A model integrating social-cultural concepts of nature into frameworks of interaction between social and natural systems

TLDR

Existing frameworks for analysing interactions between social and natural systems, such as the Social‑Ecological Systems framework and Ecosystem Services concept, inadequately capture the dynamic interactions between people’s values, attitudes, and understandings of the human‑nature relationship, especially the context‑sensitivity of social‑cultural concepts in decision‑making. The study aims to highlight how individual and collective understandings of the human‑nature relationship influence environmental behaviour and to translate these insights into a conceptual model that expands existing frameworks. The authors review diverse social‑cultural concepts, frameworks, and research methods to develop a conceptual model that incorporates individual and collective human‑nature understandings. Integrating this model into existing frameworks provides a tool for exploring how social‑cultural concepts of nature interact with context to influence governance of social‑ecological systems.

Abstract

Existing frameworks for analysing interactions between social and natural systems (e.g. Social-Ecological Systems framework, Ecosystem Services concept) do not sufficiently consider and operationalize the dynamic interactions between people's values, attitudes and understandings of the human-nature relationship at both individual and collective levels. We highlight the relevance of individual and collective understandings of the human-nature relationship as influencing factors for environmental behaviour, which may be reflected in natural resource management conflicts, and review the diversity of existing social-cultural concepts, frameworks and associated research methods. Particular emphasis is given to the context-sensitivity of social-cultural concepts in decision-making. These aspects are translated into a conceptual model aiming not to replace but to expand and enhance existing frameworks. Integrating this model into existing frameworks provides a tool for the exploration of how social-cultural concepts of nature interact with existing contexts to influence governance of social-ecological systems.