UC Merced

The effective management of complex systems necessitates a fundamental understanding of the role of knowledge, especially in environmental systems comprising ecological and social complex dynamics and inherent uncertainties. The social dimension of environmental problems involves not only practices, symbolisms, and forms of organization around a particular resource, but also the dynamics of knowledge and its connection to collective action and decision-making. The interests, perceptions, and power dynamics inherent to the social construction of the problem are revealed by the knowledge produced for a given problem and who produces and uses such knowledge. However, the ways in which knowledge is purposely produced have been poorly explored in the analysis of environmental systems. This dissertation contributes conceptually and empirically to the understanding of knowledge in environmental systems – referred here as sustainability knowledge- by assessing the nature of such knowledge and its interconnection with management and policy of two environmental problems, namely, “illegal trade of wildlife” and “National parks system management”. To be specific, this dissertation addresses i) How knowledge enables illegal operation and its implications to tackle the activity. ii) How a problem’s ill-definition and solution uncertainty affect the scholarly production of knowledge about environmental problems, emphasizing on illegal trade of wildlife. iii) In which ways the perceptions regarding illegal trade of wildlife differ between multiple stakeholders and how this affects possible strategies to manage the problem. iv) How the U.S. national parks are understood and represented by multiple communication channels. v) To what extent the production of knowledge about national parks in multiple countries involves transdisciplinary teams (i.e. teams comprising of individuals from distinct sectors). vi) What is the potential of research about national parks to meet the managerial needs for knowledge-based governance. Altogether, these analyses show how knowledge is used in different management regimes. To be specific, the data-driven approach used here enables the characterization of distinctive features of sustainability knowledge. Overall, this dissertation indicates that sustainability knowledge about the two problems studied lacks proper conceptual and social consolidation at several scales, largely owing to the disparity in stakeholders’ perceptions, preferences, and interests. These findings imply the existence of diverse knowledges that might result in difficulties to make them actionable. Furthermore, such difficulties can affect the capability of managers to deal with multiple, and sometimes conflicting, worldviews, priorities, and interests. As such, the findings suggest that achieving inclusive governance regimes might be hindered by the ability of managers to mobilize diverse actors towards common goals.