Tischa A. Muñoz-Erickson, Ph.D.
Research Social Scientist
Principal Investigator, San Juan ULTRA
USDA FS - International Institute of Tropical Forestry
Jardín Botánico Sur
1201 Calle Ceiba
San Juan, PR 00926-1119
Voice: 928-600-1613
Fax: 928-226-0056
Governance of Urban Social-Ecological Systems: Understanding Knowledge, Visions, and Adaptability in a Networked Society.
As a Research Social Scientist in the Forest Service’s International Institute of Tropical Forestry, I conduct research on the governance factors that affect adaptive capacity in urban social-ecological systems (SES) in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and other cities in the US and internationally. My primary research interest is on the knowledge and decision-making interactions in governance, primarily the role of social networks, knowledge systems, and visions/scenarios of the future that shape city planning and action related to urban land use conflicts and green infrastructure planning. A key assumption of this research is that the knowledge, thinking patterns, and network configurations of actors and organizations are just as crucial explanatory factors affecting policy innovation and outcomes as are rules-in-use, norms, agenda-setting, mechanisms, political interests, and economic incentives. In this way, I incorporate a deliberative/interpretative layer to the institutional analysis of city governance and draws from several fields of environmental and resource governance including common-pool resources (i.e., Ostrom Workshop), ecosystem governance (e.g., resilience and adaptive governance), as well as social theories of network and innovation systems, science and technology studies (STS), vulnerability and urban political ecology.
To empirically explore these ideas in the city of San Juan, Puerto Rico, I developed and implemented the Knowledge-Action Systems Analysis (KASA) approach to study urban SES governance with the objectives of: 1) analyzing existing institutional dynamics and networks in the city (including the role of science in policy); 2) evaluate how city governance is conducive (or not) to adaptive governance based on long-term studies of institutional dynamics; and 3) propose/desing configurations that improve the ability of institutions to address new challenges (i.e., climate change) and build adaptive capacity through collaboration, institutional learning and innovation, and democratic knowledge systems (including science). Under this approach I employ a range of quantitative and qualitative techniques in this approach such as social network analysis, document analysis, questionnaires, and ethnographic interviews and participatory observation.
As director of the San Juan Urban Long-Term Research Area (ULTRA; www.sanjuanultra.org), my research and KASA approach has helped inform collaborative and interdisciplinary social-ecological studies of the vulnerability and sustainability of San Juan and the Río Piedras River Watershed through: 1) social mapping of organizations using network analysis and an extensive database of organizational profiles that characterize their roles, missions, networks, knowledge systems, and capacities in governance; 2) design of stakeholder participatory scenario approaches to evaluate social and ecological outcomes of different conservation and development pathways for San Juan (in collaboration with landscape and watershed modelers); 3) analysis of convergence and divergence of stakeholders’ scenarios and future visions to identify conflict areas in decision-making; and 4) a baseline inventory of actors and institutional networks to support long-term analysis of SES ecosystem service provision, novelty and innovation in San Juan.