New Publication - Eisenack, Epstein, Finzel, Kellner, Nagel, Partelow, Roggero, Villamayor‐Tomas: Synthesizing Archetypes of Social‐Ecological Systems
Eisenack, Klaus, Graham Epstein, Lydia Finzel, Elke Kellner, Ben Nagel, Stefan Partelow, Matteo Roggero and Sergio Villamayor‐Tomas (2025). Synthesizing Archetypes of Social‐Ecological Systems: Identifying Common Building Blocks. Environmental Policy and Governance. 23. Juli 2025, eet.70006. https://doi.org/10.1002/eet.70006.
This paper addresses the challenge of synthesizing knowledge of diverse case studies in environmental governance. By identifying repeating configurations of variables across 71 models from social-ecological systems (SES) framework case studies using archetype analysis, it proposes a building-blocks approach centered on eight triads — combinations of three variables — that represent recurring patterns across cases. These archetypes help advance theory-building in SES research and contribute to the development of generalizable insights into environmental governance.