Using scale and human agency to frame ranchers’ discussions about socio-ecological change and resilience

Authors: GREENE, C - University Of Arizona; Wilmer, Hailey; FERGUSON, DANIEL - University Of Arizona; CRIMMINS, M - University Of Arizona; MCCLAREN, MITCHEL - University Of Arizona

Submitted to: Journal of Rural Studies
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 11/2/2022
Publication Date: 11/12/2022
Citation: Greene, C., Wilmer, H.N., Ferguson, D.B., Crimmins, M.A., McClaren, M.P. 2022. Using scale and human agency to frame ranchers’ discussions about socio-ecological change and resilience. Journal of Rural Studies. 96:217-226. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrurstud.2022.11.001.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrurstud.2022.11.001

Interpretive Summary: The term “resilience” is rising in popularity as a tool to understand how natural resource-based systems, including rangelands, bounce back from change. However, little is understood about how local actors, like ranchers, perceive resilience. We used local knowledge approach to understand the role of human decision-making in shaping resilience in ranching. To collect data, we used focus groups and interviews with ranchers and land managers in seven different focal landscapes across the American West. Our results show that ranchers said they have more ability to adapt to change (or “agency”) related to ecological and climatic changes than they do to adapt to sociological, political and land use changes. They also lacked agency to deal with social and economic processes that unfold at scales far beyond the ranch scale. This study shows that resilience is a complex negotiation of interconnected processes and climate resilience cannot be separated from other ongoing economic and social processes. Second, human agency is a critical component of resilience.

Technical Abstract: Resilience is becoming the dominant discourse in research and policy on climate change as well as wider social-ecological change. Resources and assets alone are often not enough to support resilience, especially in the context of multi-scalar change. Human agency, that is the ability to act and make choices that produce desirable outcomes, is critical to responding and thriving in the face of social-ecological change, however agency remains underexplored in the social-ecological change and resilience literature. We use a local knowledge approach to understand the role of human agency in shaping resilience to complex multi-scalar social-ecological changes. This research draws on focus groups and interviews with ranchers and land managers in seven different focal landscapes across the American West to understand how ranchers articulate social-ecological change in western rangelands, how they describe their own agency in responding to such changes, and how local knowledge of agency and social-ecological change can strengthen conceptions of resilience. Ranchers expressed more agency in addressing observed ecological and climatic changes but less agency in navigating multi-scalar sociological, political and land use changes as these processes unfold at scales far beyond the ranch scale. Several ranchers also provided examples where through scale jumping or increasing community human agency created pathways for resilience to multi-scalar processes. This analysis has two main implications for resilience interventions. First, resilience is a complex negotiation of interconnected and multi-scalar processes and climate resilience cannot be separated from other ongoing economic and social processes. Second, human agency is a critical component of resilience that allows for negotitations of multi-scalar social-ecological changes.