Aligning social networks and co-designed visions to foster systemic innovation in the Alps.

Mountain regions face substantial challenges and opportunities arising from global change. The capacity of mountain regions for (systemic) innovation will be determinant to the success of system transformations envisioned by social actors of mountain communities. By analysing the social networks of two regions in the Alps and relating them to desired future visions of sustainable regional development, we provide insights about innovative capacities in mountain regions and propose how to strengthen these capacities in order to support regional transformations. In particular, we analyse innovation systems' collaboration networks to evaluate the innovative capacity of communities, co-construct visions with mountain stakeholders, and assess innovation requirements to meet these visions. Accordingly, we propose changes to the collaboration networks for addressing regional innovation system (RIS) capacities to help achieve visions through systemic innovation. Our analysis furthers the understanding on the type and magnitude of regional innovation system changes required to more effectively address desired transformative visions in mountain regions. We close by discussing implications of our approach for the assessment of innovative capacity and the transformation of mountain regions. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10113-023-02099-y.

Game of Cruxes: co-designing a game for scientists and stakeholders for identifying joint problems.

Scientists increasingly cross their disciplinary boundaries and connect with local stakeholders to jointly solve complex problems. Working with stakeholders means higher legitimacy and supports practical impact of research. Games provide a tool to achieve such transdisciplinary collaboration. In this paper, we explore the use of a game in a participatory project where scientists and local stakeholders are seeking and defining a joint problem. The literature is clear that this step is essential but remains short on concrete methods. Here, we explore this potential in practice. We conducted parallel participatory processes in two alpine regions considered as socio-ecological system (SES) in Switzerland and France, both vulnerable to global change. Based on these two case studies, we co-constructed a game, integrating scientific concerns about key land use, climate change and socio-economic elements of a mountain SES (tourism, agriculture, housing and demography). With the game, we assessed the existence of joint problems connecting scientific and local interests. The game successfully engaged participants at both sites over 11 game sessions, showing potential of use in other transdisciplinary settings. By covering a wide array of issues, the game created a discussion space for listing problems and identifying where scientist and stakeholder interests overlap. In Switzerland, the game revealed no pressing joint problem to be addressed. In France, game sessions revealed, among other problems, an enduring and complex issue regarding the co-existence of inhabitants and powerful institutions. Having demonstrated the capacity of this game for joint-problem assessment, we believe other participatory research in similar SES could benefit from an early use of such an approach to frame the potential for collaboration. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11625-021-00983-2.

Social Network Analysis and Qualitative Interviews for Assessing Geographic Characteristics of Tourism Business Networks.

This study integrates quantitative social network analysis (SNA) and qualitative interviews for understanding tourism business links in isolated communities through analysing spatial characteristics. Two case studies are used, the Surselva-Gotthard region in the Swiss Alps and Longyearbyen in the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard, to test the spatial characteristics of physical proximity, isolation, and smallness for understanding tourism business links. In the larger Surselva-Gotthard region, we found a strong relationship between geographic separation of the three communities on compartmentalization of the collaboration network. A small set of businesses played a central role in steering collaborative decisions for this community, while a group of structurally 'peripheral' actors were less influential. By contrast, the business community in Svalbard showed compartmentalization that was independent of geographic distance between actors. Within towns of similar size and governance scale, Svalbard is more compartmentalized, and those compartments are not driven by geographic separation of the collaboration clusters. This compartmentalization in Svalbard was reflected in a lower density of formal business collaboration ties compared to the communities of the Alps. We infer that the difference is due to Svalbard having higher cultural diversity and population turnover than the Alps communities. We propose that integrating quantitative network analysis from simple surveys with qualitative interviews targeted from the network results is an efficient general approach to identify regionally specific constraints and opportunities for effective governance.

Introducing adaptive waves as a concept to inform mental models of resilience.

While ecological resilience is conceptually established, resilience concepts of social-ecological systems (SES) require further development, especially regarding their implementation in society. From the literature, (a) we identify the need for a revised conceptualization of SES resilience to improve its understanding for informing the development of adjusted mental models. (b) We stress the human capacity of social learning, enabling deliberate transformation of SES, for example of SES to higher scales of governance, thereby possibly increasing resilience. (c) We introduce the metaphor of adaptive waves to elucidate the differences between resilience planning and adaptation, by conceptualizing adaptation and transformation as dynamic processes that occur both inadvertently and deliberately in response to both shocks and to gradual changes. In this context, adaptive waves stress the human and social capacity to plan resilience with an intended direction and goal, and to dampen the negative effects of crises while understanding them as opportunities for innovation. (d) We illustrate the adaptive waves' metaphor with three SES cases from tourism, forestry, and fisheries, where deliberate transformations of the governance structures lead to increased resilience on a higher governance scale. We conclude that conceptual SES resilience communication needs to clarify the role and potential of human and social capital in anticipating change and planning resilience, for example, on different scales of governance. It needs to emphasize the crucial importance of crises for innovation and transformation, relevant for the societal acceptance of crises as drivers of adaptation and transformation. The adaptive waves' metaphor specifically communicates these aspects and may enhance the societal capacity, understanding, and willingness for planning resilience.