Dave White

This study incorporates a detailed case history, content analysis, and framing analysis to understand social dynamics within a groundwater policy process that began as a grassroots environmental social movement to an unprecedented community-driven policy, ballot initiative. The purpose of this study is to examine how local, rural stakeholders frame groundwater management problems and solutions during the voter-initiated AMA goal-setting process in the DGB. Thus, framing analysis was applied to public input comments on the water management goal-setting process. We used framing analysis to examine how the public frames groundwater management problems and solutions for implementing groundwater regulations and whether problem and solution frames are linked. We categorized and recorded diagnostic (problem) and prognostic (solution) frames. The framing analysis results demonstrate that the public frames a broader range of solutions (singular and grouped) than problems and that these problem and solution frames are linked within the sample. We found public perceptions of environmental problem-solving indicate that groundwater problems are viewed as real, pressing, and that solutions exist to address the issues. Our results provide insight into a process of how rural, local level voters can initiate change to and shape future natural resource governance that better reflects local perspectives.

This paper introduces the concept of “Participatory Convergence” as a framework to meet grand social-ecological challenges. Participatory Convergence combines the principles of Convergence Research with Participatory Action Research (PAR), offering a novel approach to tackling complex societal problems. Convergence Research seeks to foster high-level integration between diverse disciplines to address multifaceted issues, emphasizing systems thinking and solutions orientation; however, existing literature falls short in providing practical models for the deep integration of diverse disciplines, community partners, and community members. This paper aims to bridge these gaps by integrating Convergence Research with PAR. We illustrate the application of Participatory Convergence with a case study: the “Action for Water Equity” project, focusing on water challenges faced by communities in U.S. colonias along the U.S.–Mexico border. The Action for Water Equity project is a practical example of how Participatory Convergence can be applied to tackle pressing challenges while embracing diversity, inclusivity, and adaptability. This approach holds the potential to facilitate comprehensive solutions for global challenges and foster meaningful change through interdisciplinary collaboration, community engagement, and a commitment to sustainability and equity.

Particular visions of urban development are often codified in multi-year resource management policies. These policies, and the negotiations leading to them, are based in specific problem frames and narratives with long legacies. As conditions change and knowledge improves, there is often a need to revisit how problems, opportunities, and development pathways were defined historically, and to consider the viability of alternative pathways for development. In this article, we examine the case of agriculture near Metropolitan Phoenix, in the Central Arizona region, to highlight how frames and narratives embedded in policy can reinforce particular development pathways, even as information, conditions, and values evolve. Using expert interviews and secondary data, we document alternative frames and narratives that may offer different pathways for development and sustainability in the region. By highlighting alternative narratives, we demonstrate the uncertainties and limitations associated with all narratives about development pathways, and explore the possibilities that narrative shifts can alter future outcomes.