MULTIPLE METHODS IN INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH
OF COLLECTIVE ACTIONS OF THE COMMONS –I (DISCUSSION
SESSION).
Tatiana Kluvánková-Oravská Centre for Transdisciplinary Studies of Institutions,
Evolution and Policies (CETIP)1, Slovak Academy of Sciences [email protected]
www.prog.sav.sk and Marco Janssen, Center for the study of Institutional Diversity,
Arizona State University, USA
Collaborative approaches and multi-method applications bring diverse disciplines to
work together with complementary methods. The use of multiple methods is an
increasingly important approach to overcome the challenges of interfacing between
social and natural sciences. It is becoming evident that no single method can
overcome the challenges between social and natural sciences. Methodological
pluralism thus reduces validity problems and links empirical results obtained from
multiple methods at diverse scales to achieve multi-scale understanding of resource
management problems (Ostrom and Nagendra, 2006).
Traditional training in social sciences provides little incentive for an interdisciplinary
and collaborative approach. The majority of graduate programs and intense
methodological training in social sciences support a disciplinary approach, with
quantitative methods dominating. Interdisciplinary social sciences are often evaluated
by disciplinary specialists (Lohmann, 2007) and single authored publications are
weighted more than multi-authored ones (Rothgeb and Burger, 2009).
Methods range from case studies, laboratory experiments to field experiments, agentbased models, remote sensing to understand institutional and behavioral diversity.
Main objective of the session will be to discuss need for multiple methods in
interdisciplinary environmental research and education, in particularly in the study of
collective actions of the commons. Sessions are organized by the Centre for
Transdisciplinary Studies of Institutions, Evolution and Policies (CETIP) and the
Centre for the Study of Institutional Diversity (CSID).
Three papers presented with 20 minutes for each and followed by 30 minutes of
debate structured according to the set of pre-defined questions, which will include:
•
What are advantages and limitations of multiple methods to study collective
actions of the commons?
•
How can multiple methods contribute to interlinking methodological debates
with theoretical development in governance research?
• What instruments are essential to influence career incentive towards
interdisciplinary collaborative research?
Session abstracts:
1
1 CETIP is research centre dedicated to trans-disciplinary research and training, primarily in the
region of Central and Eastern Europe. Main concern is to support flexible research teams and
interdisciplinary cooperation across natural and social sciences. CETIP ambition is also to provide a
platform for science and policy interface. Research Foci of CETIP are Human Dimensions of Global
Environmental Change and Co-evolution of institutional and technology change.
2 CSID is a research center at Arizona State University (USA) which aims to foster multidisciplinary
and multi-method approaches to understand how different types of institutions—defined as the norms
and rules people use to govern common resources and provide public goods—perform within different
social-ecological systems.
Marco Janssen, Center for the study of Institutional Diversity, Arizona State
University, USA:
The practice of multi-method research: Examples from Irrigation Governance
The benefits and challenges of using multiple methods to study collective action and
the commons are demonstrated by new research on adaptive governance of irrigation
systems. Identification of different ways irrigation communities have organized to
different disturbance regimes is based on case study approach. To test the generality
of those observations, laboratory experiments are performed that mimic the stylized
facts from case studies. Finally, agent-based models are used to derive a deeper
understanding in the stability of the observed patterns. The presentation focuses on
the practical lessons learned
during this type of research programs.
Tatiana Kluvánková-Oravská, Centre for Transdisciplinary Studies of Institutions,
Evolution and Policies (CETIP), Slovak Academy of |Sciences, Bratislava.
Multiple methods in interdisciplinary education
Theoretical and practical challenges of multi-method application and collaborative
research is being developed within the European Society for Ecological Economics
into continuous education of doctoral and post doctoral interdisciplinary
environmental researchers. We propose this as an open, bottom-up series of
educational Institutes operated as self-managed organization. As such, Institutes can
become a vehicle for long term knowledge transfer and the platform for exchange of
educational experience within the network (teaching materials, methods and exchange
of students). Pilot program reported also here has been conducted earlier this year
with doctoral students of Spatial Planning at Technical University in Bratislava
concentrated along interdisciplinary program SPECTRA+ .