Rethinking scaling-out processes in community-based natural resource governance

Civil society organisations' interventions in community-based natural resource governance (CBNRG) often select target communities to work with, in the expectation that such interventions will scale-out beyond the initial target communities. This may be as part of the organisation's plan for transformation in conservation practices, or as unplanned spillovers to neighbouring communities. Research into these scaling-out processes in CBNRG settings often encompasses assumptions about relations within and between communities. In this article I challenge these assumptions and argue for a rethinking of scaling-out processes rooted in insights from critical social sciences which consider complex, power-laden social relationships. In particular I introduce the concepts of institutions, knowledges and discourses as being central to understanding scaling-out processes. Rethinking scaling-out processes through critical social sciences enables me to present a research framework which I argue is better placed to answer questions such as why and how scaling-out is or is not occurring (or is occurring in particular ways), how what is scaled (knowledge, technology etc.) is modified in the process of being scaled, who is included or excluded from scaling-out processes, and why the wider implications of scaling-out are uneven, unpredictable, and can be contested or resisted. The research framework is intended to support CBNRG researchers with answering urgent questions around the extent to which interventions in CBNRG can help to achieve lasting transformations in natural resource governance. I conclude with three specific recommendations for researchers that centre the complex social interactions of social transformation at the heart of scaling-out processes. • Wider implications of interventions in community-based natural resource governance • Research framework for scaling-out community-based natural resource governance • Value of critical social sciences for analysing scaling-out processes • Social change as complex, power-laden relationships within and between communities • Need to humanise scaling-out processes