Resource governance and the politics of the social: Ordering in and by socio-ecological systems

In studies of natural resource governance, agency is commonly treated as a property that evolves in conditions of socio-ecological systems (SESs). While the SES framework has established its position within a multidisciplinary scholarship, it remains controversial. Critical scholars note that the social component has been left under-theorised. Yet, it is argued that once developed, the framework can provide a useful foundation for studying human–environment relations. This article critically examines such a position. Drawing from actor-network theory, it analyses the assumptions the SES framework makes about the social forms constitutive for natural resource governance. The focus is on the entities in terms of which governance and management are envisioned to evolve. The analysis shows that the descriptions of SES dynamics often treat social forms as unambiguous and a priori existing. The paper argues that the material ordering that is enacted downplays potentials of politics. Management and governance of natural resources rest on demarcations that are not supposed to be challenged. At the same time radical un-restrictedness is claimed to co-exist and to open up potentials for social learning. The promise of management enacted by the SES framework seems thus to be based on a very particular kind of fluctuation between opening up and closing down of system spaces.