Marc Craps

KU Leuven | ku leuven

The drivers-pressures-state-impact-responses (DPSIR) framework has been used widely to support environmental policy developments. However, we argue that DPSIR tends to oversimplify the complexity behind socio-ecological systems. Based on the Katari River Basin in Bolivia, we explore how the incorporation of spatial and social considerations may enh...

The interdependent character of sustainability challenges calls for collaboration among actors with different capabilities, interests, and knowledge frames. Behavioral simulations offer good opportunities to learn about dealing with these differences. They are based on an “experiential learning” approach that integrates the direct experience of the...

Uit bezorgdheid voor de huidige, globale socio-ecologische toestand, schreef ik een aantal opiniërende artikels over de (falende) rol van academici in een onbesuisd verder industrialerende wereld.

E-Waste is a global concern because of its accelerated generation rate and increasing impact on the environment. Latin America generated 4.2 Mt of E-waste in 2016. In Ecuador, the amount of E-waste generated increased from 73 kt in 2014 to 90 kt in 2016. This chapter presents an overview of the current situation of E-waste management in Ecuador. Th...

Bolivia has influenced the international water arenas as a pioneer of the Human Water Rights Declaration before the United Nations General Council. However, despite a positive but rather ideological evolution, the country is still facing several water challenges in practice. Water governance is extremely complex due to intricate social structures,...

Multi-actor governance, in which a broad mix of actors collaborates to deal with complex societal problems, requires a leadership approach that can take into account the dynamic interdependencies between the involved actors. A relational approach to leadership, focusing on processes and practices, is more adequate for that purpose than approaches f...

Megatrends like climate change, population growth and economic transitions put cities to the test and impact their future. City governments acknowledge the importance of spatial planning to mitigate the problems they are facing, for example by greening the city, infill development, smart reintegration of making industry in the city, etc. Our contri...

This paper discusses a case study in the domain of water management and nature conservation from the perspective of boundary dynamics. Multiparty collaboration is proposed as an organizational strategy to manage natural resources. This approach acknowledges the multiple perspectives of stakeholders, the differences in interest and power, and it pro...

This paper proposes a normative and an analytical framework for an actor-oriented conceptualization of the development of rural territories with the aim to inform practitioners’ interventions. For the latter, we stress the need for a more realistic and modest positioning vis-à-vis the endogenous strategies of interacting actors in the rural territo...

This paper proposes a normative and an analytical framework for an actor-oriented conceptualization of the development of rural territories with the aim to inform practitioners’ interventions. For the latter, we stress the need for a more realistic and modest positioning vis-à-vis the endogenous strategies of interacting actors in the rural territo...

Involving indigenous peoples in the development of mitigation measures for climate change presents procedural, conceptual and structural challenges. Here, we reflect on some of these challenges and ways of overcoming them, as suggested by collaborative approaches to policy and decision making. We specifically focus on issues of scale, knowledge and...

Local community participation in complex technological projects, where technological innovations and risks need to be managed, is notoriously challenging. Relations with local inhabitants easily take the form of exclusion, protest, controversy or litigation. While such projects represent opportunities for creating knowledge, business or societal be...

Governments and co-operations are aware of the fact that more sustainable consumption and production practices are required. Efforts are being made to produce less waste while increasing the recycling ratio. Concurrently, it is of importance to place landfilling in a sustainable context. The present paper discusses a novel concept where a landfill...

Better slag valorisation is part of improving the sustainability of steel, stainless steel and non-ferrous metal production. Besides, it can improve the sustainability of other products and production processes as well. Several slag valorisation routes were studied in the past but not much high value applications are implemented yet due to technica...

This article discusses social learning as a means to implement integrated water resources management (IWRM). Implementing IWRM requires cooperation between policy sectors, countries, government bodies, the civic sector and scientific disciplines. The social learning approach suggests several ingredients for such cooperation. First, water managers a...

Currently water resources management is undergoing a major paradigm shift. Water resources management has a strong engineering tradition based on controlling environmental problems with technical solutions. The management of risks relied on the ability to predict extremes and limit their impact with technical means such as dikes, dams and reservoir...

In deze bijdrage werken we de spanning tussen `oude' en `nieuwe' maakbaarheid van samenleven uit voor de actuele problematiek van het beheer van natuurlijke hulpbronnen. Ons uitgangspunt daarbij is dat het falen van de `oude' maakbaarheid te maken heeft met een specialistische en gefragmenteerde blauwdrukbenadering. De dramatische ecologische neven...

"Natural resources management in general, and water resources management in particular, are currently undergoing a major paradigm shift. Management practices have largely been developed and implemented by experts using technical means based on designing systems that can be predicted and controlled. In recent years, stakeholder involvement has gaine...

The Water Framework Directive requires Public Participation in River Basin Management (RBM), including previously excluded constituencies besides water experts and policy makers. In this context, the HarmoniCOP project studies ways to improve PP based on the concept of Social Learning (SL). SL refers to the growing capacity of a social network to d...

Uncertainty is an increasingly important concern when trying to manage complex systems of interrelated natural resources. Scientific knowledge or necessary information may be lacking or incomplete. Additionally, the multiple and interdependent users of those resources may diverge in defining what really is at stake. When they frame issues in very d...

In this article we explore how actionable knowledge was created among substantially different communities of practice in a process with enduring consequences. Analysing an irrigation technology case from southern Ecuador, we illustrate how an indigenous irrigation organization, an intermediary NGO, and a university engineering center together produ...

Multi-actor initiatives aiming at environmental sustainability and social equity, face complex tensions between institutionalized decision-makers, backed up by expert knowledge, and communities with locally embedded knowledge and interests. Despite the importance given to community participation, successful experiences are limited in number, scope...

The Water Framework Directive requires to include public besides the water experts and policy makers into development and implementation of River Basin Management (RBM) plans (see Article 14). In such a context, the EU research project HarmoniCOP, studies a method to improve Public Participation based on Social Learning (SL) concepts. SL refers to...

Drawing on qualitative data from a longitudinal case study of a collaborative soil conservation initiative in southern Ecuador, we study how multiple actors, including university experts, development organizations and local communities, make sense of the issues from different perspectives through the process of issue framing. Starting from an analy...

The Water Framework Directive requires to include public besides the water experts and policy makers into development and implementation of River Basin Management (RBM) plans (see Article 14). In such a context, the EU research project HarmoniCOP, studies a method to improve Public Participation based on Social Learning (SL) concepts. SL refers to...

Non-governmental organizations are gradually coming to play an increasing role in developmental projects and organizational psychology is being challenged to contribute to our understanding of the dynamics of inter-party collaboration. This article documents how the stakeholders in a social development project develop meaning through discursive pra...

The role of social learning in resource management It is widely claimed that a new type of collaborative governance is required for integrated water resources management which has as main principles: -Water users must be involved in the governance of the resource. -Policy planning and implementation must be based on integrated solutions. Most recen...

Multipartij-initiatieven die een duurzame ontwikkeling beogen, worden gecon­fronteerd met complexe spanningen tussen geïnstitutionaliseerde plannen­makers en beslissingsinstanties gesteund door professionele experten, en ge­meenschappen met hun lokale interessen en kennis. Succesvolle ervaringen met gemeenschapsparticipatie zijn schaars in de prakt...