Our research focuses on the collective-action challenges surrounding community resilience and sustainability. Local governments of all sizes are facing increasing threats to their fiscal and economic health, community well-being, and environmental resources. Addressing these challenges requires a litany of economic, ecological and societal governance transitions. However, it also assumes local communities can either develop new organizational capacities or divert resources away from more traditional services and activities.
Science has always presented its protagonists with epistemic challenges rooted in language and the difficulties establishing what Vincent Ostrom called "communities of shared understanding." Our work attempts to answer that call by focusing on different types of "shared" public infrastructure, from pipes in the ground to the knowledge that resource users and providers develop and mobilize to solve problems. Here, You can read some of our work on these general topics (open access): "Organizing and Institutionalizing Local Sustainability.'