Sergio Villamayor-Toma
Biographic Data
| ID | 120753 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Sergio Villamayor-Toma |
| GIVEN NAMES | Sergio |
| FAMILY NAME | Villamayor-Toma |
| SIGNATURE | VILLAMAYOR-TOMA S |
| AFFILIATIONS | Universitat Autonòma de Barcelona |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-5170-1718 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 67 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 320 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 67 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2010 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 11 |
Who owns saved water? Exploring psychological ownership of efficiency gains in irrigation
Although cognitive and behavioural factors are crucial for understanding rebound effects, their role in irrigation modernization remains underexplored. This study reports a survey experiment conducted with 183 Spanish farmers to examine psychological ownership, distribution beliefs and use preferences of water savings. We find no difference across theorized knowledge and investment routes to psychological ownership. However, our data show that fa…
Alienable or inalienable, and how? Individual property rights in commons governance
From charity to justice? A comparative analysis of conventional food aid and agroecology-oriented food redistribution initiatives
The social justice dimension of agroecological transitions is often overlooked, with related initiatives criticised for excluding socially marginalised groups. Agroecology-oriented Food Redistribution Initiatives (AFRIs) emerged during COVID-19 to address the heightened food insecurity levels, linking agroecology with food justice struggles. Drawing on interviews and fieldwork conducted in two AFRIs and several Conventional Food Security Organisa…
Conservation-by-alienation: Koliwadi forest estrangement in Maharashtra, India
Critical theory insists on a structural-ethical response to capitalism's intensifying socio-ecological crises. In efforts to transcend it, we must illustrate how Capitalism fails not just functionally e.g., by being crises prone, but also show how it morally and ethically corrupts our relationship to other humans and nature producing injustices and poorer forms of life. Towards such an illustration, the concept of alienation serves as a vital ana…
A food system innovation: Vegetable production in rooftop greenhouses in Barcelona
Altres ajuts: acords transformatius de la UAB
Scaling-up commons-led coproduction: The governance model of the cooperative Athenaeums in Catalonia
Vulnerability to climate change, depopulation and the global food regime: An index-based approach for rural Spain
Metropolitan geographies of urban commons: Mapping socio-economic alternatives in the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona
Family farm succession and agroecology? A life-history approach to young farmers’ sustainability strategies
Altres ajuts: acords transformatius de la UAB
Successful water governance pathways across problem contexts: A Global Qualitative Comparative Analysis
Water-related problématiques: Five Archetypical Contexts of Water Governance
It is necessary to consider the contextual factors surrounding water governance systems to understand their performance. We conducted a review of 165 empirical studies and 223 cases from the water governance literature to investigate water-related contexts. Our analysis is based on an archetype analysis of three dimensions of water-related contexts across 160 cases: water resources, related water uses, and sustainability issues. Our results show …
Socially embedding the food system: The role of alternative food initiatives to build sustainable food models
The current industrial food system is failing in all aspects of sustainability. Alternative Food Initiatives (AFIs) and the industrial green food market (iGFM) both claim that they are building sustainable food models. This study looks into common strengths and challenges of AFIs in relation to iGFM. The research conducted a comparative case study of AFIs in the city of Sant Cugat del Vallès in the metropolitan area of Barcelona (Spain) through a…
A meta‐analysis of SES framework case studies: Identifying dyad and triad archetypes
There is a need to synthesize the vast amount of empirical case study research on social‐ecological systems (SES) to advance theory. Innovative methods are needed to identify patterns of system interactions and outcomes at different levels of abstraction. Many identifiable patterns may only be relevant to small sets of cases, a sector or regional context, and some more broadly. Theory needs to match these levels while still retaining enough detai…
The Problem of Institutional Fit: Uncovering Patterns with Boosted Decision Trees
Complex social-ecological contexts play an important role in shaping the types of institutions that groups use to manage resources, and the effectiveness of those institutions in achieving social and environmental objectives. This is partly because large numbers of potentially influential variables and non-linearities confound traditional statistical methods. Here we use boosted decision trees – one of a growing portfolio of machine learning tool…
Unraveling spatial agglomeration patterns in agri-environmental schemes: Evidence from the improvement of steppe habitats in the Natura 2000 network in Catalonia (Spain)
The European payment for ecosystem services in the agricultural sector, or agri-environmental schemes (AES), have shown limited success in stopping biodiversity loss due to the mismatches between the scale at which they are adopted and the scale of ecological processes. This study analyzes the spatial distribution of farmer participation in the “Improvement of the steppe habitats of the Natura 2000 Network” AES in Catalonia (Spain) to test and ex…
A systems perspective on water markets: Barriers, bright spots, and building blocks for the next generation
Garrick, Dustin; Balasubramanya, Soumya; Beresford, Melissa; Wutich, Amber; Gilson, Gina G; Jorgensen, Isabel; Brozovic, Nicholas; Cox, Michael; Dai, Xiaoping; Erfurth, Sophie; Rimšaitė, Renata; Svensson, Jesper; Jones, Julia Talbot; Unnikrishnan, Hita; Wight, Charles; Villamayor Tomás, Sergio; Mendoza, Karla Vazquez
Networks of action situations in social–ecological systems: Current approaches and potential futures
Networks of action situations in point-source pollution: The case of winery wastewater in Aragon, Spain
In this article, we offer an analysis of point-source water pollution governance in the European agri-food sector. Specifically, we tackle the case study of the wine industry in Aragon (Spain) through the lenses of the networks of action situations approach. We unveil key strategic decisions of wine producers in relation to compliance with water discharge regulations and explore the feasibility and effectiveness of potential solutions. According …
Intersectional coalitions towards a just agroecology: Weaving mutual aid and agroecology in Barcelona and Seville
Although in theory social justice is considered as a core dimension of agroecological transitions, alternative food initiatives related to agroecology have been criticised for their exclusionary practices based on important social and economic biases. In this article, we adopt the lens of political intersectionality to study two cases of Agroecology-oriented Food Redistribution Coalitions in Spain that emerged to address the rising levels of food…
Impacts of hydropower development on locals’ livelihoods in the Global South
The construction of hydroelectric dams in the Global South and emerging economies is controversial; on one hand, advocates highlight the positive impacts at national and global scales, such as national development and independence from fossil fuels. On the other hand, opponents of dams stress the negative social-ecological impacts on the livelihoods of communities near construction sites, and the lack of local communities participation in the dec…
Ecologies of contention: How More-Than-Human Natures Shape Contentious Actions and Politics
Which role plays the more-than-human world in shaping the possibilities for contentious actions and politics? We discuss this question by revisiting reflections from social movement theory, agrarian studies, and commons management, and by reviewing empirical cases of protest significantly shaped by ecological endowments. Distinct political ecological opportunities may arise from vulnerabilities in ecological cycles, ecological potentials, intersp…
Social Movements and Commons: In Theory and in Practice
Urban commons and the local state: Co-production between enhancement and co-optation
Urban commons have emerged within the latest mobilization cycle, and have developed forms of everyday politics. Marxist and social movement scholars tend to see the urban commons/local state interactions that assemble commons’ material infrastructure as the prelude to commons being co-opted. Governance scholars uphold that these interactions can bring political benefits to the commons. By bridging these two perspectives, this article analyses urb…
Community-based water markets and collective payment for ecosystem services: Toward a theory of community-based environmental markets
In the last few decades, the scope of governanceauthr solutions for environmental problems has increased substantially. The old trichotomy of governance by government, governance by markets, and governance by communities has been replaced by a new interest in hybrid solutions in the recognition that no single-governance mode possesses the capabilities to address the multiple facets, interdependencies, and scales of current environmental problems.…
Indigenous and Local Knowledge’s Role in Social Movement’s Struggles Against Threats to Community-Based Natural Resource Management Systems: Insights from a Qualitative Meta-analysis
Despite the international consensus about the benefits of community-based natural resource management (CBNRM) for sustainable resource governance, Indigenous peoples and local communities continue to face threats to their self-governance stemming from shortsighted government regulations, marginalization, and other global political economy forces. To contribute to scholarship on the impact of social movements on CBNRM organization and robustness, …
Institutional fit and the sustainability of social–ecological systems
Synthesizing theories of natural resource management and governance
Diagnosing the role of the state for local collective action: Types of action situations and policy instruments
Climate concern and policy acceptance before and after Covid-19
It remains unclear how COVID-19 has affected public engagement with the climate crisis. According to the finite-pool-of-worry hypothesis, concern about climate change should have decreased after the pandemic, in turn reducing climate-policy acceptance. Here we test these and several other conjectures by using survey data from 1172 Spanish participants who responded before and after the first wave of COVID-19, allowing for both aggregate and withi…
Social movements as key actors in governing the commons: Evidence from community-based resource management cases across the world
Governing large-scale social-ecological systems: Lessons from five cases
This paper compares lessons drawn from five case studies of large scale governance of common-pool resources: management of forests in Indonesia, the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, the Rhine River in western Europe, the Ozone layer (i.e. the Montreal Protocol), and the Atlantic Bluefin Tuna (i.e. the International Convention on the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna). The goal is to assess the applicability of Ostrom’s design principles for sustainab…
Advancing understanding of natural resource governance: A post-Ostrom research agenda
Bringing the neighbors in: A choice experiment on the influence of coordination and social norms on farmers’ willingness to accept agro-environmental schemes across Europe
Simplistic understandings of farmer motivations could undermine the environmental potential of the common agricultural policy
The Role of Religion in Community-based Natural Resource Management
Celebrating the 30th Anniversary of Ostrom’s Governing the Commons: Traditions and Trends in the Study of the Commons, Revisited
In this editorial we assess 50 years’ worth of peer-reviewed publications to establish traditions and trends in the study of the commons. Based on this assessment, we provide a sketch of how IJC and its editors can continue to contribute to the development of the field
Archetype analysis in sustainability research: Meanings, Motivations, and Evidence-Based Policy Making
Oberlack, C., D. Sietz, E. Bürgi Bonanomi, A. De Bremond, J. Dell'Angelo, K. Eisenack, E. C. Ellis, G. Epstein, M. Giger, A. Heinimann, C. Kimmich, M. T. J. Kok, D. Manuel-Navarrete, P. Messerli, P. Meyfroidt, T. Václavík, and S. Villamayor-Tomas. 2019. Archetype analysis in sustainability research: meanings, motivations, and evidence-based policy making. Ecology and Society 24(2):26. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-10747-240226
From Sandoz to Salmon: Conceptualizing resource and institutional dynamics in the Rhine watershed through the SES framework
In this paper we use a case study of the Rhine River to examine the relevance of Common Pool Resource (CPR) Theory for two conditions in which it has not been extensively tested: large scale international water management and pollution problems. For that purpose, we link variation in pollution abatement to a set of explanatory variables proposed by CPR theory. Causal inference is established through process tracing and a series of within-case com…
Cooperation in common property regimes under extreme drought conditions: Empirical evidence from the use of pooled transferable quotas in Spanish irrigation systems
Impacts of hydropower development on locals’ livelihoods in the Global South
The construction of hydroelectric dams in the Global South and emerging economies is controversial; on one hand, advocates highlight the positive impacts at national and global scales, such as national development and independence from fossil fuels. On the other hand, opponents of dams stress the negative social-ecological impacts on the livelihoods of communities near construction sites, and the lack of local communities participation in the dec…
A continuum of governance regimes: A new perspective on co-management in irrigation systems
Advances in understanding the evolution of institutions in complex social-ecological systems
Institutional Analysis in Climate Change Adaptation Research: A Systematic Literature Review
The influence of community-based resource management institutions on adaptation capacity: A large-n study of farmer responses to climate and global market disturbances
Are large-scale hydroelectric dams inherently undemocratic
Construction of large-scale hydroelectric dams has increased in recent decades in the Global South and emerging economies. Population resettlement is one of the most severe socioeconomic impacts caused by dam construction. Processes aiming to mitigate its impacts and restore livelihoods are often described as inadequate. The resettlement process’ ineffectiveness could be explained by persistent deficiency in citizen participation, which is also a…
Design and quality criteria for archetype analysis
Eisenack, K., S. Villamayor-Tomas, G. Epstein, C. Kimmich, N. Magliocca, D. Manuel-Navarrete, C. Oberlack, M. Roggero, and D. Sietz. 2019. Design and quality criteria for archetype analysis. Ecology and Society 24(3):6. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-10855-240306
Understanding the black box of communication in a common-pool resource field experiment
Governing an International Transboundary River: Opportunism, Safeguards, and Drought Adaptation in the Rio Grande
We extend Bednar’s theory of a robust federation to examine the factors and institutions influencing the effectiveness of transboundary water governance in an international river basin. We examine the evolution and performance of drought adaptation in the Rio Grande/Bravo river basin of the United States and Mexico—two federal countries. Droughts and water shortages since 1990 have triggered opportunistic behavior by resource users and their gove…
Metropolitan geographies of urban commons: Mapping socio-economic alternatives in the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona
Urban commons and the local state: Co-production between enhancement and co-optation
Urban commons have emerged within the latest mobilization cycle, and have developed forms of everyday politics. Marxist and social movement scholars tend to see the urban commons/local state interactions that assemble commons’ material infrastructure as the prelude to commons being co-opted. Governance scholars uphold that these interactions can bring political benefits to the commons. By bridging these two perspectives, this article analyses urb…
A Review of Design Principles for Community-based Natural Resource Management
In 1990, Elinor Ostrom proposed eight design principles, positing them to characterize robust institutions for managing common-pool resources such as forests or fisheries. Since then, many studies have explicitly or implicitly evaluated these design principles. We analyzed 91 such studies to evaluate the principles empirically and to consider what theoretical issues have arisen since their introduction. We found that the principles are well suppo…
The Role of Religion in Community-based Natural Resource Management
Evaluating the utility of common-pool resource theory for understanding forest governance and outcomes in Indonesia between 1965 and 2012
While Common Pool Resource (CPR) theory has been widely applied to forestry, there are few examples of using the theory to study large-scale governance. In this paper we test the applicability of CPR theory to understanding forest governance and outcomes in Indonesia between 1965 and 2012. Indonesia contains one of the world’s largest tropical forests, and experienced rapid deforestation during this time frame, with forest cover dropping from clo…
Evaluating the utility of common-pool resource theory for understanding forest governance and outcomes in Indonesia between 1965 and 2012
While Common Pool Resource (CPR) theory has been widely applied to forestry, there are few examples of using the theory to study large-scale governance. In this paper we test the applicability of CPR theory to understanding forest governance and outcomes in Indonesia between 1965 and 2012. Indonesia contains one of the world’s largest tropical forests, and experienced rapid deforestation during this time frame, with forest cover dropping from clo…
From Sandoz to Salmon: Conceptualizing resource and institutional dynamics in the Rhine watershed through the SES framework
In this paper we use a case study of the Rhine River to examine the relevance of Common Pool Resource (CPR) Theory for two conditions in which it has not been extensively tested: large scale international water management and pollution problems. For that purpose, we link variation in pollution abatement to a set of explanatory variables proposed by CPR theory. Causal inference is established through process tracing and a series of within-case com…
Governing large-scale social-ecological systems: Lessons from five cases
This paper compares lessons drawn from five case studies of large scale governance of common-pool resources: management of forests in Indonesia, the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, the Rhine River in western Europe, the Ozone layer (i.e. the Montreal Protocol), and the Atlantic Bluefin Tuna (i.e. the International Convention on the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna). The goal is to assess the applicability of Ostrom’s design principles for sustainab…
Cooperation in common property regimes under extreme drought conditions: Empirical evidence from the use of pooled transferable quotas in Spanish irrigation systems
Exogenous degradation in the commons: Field experimental evidence
Institutional fit and the sustainability of social–ecological systems
Linking classroom learning and research to advance ideas about social-ecological resilience
Ban, N. C., E. Boyd, M. Cox, C. L. Meek, M. Schoon, and S. Villamayor-Tomas. 2015. Linking classroom learning and research to advance ideas about social-ecological resilience. Ecology and Society 20(3):35. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-07517-200335
Hydropower vs. fisheries conservation: A test of institutional design principles for common-pool resource management in the lower Mekong basin social-ecological system
Villamayor-Tomas, S., M. Avagyan, M. Firlus, G. Helbing, and M. Kabakova. 2016. Hydropower vs. fisheries conservation: a test of institutional design principles for common-pool resource management in the lower Mekong basin social-ecological system. Ecology and Society 21(1):3.http://dx.doi.org/10.5751/ES-08105-210103
Supernatural monitoring and sanctioning in community-based resource management
Cooperation in human societies is difficult to sustain if mechanisms are not in place to monitor behavior and sanction transgressions. Unfortunately, these mechanisms constitute second-order public goods that are vulnerable to freeriding. Religion has been proposed to solve this problem by shifting these burdens to the realm of the supernatural. However, very little research has been done to examine the specific content of beliefs in supernatural…
A continuum of governance regimes: A new perspective on co-management in irrigation systems
Understanding the black box of communication in a common-pool resource field experiment
Design principles in commons science: A response to “Ostrom, Hardin and the commons” (Araral)
Synthesizing theories of natural resource management and governance
Governing an International Transboundary River: Opportunism, Safeguards, and Drought Adaptation in the Rio Grande
We extend Bednar’s theory of a robust federation to examine the factors and institutions influencing the effectiveness of transboundary water governance in an international river basin. We examine the evolution and performance of drought adaptation in the Rio Grande/Bravo river basin of the United States and Mexico—two federal countries. Droughts and water shortages since 1990 have triggered opportunistic behavior by resource users and their gove…
The influence of community-based resource management institutions on adaptation capacity: A large-n study of farmer responses to climate and global market disturbances
Social movements as key actors in governing the commons: Evidence from community-based resource management cases across the world
Institutional Analysis in Climate Change Adaptation Research: A Systematic Literature Review
Will PES Schemes Survive in the Long-term Without Evidence of Their Effectiveness? Exploring Four Water-related Cases in Colombia
Diagnosing the role of the state for local collective action: Types of action situations and policy instruments
Bringing the neighbors in: A choice experiment on the influence of coordination and social norms on farmers’ willingness to accept agro-environmental schemes across Europe
Design and quality criteria for archetype analysis
Eisenack, K., S. Villamayor-Tomas, G. Epstein, C. Kimmich, N. Magliocca, D. Manuel-Navarrete, C. Oberlack, M. Roggero, and D. Sietz. 2019. Design and quality criteria for archetype analysis. Ecology and Society 24(3):6. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-10855-240306
Archetype analysis in sustainability research: Meanings, Motivations, and Evidence-Based Policy Making
Oberlack, C., D. Sietz, E. Bürgi Bonanomi, A. De Bremond, J. Dell'Angelo, K. Eisenack, E. C. Ellis, G. Epstein, M. Giger, A. Heinimann, C. Kimmich, M. T. J. Kok, D. Manuel-Navarrete, P. Messerli, P. Meyfroidt, T. Václavík, and S. Villamayor-Tomas. 2019. Archetype analysis in sustainability research: meanings, motivations, and evidence-based policy making. Ecology and Society 24(2):26. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-10747-240226
Economics (42 works) · Political science (36 works) · Ecology (32 works) · Environmental resource management (31 works) · Business (28 works) · Conservation, Biodiversity, and Resource Management (28 works) · Computer Science (25 works) · Geography (25 works) · Corporate governance (24 works) · Sociology (20 works)