Speaking to scholars and practitioners in areas such as sustainability, resilience, and climate, where new ideas for collective action is needed around dilemmas of the commons, this title develops a theory of relationality, which captures how connectedness fosters empathy and collective action,...

Since Hardin first formulated the tragedy of the commons, researchers have described various ways that commons problems are solved, all based on the model of individual rationality. Invariably, these institutional solutions involve creating some system of property rights. We formulate an...

1. Representation and policy : a framework for analysis -- 2. Four corners states under stress -- 3. Citizen legislatures : the barriers to good policy -- 4. The voters' logic : how issues are clustered -- 5. Water scarcity and the politics of plenty -- 6. Environmental issues : symbols and...

How can communities enhance social-ecological resilience within complex urban systems? Drawing on a new urbanist proposal in Orange County, California, it is suggested that planning that ignores diverse ways of knowing undermines the experience and shared meaning of those living in a city. The...

The policy literature has long recognized the inherent need for a program to fit the unique conditions found in a certain context. We present a theory of institutional contextualism that focuses on the mechanisms by which actors adapt a policy design to fit a situation. We conceptualize...

The nature of environmental risk is often determined by the location patterns of industrial firms in a locale. We develop a methodology for analyzing the capacity of toxics-generating industries to leave toxic residuals on the landscape, in the context of long-term master planning. To understand...

In 2002, a team of researchers from the University of California, Irvine collaborated with the community of Pacoima, California around a co-ordinated effort to analyze soil around the neighborhood for lead. The team found both total and bioavailable lead to be markedly higher in areas close to...