Design and quality criteria for archetype analysis
Eisenack, Klaus (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin)
Villamayor Tomás, Sergio (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals)
Epstein, Graham (University of Waterloo. School of Environment, Resources and Sustainability (Canada))
Kimmich, Christian (Masaryk University. Department of Environmental Studies (Czechia))
Magliocca, Nicholas (University of Alabama. Department of Geography (USA))
Manuel Navarrete, David (Arizona State University. School of Sustainability (USA))
Oberlack, Christoph (University of Bern. Centre for Development and Environment (Switzerland ))
Roggero, Matteo (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin)
Sietz, Diana (Wageningen University (The Netherlands))

Date:	2019
Abstract:	A key challenge in addressing the global degradation of natural resources and the environment is to effectively transfer successful strategies across heterogeneous contexts. Archetype analysis is a particularly salient approach in this regard that helps researchers to understand and compare patterns of (un)sustainability in heterogeneous cases. Archetype analysis avoids traps of overgeneralization and ideography by identifying reappearing but nonuniversal patterns that hold for well-defined subsets of cases. It can be applied by researchers working in inter-or transdisciplinary settings to study sustainability issues from a broad range of theoretical and methodological standpoints. However, there is still an urgent need for quality standards to guide the design of theoretically rigorous and practically useful archetype analyses. To this end, we propose four quality criteria and corresponding research strategies to address them: (1) specify the domain of validity for each archetype, (2) ensure that archetypes can be combined to characterize single cases, (3) explicitly navigate levels of abstraction, and (4) obtain a fit between attribute configurations, theories, and empirical domains of validity. These criteria are based on a stocktaking of current methodological challenges in archetypes research, including: to demonstrate the validity of the analysis, delineate boundaries of archetypes, and select appropriate attributes to define them. We thus contribute to a better common understanding of the approach and to the improvement of the research design of future archetype analyses.
Note:	Unidad de excelencia María de Maeztu MdM-2015-0552
Rights:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, la comunicació pública de l'obra i la creació d'obres derivades, sempre que no sigui amb finalitats comercials, i sempre que es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original.
Language:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; recerca ; Versió publicada
Subject:	Abstraction ; Archetype analysis ; Generalization ; Ideographic trap ; Interdisciplinary collaboration ; Panacea ; Pattern ; Research design ; Social-ecological systems ; Qualitative ; Quantitative ; Validity
Published in:	Ecology and society, Vol. 24, Issue 3 (September 2019) , art. 6, ISSN 1708-3087

DOI: 10.5751/ES-10855-240306

12 p, 244.5 KB

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Research literature > UAB research groups literature > Research Centres and Groups (research output) > Experimental sciences > Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals (ICTA)
Articles > Research articles
Articles > Published articles