Title: Social relations and natural resource management: the significance of trust and power to solving a collective weed management problem

Abstract: Many of the world‘s most challenging environmental problems, such as biosecurity, climate change and water scarcity, are trans-boundary in nature and require cooperation of diverse actors. The degradation of rural land is one such problem. This thesis aims to explain the reasons why rural landholders and government agencies do or do not participate in environmental, collective action problems. It does this by asking two questions: can study of a wide range of social relations explain the achievement of collective action in a real-world setting? And, are trust, power and their nexus useful concepts for explaining the nature of those social relations? The empirical example used in this thesis is serrated tussock (Nassella trichotoma), a highly invasive, noxious weed that covers more than two million hectares in south-eastern Australia. Semi-structured interviews, participant observation and newspaper analysis were used to explore the relations among the suite of actors responsible for controlling this weed in two case studies—Cooma, NSW and Bacchus Marsh, Victoria. Landholders and agency staff believed social relations were at the heart of the collective weed management problem, and also the key to its solution. The analysis revealed that there were three inter-related pathways that the communities engaged in to foster greater weed control. These were: 1) sharing information; 2) providing support; and 3) applying pressure. The extent to which each pathway was successful depended on the wide range of social relations that existed among landholders, particularly neighbours and community group members, and between landholders and agency staff, particularly weeds officers. The concepts of trust, power, and their nexus were found to be useful for examining and explaining the development of positive and negative relations among these diverse actors. Of particular significance was the finding that coercive and reward power could build or destroy goodwill trust depending on the context of the social relationship. On the other hand, referent power almost always had a positive effect on goodwill trust and reciprocity. As a result, promoting positive neighbourly relations appeared to hold the key to achieving long-term, control of serrated tussock. [Graham, S. (2012). Social relations and natural resource management: the significance of trust and power to solving a collective weed management problem. Unpublished thesis, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Charles Sturt University]



Article: WeedsNews2777 (permalink)
Categories: :WeedsNews:research alert, :WeedsNews:biosecurity, :WeedsNews:community engagement, :WeedsNews:weed control
Date: 16 January 2012; 8:44:04 pm Australian Eastern Daylight Time

Author Name: David Low
Author ID: adminDavid