and natural area stewardship student involvement in adaptive comanagement |
| topic | adaptive comanagement natural areas sustainability university |
| url | http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol19/iss3/art27/ |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT marianneekrasny campussustainabilityandnaturalareastewardshipstudentinvolvementinadaptivecomanagement AT jessedelia campussustainabilityandnaturalareastewardshipstudentinvolvementinadaptivecomanagement |