A Critical Reflection on Social Ecological Research and Turning to Practice

Abstract

In this chapter, we bring together the literature from many disciplines to argue for a focus on practice. We begin by examining the embedded assumptions in the language of social ecological systems (SES) research, including the meanings attributed to words like nonlinearity. We then consider the necessity of critical reflection for integrating different knowledges, ordering information, and overcoming the tendency to offer deterministic explanations. We consider the moral and ethical implications of SES research and express a desire to overcome binaries that limit understanding. We then turn our attention to unarticulated assumptions related to system structure and function and the way we attend to time. Finally, we consider individual and social learning and how this may be impeded by path dependencies and rule-bound management regimes, which give the impression of stability. We argue for an epistemology of practice, which informs the practice of adaptive doing presented later in the book. Taking a practice-oriented approach, which considers how and what people do, offers a more accessible entry-point than theory or philosophy for integrating disciplinary knowledge, and it provides a pathway for responding to struggles over reality, knowledge and power in social ecological research.