NSF East Asia and Pacific Summer Institute (EAPSI) for FY 2013 in Australia

该行动资助乔治梅森大学的Dana Dolan于2013年夏天在澳大利亚首都堪培拉的澳大利亚国立大学（ANU）开展社会、行为和经济科学领域的跨学科研究项目。项目名称为“复杂、跨界、社会生态系统中的气候变化适应治理”。主持会议的科学家是澳大利亚国立大学芬纳环境与社会学院院长斯蒂芬·r·多弗斯教授。本研究的目的是了解长期治理制度安排在理论和实践上的演变。气候变化是一项科学上和社会上复杂的挑战，其特点是不可减少的不确定性、非常长的反馈周期和地方尺度上的显著变化。适应将需要跨多个机构边界和跨多个部门的协调与合作。这些要求对传统的分层管理方法和分散的市场方法提出了新的挑战；网络治理理论可能有助于解释新兴的决策结构。本研究响应了气候变化研究界对实证研究的呼吁，该研究分析了基于地点的适应，并通过对澳大利亚东南部默里-达令盆地（MDB）地区的公共政策网络进行定性案例研究，扩展了自然科学领域的现有工作，将社会科学纳入其中，该地区是一个生态丰富、政治分散、制度多样化的社会生态系统（SES）。此外，本研究可能为广义的制度变迁文献提供见解。间断均衡等传统理论为在复杂的公共政策领域（通过对危机的反应进行治理）中制度变革是如何发生或受到抵制提供了丰富的见解。然而，气候变化的长期危机有可能产生给人类带来不可接受后果的事件（“标点符号”）。发展替代性的制度变革模式，支持积极主动地解决长期治理问题，可能有助于减少这些负面后果。EAPSI奖学金的广泛影响包括为研究员提供美国以外的第一手研究经验；介绍该地区的科学、科学政策和科学基础设施；以及对社会、文化和语言的了解。这些活动符合美国国家科学基金会的目标，即在其科学家、工程师和教育工作者的职业生涯早期培养国际合作，从而确保美国科学劳动力具有全球意识。本研究的结果将记录在一份适合同行评审的研究报告中。研究结果还将在澳大利亚和美国的国家会议和地方研讨会或讲习班上发表，目的是促进跨国政策学习和合作奖学金。

This action funds Dana Dolan of George Mason University to conduct an interdisciplinary research project in the Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences area during the summer of 2013 at Australian National University (ANU) in Canberra, ACT. The project title is "Governance for Climate Change Adaptation in Complex, Crossboundary, Social-Ecological Systems." The host scientist is Professor Stephen R. Dovers, Director of ANU's Fenner School of Environment and Society.The goal of this study is to understand the evolution of institutional arrangements for long-term governance, in theory and in practice. Climate change is a scientifically and socially complex challenge marked by irreducible uncertainty, very long feedback cycles and significant variation at the local scale. Adaptation will require coordination and collaboration across multiple institutional boundaries and across multiple sectors. These requirements present novel challenges to traditional, hierarchical approaches to governing as well as to decentralized market approaches; networked governance theories may help explain emerging decision-making structures. This study responds to calls from the climate change research community for empirical research that analyzes place-based adaptation and that extends existing work in the natural sciences to incorporate social sciences through a qualitative case study of the public policy networks in the Murray-Darling Basin (MDB) region in southeast Australia, an ecologically rich, politically fragmented, and institutionally diverse Social-Ecological System (SES). Furthermore, this research may provide insights for the literature on institutional change, broadly defined. Traditional theories such as punctuated equilibrium have provided a wealth of insight into how institutional change occurs-or is resisted-in complex public policy areas: governance through reaction to crises. However, the long-term crisis of climate change threatens to produce events ("punctuations") with unacceptable consequences in terms of human suffering. Developing alternative models of institutional change that support proactive approaches to long-term governance issues may help reduce these negative consequences.Broader impacts of an EAPSI fellowship include providing the Fellow a first-hand research experience outside the U.S.; an introduction to the science, science policy, and scientific infrastructure of the respective location; and an orientation to the society, culture and language. These activities meet the NSF goal to educate for international collaborations early in the career of its scientists, engineers, and educators, thus ensuring a globally aware U.S. scientific workforce. Results of this study will be documented in a research report suitable for peer-reviewed publication. Findings will also be presented at national conferences and local seminars or workshops in both Australia and the United States with the aim of furthering cross-national policy learning and collaborative scholarship.