Social Capital and Natural Resource Management: An Application to Landcare

Securing the Future of Urban Environmental Sustainability Initiatives in Australia

“…On the one hand, although survey responses and leaders interviewed were representative of a wide variety of organisations, it is singlepoint data and the findings may not be generalisable to other capital cities. On the other hand, the findings reported in the article are in line with those of studies in Australia and elsewhere-that the catalytic role of inter-organisational ties in strengthening organisational capacity and future prospects cannot be ignored in the context of environmental sustainability (Pretty & Smith, 2004;Webb & Cary, 2005).…”

“…NRM facilitators coordinated, assisted and encouraged the involvement of ECOs and other stakeholders in various local environmental sustainability planning and projects. In doing so facilitators not only kept ECOs in the loop about policies and programme priorities but also connected these organisations with each other, helping them build managerial and technical capacities specific to their needs (Webb & Cary, 2005). While further studies are necessary in order to unpack how greater investment in capacity to build, maintain and harness interorganisational ties influences the capacity-viability nexus of ECOs, long-term social infrastructure support certainly has the potential to strengthen these organisations.…”

“…These threads also resonate with ECOs in Australia and abroad because organisations that have succeeded in improving environmental outcomes have often established and benefitted from robust links with stakeholders, such as government agencies, environmental networks and peak bodies (Curtis et al, 2002;Pretty & Smith, 2004;Webb & Cary, 2005;Klyza et al, 2006). It is in this context that this article makes two propositions in order to guide data collection and analysis (Figure 1):…”

Fragile environment in need of resilient carers? A case of regional natural resources management in Perth, Western Australia

“…This is consistent with the theoretical underpinnings of transformative resilience in that the notion of social capital facilitates adaptive capacity or reduces vulnerability (Fowler 2000, Pelling and High 2005, Norris et al 2008. In addition, the findings are also consistent with the practices of environmental caring in Australia that long-term carers of the fragile environment have to harness social capital within and outside the community in order to be viable (Webb and Cary 2005).…”

Can Environmental Governance Benefit From an ICT-Social Capital Nexus in Civil Society?

“…Few studies have suggested that grassroots organizations that maintain strong internal and external interactions are likely to be successful in creating space for deliberative democratic process and challenging the dominant role of old intermediaries (Severn, 2002;Carr, 2002). Webb and Cary (2005) further assert that community organizations that have been particularly influential in environmental governance are those that are active and have established stronger relationships with the relevant stakeholders such as government agencies and environmental networks. The analysis of patterns of organizational interactions therefore provides an opportunity to understand how organizations make use of the relationships within the networks (Lin, 2001;Resnick, 2001;Bankston III & Zhou, 2002).…”