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Adaptation in Collaborative Governance Regimes

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Abstract

Adaptation and the adaptive capacity of human and environmental systems have been of central concern to natural and social science scholars, many of whom characterize and promote the need for collaborative cross-boundary systems that are seen as flexible and adaptive by definition. Researchers who study collaborative governance systems in the public administration, planning and policy literature have paid less attention to adaptive capacity specifically and institutional adaptation in general. This paper bridges the two literatures and finds four common dimensions of capacity, including structural arrangements, leadership, knowledge and learning, and resources. In this paper, we focus on institutional adaptation in the context of collaborative governance regimes and try to clarify and distinguish collaborative capacity from adaptive capacity and their contributions to adaptive action. We posit further that collaborative capacities generate associated adaptive capacities thereby enabling institutional adaptation within collaborative governance regimes. We develop these distinctions and linkages between collaborative and adaptive capacities with the help of an illustrative case study in watershed management within the National Estuary Program.

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Notes

  1. “Knowledge is information combined with understanding and capability: it lives in the minds of people…Knowledge guides action, whereas information and data can merely inform or confuse” (Groff and Jones 2003, p. 3).

  2. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, National Estuary program (NEP) Overview at http://water.epa.gov/type/oceb/nep/index.cfm#tabs-2.

  3. We want to acknowledge our debt to Marilyn Buchholtz ten Brink, Ph.D., Special Assistant to the Director, Atlantic Ecology Division U.S. EPA, Office of Research and Development, National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory, who brought this case to our attention and on whose many direct observations we draw.

  4. In September 2013, the coalition of municipalities, named the Great Bay Coalition, dismissed the litigation and the parties are now moving forward with a scientific review of the nitrogen standards (Fosters 2013).

  5. The Management Committee members include citizens, educators, researchers, municipal officials, and representatives from state and federal agencies.

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Acknowledgments

We received no financial or in-kind support for this project.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Government and Public Policy, University of Arizona, 306 Social Sciences, Tucson, AZ, 85721, USA

    Kirk Emerson

  2. International Studies Association and Udall Center for Studies in Public Policy, University of Arizona, 324 Social Sciences, Tucson, AZ, 85721, USA

    Andrea K. Gerlak

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  1. Kirk Emerson
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  2. Andrea K. Gerlak
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Correspondence to Kirk Emerson.

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Authors are listed in alphabetical order reflecting their equal contribution to this paper.

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Emerson, K., Gerlak, A.K. Adaptation in Collaborative Governance Regimes. Environmental Management 54, 768–781 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-014-0334-7

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