Cyberbullying, defined as any behavior performed through electronic or digital media by individuals or groups that repeatedly communicates hostile or aggressive messages intended to inflict harm or discomfort on others, is a widespread problem. Bystanders play an integral role in the initiation, maintenance, and prolonged presence of such aggressive behaviors, but have thus far been overlooked in cyberbullying literature. Cyberbullying bystanders are defined in this study as those who witness cyberbullying, either within or outside their personal social network(s) and whose available responses range from inaction to intervention. Operating from a social-ecological perspective and guided by multiple goals theories, this study used focus group methodology and found that cyberbullying bystanders have an impact on perpetration and victimization by way of multiple, distinct goals, which impact their choice of behavioral response. Bystanders’ goals and behaviors served to inform the creation of a cyberbullying bystander typology inclusive of five types: the oblivious/distant bystander, the entertained bystander, the conspiring bystander, the unintentional instigating bystander, and the active/empowered bystander. By allowing a thorough, nuanced understanding of bystanders’ role in cyberbullying, the study has significant implications for communication theory and practical application in the development of prevention and intervention efforts.

Craftsmanship is recognised as a source of practical wisdom that can inform sustainable management and use of natural resources. However, there are many outstanding questions about how the skills and tacit knowledge embedded in craftsmanship can facilitate social-ecological resilience for sustainability. It has also proved difficult to access and articulate the knowledge embedded in craftsmanship. With this study I explore the skill and tacit knowledge components of craftsmanship as a repository of cultural-ecological memory through two case studies: the duodji, or handicrafts, produced by a Sámi craftswoman living in Jokkmokk, Sweden, and the fishing style of a fisherman in the Stockholm archipelago. As such, the research has two main aims: 1) to understand how the skills and tacit knowledge embedded in craftsmanship function as carriers of cultural-ecological memory; 2) to explore ways of mobilising and capturing these knowledge types by making them visible through the use of visual methodologies like photography. The research highlights the value of the accumulated knowledge and the portfolio of skills that are components of craft practices. Visual methods, in particular photo elicitation, invite participants to link their craftsmanship to their culture and identity. In doing so, visual methods contribute a new perspective on the role of craftsmanship as a carrier of cultural-ecological memory because the craft practices themselves become reservoirs of tacit knowledge and embodied skills that can be drawn upon in responding and adapting to changes or disturbances in the social-ecological system.

The southwest Yukon social-ecological system (SES) is marked by complex changes, including a climate induced directionally changing landscape, an increasing shift away from traditional subsistence lifestyles, and changing species composition. The addition of “new” ungulate species through human and non-human introductions has spawned many management questions. This study developed qualitative scenarios through a participatory process, utilizing scientific and traditional knowledge from within the social-ecological system’s local context. The study worked with local management groups to address two main objectives: 1.) Collaboratively envision alternate future scenarios with management groups from which to collaboratively develop management goals for wood bison, elk, and mule deer to cope with the changing social and ecological landscape of the southwest Yukon and 2.) Discover resource managers’ and local stakeholders’ perceptions of scenario planning as a method identify wildlife management goals. A series of three workshops with the Alsek Renewable Resource Council, the Yukon Wood Bison Technical Team, and the Yukon Elk Management Planning Team addressed the first objective, while two surveys addressed the second objective. Major findings included southwest Yukon-specific wildlife management goals and considerations for using scenario planning in a wildlife management context. The scenarios themselves warn of plausible events that might unfold, such as novel disease and pest outbreaks. Several participants mentioned that the value attributed to different species will change based on scenario context. This prompts warnings for wildlife managers not to “shut the door” on a species today that may be highly valuable for solving food security challenges of the future. Findings suggest that one of scenario planning’s most significant contribution is a forum for people to share perspectives and develop trust and understanding of one another. All participants valued the holistic and long-term thinking aspects of scenario planning, seeing it as a complementary tool to enhance existing planning processes. Major resource management plans and/or resource development projects in the future should consider using a scenarios approach to better articulated goals in terms of whole system impacts.

The adaptive cycle metaphor provides insight into how and why social-ecological systems change. Literature on 'resilience thinking' has built upon this foundation and further developed the concepts of resilience, adaptation, and transformation to describe social-ecological system behavior. The resilience-thinking literature also describes systems that do not change, even when such change is desirable, as being in a trapped state. However, relatively little research has explored why such systems are trapped and how to free them. This thesis is the product of doctoral research which resolves how to identify, evaluate, and free a system caught in a maladaptive system trap. The study setting is water management in Grenada, a small island developing state in the southeastern Caribbean. Four research questions guide this study: (1) To what extent is Grenadian water management in a trap?, (2) To what extent is Grenadian water management transformable?, (3) Do current and recent interventions effectively foster or utilize transformability?, and (4) Which interventions should be pursued to facilitate transformation of water management in Grenada?. The study is informed by literature on social-ecological systems and integrated water resources management. Methodologically, the study is an explanatory single-case study of water management in Grenada, conducted from 2012 to 2013. The study utilizes data from semi-structured interviews (n=19), a questionnaire (n=180), a document review (n>200), and observation. The general strategy was to evaluate attempts to transform Grenadian water management within the 3-phase transformation framework described in the resilience-thinking literature. 'Points of failure' in transformation are defined as the cause(s) of a trap, and interventions to relieve the points of failure are proposed. Results indicate Grenadian water management is in a rigidity trap, although it exhibits some capacity to transform. A key point of failure of attempts to transform the Grenadian water sector into an integrated and holistic management system has been an inability to seize windows of opportunity to pass key legislation. I conclude the primary cause for this failure is poor fit among the problem, as perceived by various stakeholders, the proposed solution prescribed by water sector reform proponents, and political reality. In addition, reform proponents focus on advocating for reform to water sector professionals and do little to broker passage of legislation politically. Finally, reform proponents also assume legislation will be effectively implemented, which is not certain. Contributions specific to the Grenadian setting include a post-mortem on why efforts to reform the water sector have failed, described above. Five recommendations are made for future interventions to foster transformation of Grenadian water management: (1) engage residents as part of a vision to create political pressure for proposed solutions, (2) frame the problem with substantial resident input and focus, (3) craft solutions which take advantage of political realities such as funding restrictions, (4) anticipate and prepare for crises, and (5) enlist one or more people or organizations to serve as brokers. Empirical contributions include support for the three-streams framework of seizing windows of opportunity as fundamental to explain transformation of social-ecological systems. The primary conceptual contribution is the development of resilience thinking to illuminate ways to free trapped systems. I begin by providing a nomenclature to quantify and describe traps, which includes the type of trap, the degree of persistence and undesirability of the trap, and recent changes in these properties. Then, I develop a framework to assess transformability of a given system based on the existing 3-phase framework of transformation. When applied empirically, this framework illuminates points of failure of transformation, which I define as the cause of a given trap. Once identified, specific strategies can be devised to foster transformation and to break free of a trap.

Ecosystèmes et sociétés humaines interagissent de façon bidirectionnelle, notamment via la perte de biodiversité et de services écosystémiques. Au sein de cette boucle de rétroaction, les interactions d'échelles (spatiales et temporelles) mènent à des découplages qui peuvent réduire le bien-être humain et la durabilité des systèmes socio-écologiques (SSEs). Par une approche de modélisation, cette thèse explore les conséquences de long terme de telles interactions d'échelle. Nous montrons que le découplage temporel dû aux dettes d'extinction peut mener à des effondrements. De plus, ces découplages temporels réduisent la capacité d'adaptation du système, rendant plus probables des transitions soudaines vers des trajectoires non durables. Cependant, la conservation des habitats naturels et l'internalisation économique des conséquences de la perte de biodiversité permettent d'éviter ou de réduire ces crises. Cette étude met en évidence le rôle des rétroactions et des interactions d'échelles dans les SSEs, et insiste sur l'importance d'une vision de long terme pour la durabilité des sociétés humaines. / Human-nature interactions form a feedback loop that is driven by the loss of biodiversity-dependent ecosystem services. These interactions occur over many spatial and temporal scales, and mismatches between the scales of human dynamics and ecological processes can contribute to a decrease in human well-being and sustainability. This thesis investigates theoretically the long-term consequences of biodiversity feedbacks on the sustainability of social-ecological systems (SESs). Temporal mismatches resulting from extinction debts can generate unsustainable human population cycles, especially in the most technology-intensive SESs. Moreover, temporal mismatches postpone desirable behavioral changes and reduce resilience, thus increasing the probability of abrupt regime shifts towards unsustainable trajectories. However, natural habitat conservation, e.g. through land set aside or the economic internalization of biodiversity feedbacks, can help prevent or mitigate such crises. This thesis thus emphasizes the role of feedbacks and scales in human-nature interactions, and highlights the importance of foresight for the sustainability of human societies.

abstract: Recent research within the field of natural resource management has been devoted to studying the cognitive structures, called mental models, that guide people’s thoughts, actions, and decision-making. Artificial lighting threatens the sustainability of pristine night skies around the world and is growing worldwide at an average rate of six-percent per year. Despite these trends, stakeholders’ mental models of night skies have been unexplored. This study will address this gap by eliciting stakeholders’ mental models of dark skies. Scenario planning has become a pervasive tool across diverse sectors to analyze complex systems for making decisions under uncertainty. The theory of scenario planning hypothesizes that scenario planning contributes to learning and improves upon participants’ mental models. However, there have been scant empirical studies attempting to investigate these two claims. Stakeholders’ mental models of dark skies were mapped while simultaneously testing the hypotheses that participation in scenario planning results in more complex mental models and alters environmental attitudes. Twenty-one Arizona stakeholders participated in one of two workshops during September 2016. Three identical surveys were given to measure knowledge, environmental attitudes and mental model change during the workshops. Knowledge gain peaked during the introductory lecture and continued to increase during the workshop. Scenario planning increased participants’ environmental attitudes from anthropocentric to nature-centered and was found to have a significant positive impact on dark sky advocates’ change in mental model complexity. The most prominent drivers affecting dark skies were identified using social network analysis of the pre and post mental models. The most prominent concepts were altered significantly from pre to post workshop suggesting that scenario planning may aid practitioners in understanding exogenous factors to their area of expertise. These findings have critical theoretical and managerial implications of mental model alteration, environmental attitudes, and the future of Arizona’s night skies. A revised theoretical framework is offered to include environmental attitudes into the theory of scenario planning and a conceptual framework was created to illustrate the most salient drivers affecting or being affected by dark skies. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Community Resources and Development 2016

abstract: Consideration of both biological and human-use dynamics in coupled social-ecological systems is essential for the success of interventions such as marine reserves. As purely human institutions, marine reserves have no direct effects on ecological systems. Consequently, the success of a marine reserve depends on managers` ability to alter human behavior in the direction and magnitude that supports reserve objectives. Further, a marine reserve is just one component in a larger coupled social-ecological system. The social, economic, political, and biological landscape all determine the social acceptability of a reserve, conflicts that arise, how the reserve interacts with existing fisheries management, accuracy of reserve monitoring, and whether the reserve is ultimately able to meet conservation and fishery enhancement goals. Just as the social-ecological landscape is critical at all stages for marine reserve, from initial establishment to maintenance, the reserve in turn interacts with biological and human use dynamics beyond its borders. Those interactions can lead to the failure of a reserve to meet management goals, or compromise management goals outside the reserve. I use a bio-economic model of a fishery in a spatially patchy environment to demonstrate how the pre-reserve fisheries management strategy determines the pattern of fishing effort displacement once the reserve is established, and discuss the social, political, and biological consequences of different patterns for the reserve and the fishery. Using a stochastic bio-economic model, I demonstrate how biological and human use connectivity can confound the accurate detection of reserve effects by violating assumptions in the quasi-experimental framework. Finally, I examine data on recreational fishing site selection to investigate changes in response to the announcement of enforcement of a marine reserve in the Gulf of California, Mexico. I generate a scale of fines that would fully or partially protect the reserve, providing a data-driven way for managers to balance biological and socio-economic goals. I suggest that natural resource managers consider human use dynamics with the same frequency, rigor, and tools as they do biological stocks. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Applied Biological Sciences 2014

abstract: The coastal fishing community of Barrington, Southwest Nova Scotia (SWNS), has depended on the resilience of ocean ecosystems and resource-based economic activities for centuries. But while many coastal fisheries have developed unique ways to govern their resources, global environmental and economic change presents new challenges. In this study, I examine the multi-species fishery of Barrington. My objective was to understand what makes the fishery and its governance system robust to economic and ecological change, what makes fishing households vulnerable, and how household vulnerability and system level robustness interact. I addressed these these questions by focusing on action arenas, their contexts, interactions and outcomes. I used a combination of case comparisons, ethnography, surveys, quantitative and qualitative analysis to understand what influences action arenas in Barrington, Southwest Nova Scotia (SWNS). I found that robustness of the fishery at the system level depended on the strength of feedback between the operational level, where resource users interact with the resource, and the collective-choice level, where agents develop rules to influence fishing behavior. Weak feedback in Barrington has precipitated governance mismatches. At the household level, accounts from harvesters, buyers and experts suggested that decision-making arenas lacked procedural justice. Households preferred individual strategies to acquire access to and exploit fisheries resources. But the transferability of quota and licenses has created divisions between haves and have-nots. Those who have lost their traditional access to other species, such as cod, halibut, and haddock, have become highly dependent on lobster. Based on regressions and multi-criteria decision analysis, I found that new entrants in the lobster fishery needed to maintain high effort and catches to service their debts. But harvesters who did not enter the race for higher catches were most sensitive to low demand and low prices for lobster. This study demonstrates the importance of combining multiple methods and theoretical approaches to avoid tunnel vision in fisheries policy. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Environmental Social Science 2014