037: Pracademics and patchiness with Jessica Cockburn

Michael and Stefan spoke with Jessica Cockburn, a Lecturer in Environmental Science at Rhodes University, in Grahamstown, South Africa. Jessica identifies as a "pracademic" who often works with local partners to explore how actors across a variety of contexts interact to address sustainability challenges. Her work is highly collaborative. Among the groups she engages with is the Programme on Ecosystem Change and Society (PECS): https://pecs-science.org/.

Topics of the interview include:

The use of "critical realist" philosophy as a basis for engaged research.

The challenge of "pracademics": practical and ethical demands of conducting transdisciplinary research with local partners.

Empirical analysis of "patchy" watershed-scale governance among heterogeneous actor groups.

Jessica's personal website: https://sites.google.com/view/jesscockburn/home

Twitter: https://twitter.com/jess_cockburn

Jessica's paper that Michael mentioned:

Cockburn, Jessica, Georgina Cundill, Sheona Shackleton, Mathieu Rouget, Marijn Zwinkels, Susanna (ancia) Cornelius, Liz Metcalfe, and Dieter van den Broeck. 2019. “Collaborative Stewardship in Multifunctional Landscapes: Toward Relational, Pluralistic Approaches.” Ecology and Society 24 (4). https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-11085-240432.

Tiny book title: A story of hope from a patchy place.