MCC APPROACH

“Social inclusion will result in more socially sustainable processes, yielding collectively higher levels of societal well-being.” (Dujon et al. 2013; p.2)

Adaptation through Local Networks, Diverse Knowledge Forms, and Collaborative Science

Image of identity and worldview figure leading to five major elements.
Our identity, or worldview, is comprised of complex interacting components, or knowledge forms, that collectively interpret our human experiences and drive our actions. The figure is structured to demonstrate these interacting components of one’s worldview: (1) experience, instincts, & intuition, (2) emotional intelligence and unconscious, (3) individual values, (4) group norms & values, and (5) perception. Within each category, the figure lists a few different ways to interpret each concept: common definition, foundational elements in bullets, and key supporting resources from the larger Human Dimensions Resource Library immediately below.

Human Dimensions Resource Library

Click on the different sections below to expand and find useful resources that represent a diversity of perspectives on each form of knowledge within one’s identity or worldview. The bolded resources are the ones spotlighted in the figure above and represent key resources on those topics.

Holistic, sensory knowledge: a creative/innovative path

1) Sir Kenneth Robinson TED Talk (2007) : “Do Schools Kill Creativity?”; most viewed talk in the history of TED Talks

2) Sir Kenneth Robinson TED Talk (2010): “Changing Education Paradigms”

3) Sir Kenneth Robinson TED Talk (2015): “Bring on the learning revolution!”

Foundations of phenomenal ecology as a cornerstone of the emerging field of environmental anthropology (i.e., phenomenal ecology)

4) Abram D (1996) The spell of the sensuous: language and perception in a more than human world. Random House, Toronto

5) Abram D (2020) In the ground of our unknowing; COVID essay

6) Ingold T (2011) The Perception of the Environment: essays on livelihood, dwelling and skill, 2nd edn. Routledge, London.

7) Orr Y, Lansing JS, Dove MR (2015) Environmental Anthropology: Systemic Perspectives. Annual Review of Anthropology 44(1): 153-168.

More-than-human literacy: an avian biologist and Native Hawaiian practitioner talk story

8) Workshop led by Patrick Hart & Taupōuri Tangarō. April 28, 2022. Kani Manu & Oli Kānaka, Connecting the Language of Birds and Chant. Part of a 2-day symposium from the Tropical Conservation Biology and Environmental Science Graduate Program at the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo.

Experience preeminent over facts

9) Kubin E, Curtis P, Schein C, Gray K (2021) Personal experiences bridge moral and political divides better than facts Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Feb 2021, 118 (6) e2008389118. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2008389118

10) van der Linden S, Maibach E, Leiserowitz A (2015) Improving public engagement with climate change: five “best practice” insights from psychological science. Perspect Psychol Sci 10:758-763. doi: 10.1177/1745691615598516

A shift in worldview: Franz Boas extends beyond intellect and immerses experientially (ethnography) within arctic Inuit culture, pushing cultural anthropology forward through his influential notions of cultural relativism and the critical context of place

11. Podcast: Nov. 19, 2020. The Invention of Race. NPR Throughline

The power of peers

1) Per Espen Stoknes TedTalk: “How to transform apocalypse fatigue into action on global warming”

2) Amel E, Manning C, Scott B, Koger S (2017) Beyond the roots of human inaction: fostering collective effort toward ecosystem conservation. Science, 356(6335), 275-279. doi: 10.1126/science.aal1931

3) Pōpolo Project video: “Blackness in the Pacific”

4) A New Model for Capitalism (video): Jay Coen Gilbert / Cofounder, Global B Corporation Movement

The power of trust

5) Website: Stephen M. R. Covey is co-founder of the FranklinCovey Global Speed of Trust Practice (website) and is the New York Times and #1 Wall Street Journal bestselling author of The Speed of Trust.

The Speed of Trust videos (2017; a few minutes each):

Counterfeit Behaviors Destructive of Trust

The Role of Trust in Collaboration

The Role of Trust in Innovation

Leading at the Speed of Trust (2022, 14-min). The webcast outlines trust as the #1 competency needed in leaders today. Outlining trust as driven by credibility and behavior, the video presents four cores of credibility and 13 behaviors that disproportionately impact trust:

Leading at the Speed of Trust

A comparison of distinct group norms (relationality vs. linear notions of time)

6) Tynan L (2021) What is relationality? Indigenous knowledges, practices and responsibilities with kin. Cultural Geographies. 28(4):597-610. doi:10.1177/14744740211029287

7) Whyte K (2021) Time as Kinship. In The Cambridge Companion to Environmental Humanities, edited by Jeffrey Cohen (Arizona State University) and Stephanie Foote (West Virginia University). Cambridge University Press.

Key words: Climate justice, Indigenous studies, environmental justice, climate crisis.

The dawn of American anthropology: cultural relativism, race as a human construct (not a biological reality), and retaining the context and continuity of place

8) Podcast: Nov. 19, 2020. The Invention of Race. NPR Throughline

Mental models (identity framework)

1) Abram D (1996) The spell of the sensuous: language and perception in a more than human world. Random House, Toronto

2) Jones N, Ross H, Lynam T, Perez P, Leitch A (2011) Mental models: an interdisciplinary synthesis of theory and methods. Ecology and Society 16:46.

3) Bruine de Bruin, W., Rabinovich, L., Weber, K. et al. Public understanding of climate change terminology. Climatic Change 167, 37 (2021).

4) Dabrowski’s theory of positive disintegration: Daniels S, Piechowsky M, eds. (2009). Living with intensity: understanding the sensitivity, excitability, and the emotional development of gifted children, adolescents, and adults. Great Potential Press.

5) Implicit bias: Anne Gillies, Oregon State University, January 12, 2018 YouTube video

6) Theory-U; action research originating at MIT has developed specific pathways through which to develop overlooked but essential leadership capacities in teams and individuals from the emergent Self.

7) Otto Scharmer (MIT) presents Deep listening as derived from Emergence Theory

Unconscious explaining away of uncomfortable scenarios (theory of cognitive dissonance)

8) Tavris C and Aronson E (2007). Mistakes were made (but not by me): Why we justify foolish beliefs, bad decisions, and hurtful acts. Harcourt.

Conscious recognition of hot and cold behaviors (knowledge systems 1&2)

9) Vedantam, S, R Cohen, T Boyle, J. Schmidt (2019). In The Heat of the Moment: How Intense Emotions Transform Us (hot/cold empathy gaps). Hidden Brain, NPR

10) van der Linden S, Maibach E, Leiserowitz A (2015). Improving public engagement with climate change: five “best practice” insights from psychological science. Perspect Psychol Sci 10:758-763. doi: 10.1177/1745691615598516

“Everyone carries a shadow, and the less it is embodied in the individual’s conscious life, the blacker and denser it is.” (Jung 1969; p.76)

The Psychology of Shifting Human Behavior

Research in psychology and cognitive science has made clear that humans do not always make decisions according to objective reason and logic. Rather, human behavior is more profoundly based upon deeply-rooted affect (emotion) and experiential capacities that are driven by person-to-person and person-to-nature interactions, group norms and values, individual values, perceptions, instincts, intuitions, and related visceral factors that collectively define one’s identity or worldview (Ingold 2011; Jones et al. 2011; Kahan et al. 2012; van der Linden et al. 2015; Jones et al. 2016, Amel et al. 2017, Laursen et al. 2018). Collectively such human and more-than-human relationality has guided adaptive human behavior since the dawn of our species (Tynan 2021).

To move beyond simply “actionable science” (the possibility of action) and engage action through science, our program is designed to build upon existing in-person professional networks locally through the process of knowledge co-production. We feel that regularly supporting person-to-person and person-to-nature relationships (i.e., situated or embodied knowledge) within local networks harnesses multiple knowledge forms and provides a platform for recognizing and supporting a wide range of participants and worldviews through place-based experiences (Ingold 2011, Winter et al. 2020). In doing so, we can account for and directly engage the full breadth of influences that drive human behavior in our effort to build climate adaption research capacity through unprecedented socio-ecological change.

Several canoes and teams racing in ocean with support boats and helicopter surrounding.
The start of the 63rd annual Molokaʻi Hoe outrigger canoe race, October 2015. The collaborative networks and sensory experience that define the Molokaʻi Hoe are also fundamental guiding principles of our MCC program. To excel in this 40+ mile outrigger canoe race, crews must have extensive experience paddling together, instinctive awareness of one another's abilities and open ocean elements, and collective resilience and adaptive capacity in the face of unforgiving and ever-changing ocean conditions. Photo credit: www.808photo.me

In-Person Collaboration: research products that influence human behavior and build place-based capacity

Participants gathered on the rim of Hāʻao spring where there is a deep rocky crevasse.
Camp attendees track freshwater flow, long utilized by human cultures in Kaʻū, from its mauka source at Hāʻao Spring (2,300 ft) to its entrance into the ocean. Photo credit: McClymont, USGS

The MCC seeks to empower cultural adaptation amid contemporary climate change impacts by building upon existing, in-person relationships across worldviews and rooting research efforts within strong local manager networks that manifest trust (Winter et al. 2020). Employing knowledge co-production within our growing professional networks, shifts applied research pathways toward the creation of valuable research products that are readily utilized by managers and policy professionals on the ground that are deeply connected to place. This is due to the direct involvement of local resource stewards as co-leads throughout the scientific process and the resulting vested interest in the collaborative products. In this manner, the MCC unites manager and researcher networks through highly collaborative research pathways and embeds the scientific process within specific biocultural land and seascapes.

Dive Deeper: 2018 publication in Environmental Management
Read More: 2022 MCC poster, 2020 case study

Amel E, Manning C, Scott B, Koger S (2017) Beyond the roots of human inaction: fostering collective effort toward ecosystem conservation. Science, 356(6335), 275-279.

Dujon V, Dillard J, Brennan EM (2013) Social sustainability: a multilevel approach to social inclusion. Routledge

Ingold T (2011) The Perception of the Environment: essays on livelihood, dwelling and skill, 2nd edn. Routledge, London.

Jones N, Ross H, Lynam T, Perez P, Leitch A (2011) Mental models: an interdisciplinary synthesis of theory and methods. Ecology and Society 16:46. http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol16/iss1/art46

Jones N, Shaw S, Ross H, Witt K, Pinner B (2016) The study of human values in understanding and managing social-ecological systems. Ecology and Society 21(1):15. http://dx.doi.org/10.5751/ES-07977-210115

Jung C (1969) Psychology and Religion: West and East, Collected Works of C.G. Jung Volume 11, 2nd edn., Princeton University Press.

Kahan DM, Peters E, Wittlin M, Slovic P, Ouellette LL, Braman D, Mandel G (2012) The polarizing impact of science literacy and numeracy on perceived climate change risks. Nat Climate Change 2:732-735

Laursen S, Puniwai N, Genz AS, Nash SAB, Canale LK, and Ziegler-Chong S (2018) Collaboration across worldviews: managers and scientists on Hawaiʻi Island utilize knowledge coproduction to facilitate climate change adaptation. Environmental Management 62(4): 619-630

Tynan L (2021) What is relationality? Indigenous knowledges, practices and responsibilities with kin. Cultural Geographies. 28(4):597-610. doi:10.1177/14744740211029287

van der Linden S, Maibach E, Leiserowitz A (2015) Improving public engagement with climate change: five “best practice” insights from psychological science. Perspect Psychol Sci 10:758-763. doi: 10.1177/1745691615598516

Winter KB, Rii YM, Reppun FAWL, Hintzen KD, Alegado RA, Bowen BW, Bremer LL, Coffman M, Deenik JL, Donahue MJ, Falinski KA, Frank K, Franklin EC, Kurashima N, Kekuewa Lincoln N, Madin EMP, McManus MA, Nelson CE, Okano R, Olegario A, Pascua P, Oleson KLL, Price MR, Rivera MJ, Rodgers KS, Ticktin T, Sabine CL, Smith CM, Hewett A, Kaluhiwa R, Cypher M, Thomas B, Leong J-A, Kekuewa K, Tanimoto J, Kukea-Shultz K, Kawelo A, Kotubetey K, Neilson BJ, Lee TS, Toonen RJ (2020) Collaborative research to inform adaptive comanagement: a framework for the Heʻeia National Estuarine Research Reserve. Ecology and Society 25(4):15. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-11895-250415

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QUICK LINKS

CONTACT

Scott Laursen
Climate Change Adaptation Extension Specialist
slaursen@hawaii.edu