Toddi A Steelman
Biographic Data
| ID | 1406492 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Toddi A Steelman |
| GIVEN NAMES | Toddi A |
| FAMILY NAME | Steelman |
| SIGNATURE | STEELMAN T A |
| AFFILIATIONS | North Carolina State University |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-7492-8635 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 31 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 154 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 31 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1997 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 7 |
The weakness of weak ties
The theoretical literature on social capital and disasters, as well as conventional wisdom, suggests the importance of pre-disaster relationship building among leaders of responding organizations and agencies for disaster readiness and response. Often implied, but rarely tested empirically, research presumes a positive and linear relationship associated with investments in social capital for effective disaster response. Any amount of relationship…
A global outlook on increasing wildfire risk
to understand how wildfire risk policies are designed to mitigate1 the impacts of wildfires. Wildfires are a growing threat in many parts of the world, posing significant risks to human life, and the environment. In recent years, wildfires have increased, driven largely by climate change, human activity, and changes in land-use patterns. Wildfire risk adaptation and mitigation measures vary widely between countries and regions around the world. T…
Evaluating transdisciplinary research practices
Transdisciplinary researchers collaborate with diverse partners outside of academia to tackle sustainability problems. The patterns and practices of social interaction and the contextual nature of transdisciplinary research result in different performance expectations than traditional, curiosity-driven research. Documenting patterns of interaction can inform project success and affirm progress toward interim outcomes on the way to achieve sustain…
Evaluating the efficacy of GIS maps as boundary objects
The meaningful inclusion of diverse forms of knowledge, such as Indigenous knowledge (IK), remain unrealized in many natural resource management decision-making processes. Innovative boundary objects could be used to facilitate the effective inclusion of IK in natural resource management decision-making processes. In this study, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) maps were used as boundary objects due to their ability to visually display IK acr…
Pathways of Representation in Network Governance
Governance systems reconcile diverse interests to enable collective decision-making and action. Questions related to representation in the governance of networks are addressed in the literature; underexplored is the empirical variation in governance arrangements and pathways of representation. Complex, multi-jurisdictional disasters provide a robust theoretical and empirical context in which to investigate network governance pathways due to the t…
Studying Networks in Complex Problem Domains
The application of network perspectives and methods to study complex problem and policy domains has proliferated in the public management literature. Network metrics are highly sensitive to boundary decisions as findings are a direct reflection of who and what was considered to be part of the network. The more complex the problem domain, the messier the network and the more challenging it is for researchers to determine network boundaries. Lauman…
Identifying transformational space for transdisciplinarity
A challenge for transdisciplinary sustainability science is learning how to bridge diverse worldviews among collaborators in respectful ways. A temptation in transdisciplinary work is to focus on improving scientific practices rather than engage research partners in spaces that mutually respect how we learn from each other and set the stage for change. We used the concept of Nicolescu's "Hidden Third" to identify and operationalize this transform…
Damming Knowledge Flows
Rivers and dams are increasingly contested venues where knowledge pluralism is critical for effective governance. To navigate change, decision-makers can adopt culturally-sensitive interventions to address the needs of diverse stakeholders and rights holders. Calls for Indigenous flows have become important as dam operators seek to renew their legal and social licenses to operate. Knowledge pluralism is needed to enhance decision-making about flo…
The Structure of Effective Governance of Disaster Response Networks
There is significant debate about the appropriate governance structure in a disaster response. Complex disasters exhibit both networked and hierarchical characteristics. One challenge in the field of disaster management is how to structure a response that reconciles the need for centralized coordination among varied responders while retaining flexibility to mutually adjust operations to quickly changing conditions. A key question with both practi…
U.S. wildfire governance as social-ecological problem
There are fundamental spatial and temporal disconnects between the specific policies that have been crafted to address our wildfire challenges. The biophysical changes in fuels, wildfire behavior, and climate have created a new set of conditions for which our wildfire governance system is poorly suited to address. To address these challenges, a reorientation of goals is needed to focus on creating an anticipatory wildfire governance system focuse…
Patterns of preference and practice
The roles of bridging actors in emergency response networks can be important to disaster response outcomes. This paper is based on an evaluation of wildfire preparedness and response networks in 21 large‐scale wildfire events in the wildland—urban interface near national forests in the American Northwest. The study investigated how key individuals in responder networks anticipated seeking out specific people in perceived bridging roles prior to t…
Practicing the science of sustainability
Conflict and Collaboration in Wildfire Management
Responding to large wildfires requires actors from multiple jurisdictions and multiple levels of government to work collaboratively. The missions and objectives of federal agencies often differ from those of state land management agencies as well as local wildfire response agencies regarding land use and wildfire management. As wildfire size and intensity increase over time and associated annual suppression costs range between $2 billion and $3 b…
Understanding Information Exchange During Disaster Response
We leverage economic theory, network theory, and social network analytical techniques to bring greater conceptual and methodological rigor to understand how information is exchanged during disasters. We ask, “How can information relationships be evaluated more systematically during a disaster response?” “Infocentric analysis”—a term and approach we develop here—can (a) define an information market and information needs, (b) identify suppliers of …
Communication under Fire
Communication networks among responders are critical to effective coordination and information transfer across agencies active in a disaster response. Using the theory of embeddedness, we investigate how aspects of relational and institutional embeddedness influence the emergence and efficacy of interactions among responding agencies using network data from three significant wildfire events in the wildland/urban interface. For this study, relatio…
Interviewing for an interdisciplinary job
New editor statement
The Development of a Discipline
This article presents an assessment of the first 20 years of Society & Natural Resources (SNR), based on a content analysis of places, topics, and methods published; an electronic survey of the membership of the International Association for Society and Natural Resources (IASNR); and an assessment of various measures of journal impact. Findings are used to determine how well the journal is meeting its original goals including the degree to which …
Voluntary Environmental Programs in the United States
The appeal of voluntary environmental programs (VEPs) lies in their promise to mutually serve government, industry, and environmental interests because they can reduce administrative burdens, provide flexibility to decide how to implement environmental improvements, and work toward superior environmental performance. In practice, however, one interest may be served to the exclusion of others, and this is a charge that often has been leveled at VE…
Adaptive Governance
Effective Community Responses to Wildfire Threats
National policies to address the wildfire threat in the United States place emphasis on community responsiveness, but great uncertainty surrounds the scope and success of community response to wildfire threats and why some communities foster effective responses while others fail to do so. Two case studies of community responses to wildfire threats in New Mexico are explored. A decision process framework illustrates how an effective response can b…
Using multiple methods to understand agency values and objectives
Understanding what can be accomplished through interorganizational innovations The importance of typologies, context and management strategies
There has been increasing interest in collaborations, partnerships and networks as they have emerged as interorganizational innovations to address the integrated nature of complex policy problems. Understanding the variation in how these innovations work, as well as what they do, is an important step in allowing managers to understand better the implications and applications of these arrangements. This article provides a descriptive and functiona…
Making public policy programs effective and relevant
Making public policy programs effective and relevant
Public involvement methods in natural resource policy making
The Structure of Effective Governance of Disaster Response Networks
There is significant debate about the appropriate governance structure in a disaster response. Complex disasters exhibit both networked and hierarchical characteristics. One challenge in the field of disaster management is how to structure a response that reconciles the need for centralized coordination among varied responders while retaining flexibility to mutually adjust operations to quickly changing conditions. A key question with both practi…
Elite and Participatory Policymaking
In recent years many theorists and practitioners have called for more public involvement in policymaking and for greater citizen input in decisions. The move toward participatory and community‐based approaches in policymaking can be seen as a backlash against more elitist technocratic, top‐down models of decisionmaking. Using a case study of a successful National Forest planning exercise, this research investigated whether a participatory or elit…
Communication under Fire
Communication networks among responders are critical to effective coordination and information transfer across agencies active in a disaster response. Using the theory of embeddedness, we investigate how aspects of relational and institutional embeddedness influence the emergence and efficacy of interactions among responding agencies using network data from three significant wildfire events in the wildland/urban interface. For this study, relatio…
Pathways of Representation in Network Governance
Governance systems reconcile diverse interests to enable collective decision-making and action. Questions related to representation in the governance of networks are addressed in the literature; underexplored is the empirical variation in governance arrangements and pathways of representation. Complex, multi-jurisdictional disasters provide a robust theoretical and empirical context in which to investigate network governance pathways due to the t…
Patterns of preference and practice
The roles of bridging actors in emergency response networks can be important to disaster response outcomes. This paper is based on an evaluation of wildfire preparedness and response networks in 21 large‐scale wildfire events in the wildland—urban interface near national forests in the American Northwest. The study investigated how key individuals in responder networks anticipated seeking out specific people in perceived bridging roles prior to t…
Common property, collective interests, and community opposition to locally unwanted land uses
Investigations of “not in my backyard”; or NIMBY behavior often focus on the importance of the facility and the role that individual interests, such as property and health concerns, play in fostering opposition from local residents. These studies have not considered the role that common property resources and collective interests play when resistance to unwanted land uses arises. This investigation analyzes events surrounding the siting of a lime…
Effective Community Responses to Wildfire Threats
National policies to address the wildfire threat in the United States place emphasis on community responsiveness, but great uncertainty surrounds the scope and success of community response to wildfire threats and why some communities foster effective responses while others fail to do so. Two case studies of community responses to wildfire threats in New Mexico are explored. A decision process framework illustrates how an effective response can b…
Damming Knowledge Flows
Rivers and dams are increasingly contested venues where knowledge pluralism is critical for effective governance. To navigate change, decision-makers can adopt culturally-sensitive interventions to address the needs of diverse stakeholders and rights holders. Calls for Indigenous flows have become important as dam operators seek to renew their legal and social licenses to operate. Knowledge pluralism is needed to enhance decision-making about flo…
U.S. wildfire governance as social-ecological problem
There are fundamental spatial and temporal disconnects between the specific policies that have been crafted to address our wildfire challenges. The biophysical changes in fuels, wildfire behavior, and climate have created a new set of conditions for which our wildfire governance system is poorly suited to address. To address these challenges, a reorientation of goals is needed to focus on creating an anticipatory wildfire governance system focuse…
Understanding Information Exchange During Disaster Response
We leverage economic theory, network theory, and social network analytical techniques to bring greater conceptual and methodological rigor to understand how information is exchanged during disasters. We ask, “How can information relationships be evaluated more systematically during a disaster response?” “Infocentric analysis”—a term and approach we develop here—can (a) define an information market and information needs, (b) identify suppliers of …
Evaluating transdisciplinary research practices
Transdisciplinary researchers collaborate with diverse partners outside of academia to tackle sustainability problems. The patterns and practices of social interaction and the contextual nature of transdisciplinary research result in different performance expectations than traditional, curiosity-driven research. Documenting patterns of interaction can inform project success and affirm progress toward interim outcomes on the way to achieve sustain…
The Development of a Discipline
This article presents an assessment of the first 20 years of Society & Natural Resources (SNR), based on a content analysis of places, topics, and methods published; an electronic survey of the membership of the International Association for Society and Natural Resources (IASNR); and an assessment of various measures of journal impact. Findings are used to determine how well the journal is meeting its original goals including the degree to which …
Using multiple methods to understand agency values and objectives
Evaluating the efficacy of GIS maps as boundary objects
The meaningful inclusion of diverse forms of knowledge, such as Indigenous knowledge (IK), remain unrealized in many natural resource management decision-making processes. Innovative boundary objects could be used to facilitate the effective inclusion of IK in natural resource management decision-making processes. In this study, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) maps were used as boundary objects due to their ability to visually display IK acr…
Identifying transformational space for transdisciplinarity
A challenge for transdisciplinary sustainability science is learning how to bridge diverse worldviews among collaborators in respectful ways. A temptation in transdisciplinary work is to focus on improving scientific practices rather than engage research partners in spaces that mutually respect how we learn from each other and set the stage for change. We used the concept of Nicolescu's "Hidden Third" to identify and operationalize this transform…
Interviewing for an interdisciplinary job
Property rights and property wrongs
Practicing the science of sustainability
New editor statement
Innovation in Land Use Governance and Protection
Land use governance in the United States traditionally has taken a centralized or decentralized form. This research documents a perceived innovation in land use governance that combines centralized and decentralized approaches-Great Outdoors Colorado (GOCO). Using criteria from the extant literature on growth management and land protection, this research provides a framework for evaluating land protection efforts. The perceived innovation of GOCO…
Public involvement methods in natural resource policy making
Common property, collective interests, and community opposition to locally unwanted land uses
Investigations of “not in my backyard”; or NIMBY behavior often focus on the importance of the facility and the role that individual interests, such as property and health concerns, play in fostering opposition from local residents. These studies have not considered the role that common property resources and collective interests play when resistance to unwanted land uses arises. This investigation analyzes events surrounding the siting of a lime…
Understanding participant perspectives
Many policy practitioners and theorists have argued that value-free, objective solutions to policy problems do not exist. While participant values and subjective viewpoints influence policy problems, empirically determining participant perspectives and preferences has been a daunting task. This paper demonstrates how Q-methodology, a technique for systematically revealing subjective perspectives, can contribute to better problem identification an…
Innovation in Land Use Governance and Protection
Land use governance in the United States traditionally has taken a centralized or decentralized form. This research documents a perceived innovation in land use governance that combines centralized and decentralized approaches-Great Outdoors Colorado (GOCO). Using criteria from the extant literature on growth management and land protection, this research provides a framework for evaluating land protection efforts. The perceived innovation of GOCO…
Making public policy programs effective and relevant
Making public policy programs effective and relevant
Property rights and property wrongs
Elite and Participatory Policymaking
In recent years many theorists and practitioners have called for more public involvement in policymaking and for greater citizen input in decisions. The move toward participatory and community‐based approaches in policymaking can be seen as a backlash against more elitist technocratic, top‐down models of decisionmaking. Using a case study of a successful National Forest planning exercise, this research investigated whether a participatory or elit…
Understanding what can be accomplished through interorganizational innovations The importance of typologies, context and management strategies
There has been increasing interest in collaborations, partnerships and networks as they have emerged as interorganizational innovations to address the integrated nature of complex policy problems. Understanding the variation in how these innovations work, as well as what they do, is an important step in allowing managers to understand better the implications and applications of these arrangements. This article provides a descriptive and functiona…
Effective Community Responses to Wildfire Threats
National policies to address the wildfire threat in the United States place emphasis on community responsiveness, but great uncertainty surrounds the scope and success of community response to wildfire threats and why some communities foster effective responses while others fail to do so. Two case studies of community responses to wildfire threats in New Mexico are explored. A decision process framework illustrates how an effective response can b…
Using multiple methods to understand agency values and objectives
Adaptive Governance
Voluntary Environmental Programs in the United States
The appeal of voluntary environmental programs (VEPs) lies in their promise to mutually serve government, industry, and environmental interests because they can reduce administrative burdens, provide flexibility to decide how to implement environmental improvements, and work toward superior environmental performance. In practice, however, one interest may be served to the exclusion of others, and this is a charge that often has been leveled at VE…
The Development of a Discipline
This article presents an assessment of the first 20 years of Society & Natural Resources (SNR), based on a content analysis of places, topics, and methods published; an electronic survey of the membership of the International Association for Society and Natural Resources (IASNR); and an assessment of various measures of journal impact. Findings are used to determine how well the journal is meeting its original goals including the degree to which …
New editor statement
Interviewing for an interdisciplinary job
Understanding Information Exchange During Disaster Response
We leverage economic theory, network theory, and social network analytical techniques to bring greater conceptual and methodological rigor to understand how information is exchanged during disasters. We ask, “How can information relationships be evaluated more systematically during a disaster response?” “Infocentric analysis”—a term and approach we develop here—can (a) define an information market and information needs, (b) identify suppliers of …
Communication under Fire
Communication networks among responders are critical to effective coordination and information transfer across agencies active in a disaster response. Using the theory of embeddedness, we investigate how aspects of relational and institutional embeddedness influence the emergence and efficacy of interactions among responding agencies using network data from three significant wildfire events in the wildland/urban interface. For this study, relatio…
Practicing the science of sustainability
Conflict and Collaboration in Wildfire Management
Responding to large wildfires requires actors from multiple jurisdictions and multiple levels of government to work collaboratively. The missions and objectives of federal agencies often differ from those of state land management agencies as well as local wildfire response agencies regarding land use and wildfire management. As wildfire size and intensity increase over time and associated annual suppression costs range between $2 billion and $3 b…
U.S. wildfire governance as social-ecological problem
There are fundamental spatial and temporal disconnects between the specific policies that have been crafted to address our wildfire challenges. The biophysical changes in fuels, wildfire behavior, and climate have created a new set of conditions for which our wildfire governance system is poorly suited to address. To address these challenges, a reorientation of goals is needed to focus on creating an anticipatory wildfire governance system focuse…
Patterns of preference and practice
The roles of bridging actors in emergency response networks can be important to disaster response outcomes. This paper is based on an evaluation of wildfire preparedness and response networks in 21 large‐scale wildfire events in the wildland—urban interface near national forests in the American Northwest. The study investigated how key individuals in responder networks anticipated seeking out specific people in perceived bridging roles prior to t…
The Structure of Effective Governance of Disaster Response Networks
There is significant debate about the appropriate governance structure in a disaster response. Complex disasters exhibit both networked and hierarchical characteristics. One challenge in the field of disaster management is how to structure a response that reconciles the need for centralized coordination among varied responders while retaining flexibility to mutually adjust operations to quickly changing conditions. A key question with both practi…
Studying Networks in Complex Problem Domains
The application of network perspectives and methods to study complex problem and policy domains has proliferated in the public management literature. Network metrics are highly sensitive to boundary decisions as findings are a direct reflection of who and what was considered to be part of the network. The more complex the problem domain, the messier the network and the more challenging it is for researchers to determine network boundaries. Lauman…
Identifying transformational space for transdisciplinarity
A challenge for transdisciplinary sustainability science is learning how to bridge diverse worldviews among collaborators in respectful ways. A temptation in transdisciplinary work is to focus on improving scientific practices rather than engage research partners in spaces that mutually respect how we learn from each other and set the stage for change. We used the concept of Nicolescu's "Hidden Third" to identify and operationalize this transform…
Political science (28 works) · Computer Science (18 works) · Sociology (17 works) · Business (16 works) · Geography (15 works) · Economics (12 works) · Environmental resource management (10 works) · Disaster Management and Resilience (9 works) · Law (9 works) · Public relations (9 works)