timelets | TIL: the Panacea Problem

In the context of governance of human–environment interactions, a panacea refers to a blueprint for a single type of governance system (e.g., government ownership, privatization, community property) that is applied to all environmental problems.

Practitioners and scholars who fall into panacea traps falsely assume that all problems of resource governance can be represented by a small set of simple models, because they falsely perceive that the preferences and perceptions of most resource users are the same.

The study of the governance of SESs[social-ecological systems], and of sustainability science more generally (50), is an applied science like medicine and engineering, which aim to find solutions for diverse and complex problems. In diagnosing problems, the applied scientist examines attributes of a problem, layer by layer, and focuses on traits that are thought to be essential in a particular context. When an initial solution is adopted, considerable effort is made to dig deeply into the structure of the problem and to monitor various indicators of the system. On the basis of this information, applied scientists change their actions and learn from failures.

Ostrom, et. al. 2007

http://www.pnas.org/content/104/39/15176.full
doi: 10.1073/pnas.0701886104

Also related http://www.phil.upenn.edu/~weisberg/documents/threekindsfinal.pdf (wrt Model-based science)