{"title":"Looking at hidden connections to explore adaptive capacity of cultural landscape systems: case studies of four landcare associations in Germany","authors":"Hyunjin Park, Claudia Bieling","doi":"10.5751/ES-12470-260411","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Adaptive capacity indicates the capacity to cope with and adapt to a disturbance in a complex social-ecological system. Cultural landscapes can be understood as such systems that are confronted with land abandonment and agricultural intensification as key disturbances. However, responses to such cultural landscape loss have not been systematically investigated so far in terms of adaptive capacity. Taking this gap as a starting point and following a context-sensitive approach, this study addresses the question: how can the adaptive capacity of cultural landscape systems for a disturbance such as land abandonment be understood? We answer this question through a comparative case study of four landcare associations in Germany. A conceptual framework that distinguishes between coping and adaptation responses and allows for the analysis of different levels of fit of responses is used. Management of abandoned agricultural land, the establishment of cultural landscape features, provision of consultation and mediation services, and machinery are implemented as coping responses by the four associations. Adaptation responses include the organization of events, public relations work, education, regional brand promotion, lobbying work, and the promotion of regional products. The interactions between the responses that have either synergetic or counterproductive effects were identified. The results of this study emphasize the fit between different responses as an important factor for understanding the adaptive capacity of cultural landscape systems in addition to investing in coping and adaptation responses in isolation. In this sense, adaptive capacity needs to be understood not only in terms of coping (short-term adaptive capacity) and adaptation responses (longer-term adaptive capacity) but also through a good fit, which reduces trade-offs between responses and thus offers a broader range of future options. We conclude by calling for a holistic analysis of different responses to a disturbance that takes account of their fit.","PeriodicalId":51028,"journal":{"name":"Ecology and Society","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.6000,"publicationDate":"2021-10-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"1","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Ecology and Society","FirstCategoryId":"90","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-12470-260411","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"ECOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 1
Abstract
Adaptive capacity indicates the capacity to cope with and adapt to a disturbance in a complex social-ecological system. Cultural landscapes can be understood as such systems that are confronted with land abandonment and agricultural intensification as key disturbances. However, responses to such cultural landscape loss have not been systematically investigated so far in terms of adaptive capacity. Taking this gap as a starting point and following a context-sensitive approach, this study addresses the question: how can the adaptive capacity of cultural landscape systems for a disturbance such as land abandonment be understood? We answer this question through a comparative case study of four landcare associations in Germany. A conceptual framework that distinguishes between coping and adaptation responses and allows for the analysis of different levels of fit of responses is used. Management of abandoned agricultural land, the establishment of cultural landscape features, provision of consultation and mediation services, and machinery are implemented as coping responses by the four associations. Adaptation responses include the organization of events, public relations work, education, regional brand promotion, lobbying work, and the promotion of regional products. The interactions between the responses that have either synergetic or counterproductive effects were identified. The results of this study emphasize the fit between different responses as an important factor for understanding the adaptive capacity of cultural landscape systems in addition to investing in coping and adaptation responses in isolation. In this sense, adaptive capacity needs to be understood not only in terms of coping (short-term adaptive capacity) and adaptation responses (longer-term adaptive capacity) but also through a good fit, which reduces trade-offs between responses and thus offers a broader range of future options. We conclude by calling for a holistic analysis of different responses to a disturbance that takes account of their fit.
期刊介绍:
Ecology and Society is an electronic, peer-reviewed, multi-disciplinary journal devoted to the rapid dissemination of current research. Manuscript submission, peer review, and publication are all handled on the Internet. Software developed for the journal automates all clerical steps during peer review, facilitates a double-blind peer review process, and allows authors and editors to follow the progress of peer review on the Internet. As articles are accepted, they are published in an "Issue in Progress." At four month intervals the Issue-in-Progress is declared a New Issue, and subscribers receive the Table of Contents of the issue via email. Our turn-around time (submission to publication) averages around 350 days.
We encourage publication of special features. Special features are comprised of a set of manuscripts that address a single theme, and include an introductory and summary manuscript. The individual contributions are published in regular issues, and the special feature manuscripts are linked through a table of contents and announced on the journal''s main page.
The journal seeks papers that are novel, integrative and written in a way that is accessible to a wide audience that includes an array of disciplines from the natural sciences, social sciences, and the humanities concerned with the relationship between society and the life-supporting ecosystems on which human wellbeing ultimately depends.