TY - JOUR
T1 - Collective action dilemmas of sustainable natural resource management
T2 - A case study on land marketization in rural China
AU - Zhou, Lin
AU - Zhou, Yinuo
AU - de Vries, Walter Timo
AU - Liu, Zhihang
AU - Sun, Hanyue
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2024 The Authors
PY - 2024/2/1
Y1 - 2024/2/1
N2 - Sustainable natural resource management encompasses not only technical aspects but also the capacity and inclination for collective action. Using semi-structured interview data and social network analysis, this paper assesses the characteristics of three elements of social capital (norms, communication networks, and trustworthiness) and their effects on collective action, in the context of the marketization of rural collectively-owned operating construction land (COCL) in Dingluan Town, Henan Province, China. The results reveal that villagers possess a superficial understanding of compensation schemes at the normative-level analysis, impeding effective collective decision-making. Communication network analysis exposes strong ties that may impede collective action if only information flows within villages. In contrast, weak ties serve as vital bridges promoting marketization. Additionally, we observe that groups with strong ties rely more on key actors for accurate calls to action, underscoring the importance of trustworthiness. More importantly, the results point to three dilemmas regarding land marketization in rural China: cognitive bias of norms, challenges in expressing stakeholders’ demands, and crisis of trust among key actors. We further highlight trust as a potent means of breakthrough to address these dilemmas rooted in normative, communicative, and trust-related aspects that present formidable challenges to collective action. These results provide important insights for trust-building strategies for researchers and policy promoters to solve the collective action dilemma in environmental management.
AB - Sustainable natural resource management encompasses not only technical aspects but also the capacity and inclination for collective action. Using semi-structured interview data and social network analysis, this paper assesses the characteristics of three elements of social capital (norms, communication networks, and trustworthiness) and their effects on collective action, in the context of the marketization of rural collectively-owned operating construction land (COCL) in Dingluan Town, Henan Province, China. The results reveal that villagers possess a superficial understanding of compensation schemes at the normative-level analysis, impeding effective collective decision-making. Communication network analysis exposes strong ties that may impede collective action if only information flows within villages. In contrast, weak ties serve as vital bridges promoting marketization. Additionally, we observe that groups with strong ties rely more on key actors for accurate calls to action, underscoring the importance of trustworthiness. More importantly, the results point to three dilemmas regarding land marketization in rural China: cognitive bias of norms, challenges in expressing stakeholders’ demands, and crisis of trust among key actors. We further highlight trust as a potent means of breakthrough to address these dilemmas rooted in normative, communicative, and trust-related aspects that present formidable challenges to collective action. These results provide important insights for trust-building strategies for researchers and policy promoters to solve the collective action dilemma in environmental management.
KW - Collective action dilemma
KW - Land marketization
KW - Social capital
KW - Sustainable environmental management
KW - Trust
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85183207186&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.jclepro.2024.140872
DO - 10.1016/j.jclepro.2024.140872
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85183207186
SN - 0959-6526
VL - 439
JO - Journal of Cleaner Production
JF - Journal of Cleaner Production
M1 - 140872
ER -