Sustaining Complexity by Evaluating Expertise Networks: A Case Study from a Driftless Area Landscape

2013 EENP Forum
Posted by Environmental Evaluators on 08, September 2013 with 1 Comment

Day 2: Sept 23, 2013 • 10:45am • Ballard Hall Small Conference Room

By Bethany Laursen

This case study from southwest Wisconsin reveals a new conceptual framework and methodology for evaluating adaptive co-management capacity in complex, social-ecological systems such as landscapes. Evaluators can use this social network approach as a heuristic or an analytical tool in similar, multi-sector systems—including the EEN itself. Participants: Please bring laptops and install UCINET.

Bethany K. Laursen recently finished her M.S. in Environment & Resources and Forestry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. With professional training in evaluation, facilitation, wilderness leadership and classical education, she is passionate about learning to live wisely in complex, high-stakes situations. She has been recognized for her abilities to analyze, weave, and leverage social networks, building collaborative capacity in organizations and communities. Bethany is originally from California but now lives in Maine, where she would like to pursue work in environmental evaluation and scholarship on interdisciplinary methods and training.

 

1 Comment

  1. Admin
    Bethany
    16 September 13, 7:38am

    Hello, everyone. I’m so excited to share this case study with you and discuss what it might mean for environmental evaluations. As far as I know, this is the first study to model expertise networks this way–let alone evaluate landscape governance against a network standard. Lots to unpack here: complex systems, trust, epistemic framings, collaboration, networked learning, and evaluation vocabulary. Exciting!

    To clarify: you don’t need to bring your laptops with UCINET to this session. That applies only to my second session: Easy Social Network Analysis (for Evaluating Modular Adhocracies). I’ll be teaching you how to do the SNA I present in this case study. Check out the workshop page for more details! http://www.environmentalevaluators.net/2013/09/easy-social-network-analysis-for-evaluating-modular-adhocracies/

    Looking forward to meeting you all,

    Bethany Laursen
    University of Wisconsin-Madison

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