Communal processes of health and well-being for rangelands research and practice

Abstract

• Integrated social-ecological research is crucial for the development and assessment of sustainable agricultural production that supports health and well-being for producers, rural communities, and agroecosystems.

• One challenge for integration is that commonly used concepts like ecosystem services do not represent all environmental processes that support or degrade health and well-being.

• Social change processes also impact health and well-being. Here we focus on a core, and often underrepresented example—communal processes.

• Communal processes include social interactions for a common interest or purpose, or for deliberation and decision-making about a shared locality.

• Many (but not all) communal processes foster relationships that strengthen a community's capacity for collective action while helping individuals and families cope with environmental stressors.

• Research on communal processes of health and well-being complements research on ecosystem services and agricultural production to better represent social-ecological interdependencies and strengthen interdisciplinary approaches to rangelands research.