Archetypes of common village pasture problems in the South Caucasus: insights from comparative case studies in Georgia and Azerbaijan

Abstract

Complex social-ecological systems (SES), especially systems with common pool resources, often exhibit system dynamics characterized by emergence, where system properties cannot be fully explained by input variables. This causes challenges when it comes to explaining resource use problems because problem dynamics can differ from case to case despite similar input variables. Archetype analysis with its focus on identifying building blocks of nature-society relations might provide a means to tackle emergence and complexity in the analysis of resource use problems in SES. Using data from inter-and transdisciplinary research investigating comparative case studies on common village pasture management in the Caucasus region, we use the archetype approach with a focus on system archetypes that place particular emphasis on recognizing recurrent structures and internal dynamics. We apply three system archetypes, the Tragedy of the Commons, Shifting the Burden, and Success to the Successful, to different aspects of interlinked management problems that occur repeatedly in the case study data. Using SES variables characterizing the cases, we discuss variable combinations that may trigger specific dynamics. Moreover, we explore interlinkages between archetypical problems and discuss possible solutions based on self-governance. We find that the archetype approach with a focus on system archetypes resulted in consistent explanations of problem dynamics leading to important additional insights into root causes and internal archetypical dynamics compared with existing knowledge. Regarding problem solutions and policy recommendations, we show that viewing archetypical problems as interlinked in their actual case-study context leads to different recommendations than when each archetype is viewed on its own.

Design and quality criteria for archetype analysis

“…Additionally, it is essential to explain why and how the attributes are interrelated as a configuration. Internal validity can be provided through casebased qualitative methods (e.g., Neudert et al 2019), for instance by process tracing (Rihoux 2006, Elo and Kyngäs 2008, Collier 2011. In cluster analyses, domains of validity can be established based on numerical grid-cell data (Václavík et al 2013, Levers et al 2018).…”

Understanding Causes of Conflict Over Common Village Pastures – A Comparative Analysis of Property Rights in Azerbaijan and Georgia

“…Adopting a long-term dynamic view of property rights and conflict, conflicts on access and withdrawal with mobile herders can also be seen as part of a negotiation and refinement process in self-governance. The fact that access and withdrawal rights for mobile herders (resident in the village or elsewhere) are more restricted with increasing scarcity of pasture resources (Neudert et al 2019a) is probably the result of past selfgovernance processes on similar issues to those observed now in conflict groups 1 and 2. However, an escalation of the conflicts of sedentary villagers with mobile herders from elsewhere indicates destructive tendencies (Yasmi, Guernier, and Colfer 2009).…”

“…Relative pasture scarcity clearly influences the existing property rights of and conflicts with mobile pastoralists in the case study villages. Neudert et al (2019a) found that mobile pastoralists from elsewhere are granted fewer rights than mobile pastoralists resident in the village and that with increasing scarcity of the village pasture fewer withdrawal rights are granted to mobile pastoralists. Access and withdrawal rights at the operational level are granted in line with a certain time dimension, such as short-term access rights at one end and a whole season withdrawal right at the other end of a continuum.…”

“…All three herder groups have unconditional access rights in both countries, except mobile herds resident elsewhere in the Georgian village Arashenda. However, while sedentary livestock keepers have uncontested withdrawal rights in all villages, withdrawal rights for mobile herders are gradually being restricted (Neudert et al 2019a).…”

Temporary pond loss as a result of pasture abandonment: exploring the social-ecological drivers and consequences on amphibians

“…The overall abandonment of pasture and the scrub encroachment, with potential influence of weather conditions resulted in the loss of temporary ponds for amphibians (Figure 5). The system dynamic presented in the Figure 5 can be considered archetypical for the traditional management of communal pastures in Transylvania (Hanspach et al, 2014; Hartel et al, 2016; F. Mikulcak, Newig, Milcu, Hartel & Fischer, 2013; Sutcliffe et al, 2013) and elsewhere (Neudert, Salzer, Allahverdiyeva, Etzold & Beckmann, 2019) where the capacity of the local communities to self-organize in order to better navigate institutional challenges and opportunities were highlighted.…”