There are limited approaches available that enable researchers and practitioners to conduct multiple case study comparisons of complex cases of collaboration in natural resource management and conservation. The absence of such tools is felt despite the fact that over the past several years a great deal of literature has reviewed the state of the science regarding collaboration. Much of this work is based on case studies of collaboration and highlights the importance of contextual variables, further complicating efforts to compare outcomes across case-study areas and the likely failure of approaches based on one size fits all generalizations. We expand on the standard overview of the field by identifying some of the challenges associated with managing complex systems with multiple resources, multiple stakeholder groups with diverse knowledges/understandings, and multiple objectives across multiple scales, i.e., multifaceted collaborative initiatives. We then elucidate how a realist methodology, within a critical realist framing, can support efforts to compare multiple case studies of such multifaceted initiatives. The methodology we propose considers the importance and impact of context for the origins, purpose, and success of multifaceted collaborative natural resource management and conservation initiatives in social-ecological systems.

中文翻译：

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了解社会生态可持续性多方面合作的背景：跨案例分析的方法

使研究人员和从业人员能够对自然资源管理和保护领域的复杂合作案例进行多个案例研究比较的方法有限。尽管在过去几年中有大量文献回顾了有关协作的科学状况，但人们仍然感到缺乏此类工具。这项工作的大部分是基于合作案例研究，并强调了上下文变量的重要性，进一步复杂化了比较案例研究领域结果的工作，以及基于一种适合所有概括的方法的可能失败。我们通过确定与管理具有多种资源的复杂系统相关的一些挑战来扩展该领域的标准概述，具有不同知识/理解的多个利益相关者群体，以及跨多个尺度的多个目标，即多方面的协作举措。然后，我们阐明了在批判现实主义框架内的现实主义方法论如何支持比较此类多方面举措的多个案例研究的努力。我们提出的方法考虑了环境对社会生态系统中多方面协作自然资源管理和保护计划的起源、目的和成功的重要性和影响。