Figure 1
Analytical heuristic for exploring ‘enabling capacities’ underpinning purposeful collective action in contested and ambiguous situations (source: Patterson et al. 2013).
Figure 2
The South East Queensland region and the three local cases studied.
Table 1:
Key features of local cases studied.
| Case 1: Upper Bremer River sub-catchment | Case 2: Oxley Creek catchment | Case 3: Caboolture River catchment | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Area | 123 km2 | 260 km2 | 384 km2 |
| Land use | Rural, native forest | Urban, peri-urban, rural, forest | Urban, peri-urban, rural |
| Waterway health issues | Sediment pollution from rural land use activities | Erosion and instability from past degradation; urban pressures | Rural and urban pollution, urban pressures |
| Drivers of collective action |
|
|
|
| Forms of collective action |
|
|
|
| Actors involved | Landholders, NRM staff, scientists, state government | Local government, community group, industry, urban developers, scientists | Local government, water utility, consultants, state government, scientists |
| Institutional arrangements | Regional program involving multi-actor, multi-sector coordination | Local Government-led ‘Taskforce’ | Local Government-led coordination group |
| Contemporary initiatives | 2007–2011 | 2006–2013 (ongoing) | 2009–2013 (ongoing) |
Table 2:
Enabling capacities and cross-level interplay in the SEQ case study.
| Local level | Regional level | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Prior experience & contingency | Receptive starting point for contemporary initiatives due to prior relationships and knowledge base | Existing relationships, knowledge, and science-policy linkages through a long history of collaboration for managing waterway health over two decades | ↓ | Regional multi-actor platforms support local action over many years |
| ↑ | Local actors participate in regional multi-actor platforms over many years | |||
| Institutional arrangements | Multi-actor platforms created at a local level provided mechanism for collaboration | Regional multi-actor platforms; regional policy and planning framework for waterways, NRM, and land use planning | ↓ | Regional multi-actor platforms formally link in local actors |
| ↑ | Semi-formal links between local platforms and higher-level actors and networks | |||
| Collaboration | Problem-focused collaboration involving actors drawn across multiple levels | Ongoing regional collaboration for managing waterway health, largely fostered through the two regional multi-actor platforms | ↓ | Regional multi-actor platforms foster interaction among actors across multiple levels |
| ↑↓ | Relationships between actors across levels | |||
| Engagement | Concerted efforts to engage strategically-important actors at local level (e.g. buy-in, commitment) | Concerted effort to engage strategically-important actors at regional level (e.g. government, industry), and to foster public and political engagement over time | ↓ | Regional multi-actor platforms working to engage local actors on waterway health issues |
| ↑ | Local actors working to engage higher-level actors to support local activities in all cases | |||
| Vision & strategy | Building mutual agreement about collective goals, reframing regional initiatives to align with local concerns | Sustained efforts to collaboratively develop regional strategies linking science and policy, and multi-sectoral policy coordination | ↓ | Regional science-policy goals and collaborative waterway planning shape the context for local action |
| ↑ | Efforts to align local concerns and priorities with regional goals and strategic priorities | |||
| Knowledge building & co-production | Efforts to combine technical and local knowledge through various forms of knowledge co-production | Strong technical knowledge base; major efforts to build science-policy linkages through regional collaboration over time | ↓ | Extensive knowledge about SEQ built up over time through regional multi-actor platforms |
| ↑ | Efforts to link local knowledge meaningfully to scientific knowledge | |||
| Resourcing | Financial, human, and organisational resources made available for local activities by higher-level actors | Significant mobilisation and pooling of resources (e.g. financial, organisational, human) through regional collaboration over time | ↓ | Resources provided from broader levels to local level (e.g. financial, organisational, human, authority) |
| Entrepreneur-ship & leadership | Key individuals facilitated collaboration, knowledge co-production, and generated agency in local and cross-level networks | Key individuals and organisations played pivotal role in initiating and sustaining regional collaboration (e.g. leadership, advocacy, relationship brokering) | ↑↓ | Key individuals link organisations and networks across levels either formally, or by brokering relationships, and ‘championing’ local initiatives |
| Reflection & adaptation | Innovation and learning-by-doing at local level in response to challenges (e.g. unclear strategies for action, conflict) | Science-policy feedback mechanism through ongoing regional waterway health monitoring; evolving problem framings and focus of action over time | ↓ | Regional waterway health ‘report card’ monitoring provides ongoing knowledge feedback to local level |
| ↑ | ‘Success stories’ in each local case flowed back to influence regional level learning and collaboration | |||
| ↑↓ | Regional multi-actor platforms provide forums for ongoing collective reflection and learning |
Table 3:
Mechanisms of cross-level interplay identified in the case study.
| Mechanism | Description | Capacities involved |
|---|---|---|
| Institutional interplay | Formal institutional arrangements (e.g. regional and local multi-actor platforms); relationships among actors across levels; policies and programs that create new institutional linkages. | Institutional arrangements, Collaboration, Engagement |
| Negotiating knowledge and problem frames | Efforts to build and co-produce knowledge, and forge mutually-agreed goals among actors across levels; re-framing of problems to construct meaningful yet aligned problem frames across levels. | Vision & strategy, Knowledge building & co-production |
| ‘Flows’ of resources and authority | Resource provision and mandate from higher-to-lower levels; legitimacy and credibility conferred ‘upwards’ from local success. | Resourcing, Knowledge building & co-production |
| Key individuals as linkages in networks | Key individuals providing cross-level linkage between organisations and networks through relationships, negotiation and advocacy, and knowledge co-production. | Entrepreneurship & leadership, Prior experience & contingency |
| Feedback and learning across levels | Regional monitoring creates ongoing science-policy feedback; interactional space provided by regional multi-actor platforms provides opportunity for collaboration and learning among actors across levels; feedback of local experiences to regional level. | Knowledge building & co-production, Reflection & adaptation |