Games for triggering collective change in natural resource management: A conceptual framework and insights from four cases from India

As resource users interact and impose externalities onto each other, institutions are needed to coordinate resource use, create trust, and provide incentives for sustainable management. Coordinated collective action can play a key role in enabling communities to manage natural resources more sustain...

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Main Authors: Falk, Thomas, Zhang, Wei, Meinzen-Dick, Ruth S., Bartels, Lara
Format: Artículo preliminar
Language:Inglés
Published: International Food Policy Research Institute 2021
Subjects:
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10568/143401
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author Falk, Thomas
Zhang, Wei
Meinzen-Dick, Ruth S.
Bartels, Lara
author_browse Bartels, Lara
Falk, Thomas
Meinzen-Dick, Ruth S.
Zhang, Wei
author_facet Falk, Thomas
Zhang, Wei
Meinzen-Dick, Ruth S.
Bartels, Lara
author_sort Falk, Thomas
collection Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace)
description As resource users interact and impose externalities onto each other, institutions are needed to coordinate resource use, create trust, and provide incentives for sustainable management. Coordinated collective action can play a key role in enabling communities to manage natural resources more sustainably. But when such collective action is not present, what can be done to foster it? There is growing awareness that the governance of natural resources has to be adapted to the specific context. Interventions are often implemented at small scale, and the potential to scale up facilitation intensive approaches is limited. Moreover, sustainable resource management frequently fails to emerge or breaks down after the project ends. To date, researchers have typically used behavioral games to study cooperation patterns of communities. Recently, games have been adapted as learning and stakeholder engagement tools to improve management of the commons, strengthen self-regulation of resource use, and enhance constructive interactions among resource users. Combining games with other interventions and tools and facilitated discussions has been proposed as a promising approach to improve collective action institutions through experiential learning — a classic approach in education. This paper reviews existing literature and synthesizes lessons learned from a series of studies testing the use of behavioral games for institutional capacity development in India. We conclude that, while games alone will not be the solution to all natural resource management challenges games can provide a structured and therefore replicable approach for influencing behavior. They can also improve system understanding, raise awareness, influence norms, facilitate dialogue, train for crisis response, and increase legitimacy of decisions.
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spelling CGSpace1434012025-12-08T10:11:39Z Games for triggering collective change in natural resource management: A conceptual framework and insights from four cases from India Falk, Thomas Zhang, Wei Meinzen-Dick, Ruth S. Bartels, Lara facilitation water forests capacity development behavioural changes natural resources management activities decision making natural resource management impact assessment As resource users interact and impose externalities onto each other, institutions are needed to coordinate resource use, create trust, and provide incentives for sustainable management. Coordinated collective action can play a key role in enabling communities to manage natural resources more sustainably. But when such collective action is not present, what can be done to foster it? There is growing awareness that the governance of natural resources has to be adapted to the specific context. Interventions are often implemented at small scale, and the potential to scale up facilitation intensive approaches is limited. Moreover, sustainable resource management frequently fails to emerge or breaks down after the project ends. To date, researchers have typically used behavioral games to study cooperation patterns of communities. Recently, games have been adapted as learning and stakeholder engagement tools to improve management of the commons, strengthen self-regulation of resource use, and enhance constructive interactions among resource users. Combining games with other interventions and tools and facilitated discussions has been proposed as a promising approach to improve collective action institutions through experiential learning — a classic approach in education. This paper reviews existing literature and synthesizes lessons learned from a series of studies testing the use of behavioral games for institutional capacity development in India. We conclude that, while games alone will not be the solution to all natural resource management challenges games can provide a structured and therefore replicable approach for influencing behavior. They can also improve system understanding, raise awareness, influence norms, facilitate dialogue, train for crisis response, and increase legitimacy of decisions. 2021-01-01 2024-05-22T12:13:52Z 2024-05-22T12:13:52Z Working Paper https://hdl.handle.net/10568/143401 en https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2018.02.006 https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-08416-210338 https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/11/11/114024 https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.134949 Open Access application/pdf International Food Policy Research Institute Falk, Thomas; Zhang, Wei; Meinzen-Dick, Ruth Suseela; and Bartels, Lara. 2021. Games for triggering collective change in natural resource management: A conceptual framework and insights from four cases from India. IFPRI Discussion Paper 1995. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.134238.
spellingShingle facilitation
water
forests
capacity development
behavioural changes
natural resources management
activities
decision making
natural resource management
impact assessment
Falk, Thomas
Zhang, Wei
Meinzen-Dick, Ruth S.
Bartels, Lara
Games for triggering collective change in natural resource management: A conceptual framework and insights from four cases from India
title Games for triggering collective change in natural resource management: A conceptual framework and insights from four cases from India
title_full Games for triggering collective change in natural resource management: A conceptual framework and insights from four cases from India
title_fullStr Games for triggering collective change in natural resource management: A conceptual framework and insights from four cases from India
title_full_unstemmed Games for triggering collective change in natural resource management: A conceptual framework and insights from four cases from India
title_short Games for triggering collective change in natural resource management: A conceptual framework and insights from four cases from India
title_sort games for triggering collective change in natural resource management a conceptual framework and insights from four cases from india
topic facilitation
water
forests
capacity development
behavioural changes
natural resources management
activities
decision making
natural resource management
impact assessment
url https://hdl.handle.net/10568/143401
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AT meinzendickruths gamesfortriggeringcollectivechangeinnaturalresourcemanagementaconceptualframeworkandinsightsfromfourcasesfromindia
AT bartelslara gamesfortriggeringcollectivechangeinnaturalresourcemanagementaconceptualframeworkandinsightsfromfourcasesfromindia