NSF Award
2413780
This project examines how worldviews held by decision-makers at different levels– from local, to regional, state, and federal– play a role in governing rapidly changing Arctic frozen landscapes of ice, snow, and permafrost. Governance is a process that takes rules, norms, and shared strategies and applies them as policies or regulations across diverse social and environmental contexts. Worldviews are grounded in different underlying values and assumptions held by rights- and stake-holders who, for example, steward or manage lands and waters in Alaska. Differences embedded in worldviews are foundational to decision-making and contribute to consensus or disagreement emerging around policy actions. A better understanding of consensus and conflict between decision-makers could support collective action to quickly address thawing permafrost and emerging safety concerns given a less frozen Arctic. This research addresses a need for researchers and policy makers to better engage with diverse ways of knowing, and provides a way for Arctic communities, agencies, and resource practitioners to speak with, instead of past each other. Understanding the role of worldviews in governance processes is a crucial step toward multi-level governance becoming a powerful means of collective - and more equitable - decision making. Future research can build on this knowledge to support diverse decision-makers in a range of social and ecological settings throughout the Arctic, and globally.<br/><br/>This project emphasizes collaborative research with the communities of McGrath and Nikolai in the Upper Kuskokwim Region of Alaska, USA. The work is comprised of two inter-related studies. Study 1 uses semantic network analysis to identify and analyze emergent worldview themes and resource decisions from archival documents published by all stake- and rights-holders in the region. The research team will then conduct semi-structured interviews with community members and regional, state, and federal agency decision-makers. This two-step approach will identify connections between worldviews and the governance of frozen commons. Study 2 will work closely with community partners to model critical frozen landscape scenarios and bring worldviews, multi-level governance actions, and social-ecological systems modeling into conversation during two community workshops. This study will co-create knowledge by investigating tradeoffs from a range of decisions in the context of rapidly changing, less-frozen landscapes. Using an iterative, community-driven design and mixed methods approach, this research holistically addresses and communicates how radically different worldviews across rights- and stake-holders play an important role in goal identification and valuation, and whose voices are marginalized or strengthened in processes of decision-making.<br/><br/>This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
