Diksha Bhati

Conceptual Map – Frameworks for Thesis

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🌐 Conceptual Map – Frameworks for Thesis

Thesis Title:

“Mapping Ecological Landscape, Habitat Changes and Socio-Economic Transformations in Changthang, Ladakh, India”

🔄 Interlinked Frameworks – Roles & Interactions

1. Sustainable Livelihoods Framework (SLF)

  • Core Focus: Household assets, strategies, and outcomes

  • Strengths:

    • Micro-level, actor-focused

    • Classifies assets (natural, social, human, financial, physical)

  • Gaps:

    • Lacks power/political context

    • Poor temporal adaptation

  • Linked With:

    • Political Ecology (adds power/conflict)

    • Resilience Framework (adds change/adaptation over time)

2. Political Ecology

  • Core Focus: Power, access, governance, institutions

  • Strengths:

    • Exposes marginalization, state-citizen-environment dynamics

    • Explains causes behind ecological degradation/conflict

  • Gaps:

    • Weak on practical livelihoods and feedback dynamics

  • Linked With:

    • SLF (for local livelihood insight)

    • Vulnerability Framework (for impact distribution)

    • Landscape Approach (for spatial power struggles)

3. Socio-Ecological Systems (SES)

  • Core Focus: Feedback loops between ecological and social systems

  • Strengths:

    • System-wide, dynamic modeling

    • Handles thresholds, regime shifts

  • Gaps:

    • Complex, less actor-centered

  • Linked With:

    • Resilience (to understand shocks & recovery)

    • Commons Theory (to ground SES in local rules)

4. Resilience Framework

  • Core Focus: System capacity to absorb, adapt, transform

  • Strengths:

    • Captures temporal change, recovery from shocks

  • Gaps:

    • Not power-sensitive

  • Linked With:

    • SES (to model system behavior)

    • SLF (for adaptive strategies)

    • Commons Theory (for institutional adaptability)

5. Commons Theory (Ostrom)

  • Core Focus: Governance of shared natural resources

  • Strengths:

    • Clear institutional analysis

    • Community-based resource management

  • Gaps:

    • Limited in broader political and economic critique

  • Linked With:

    • Resilience (for rule flexibility)

    • SES (for ecological feedback)

    • Political Ecology (to uncover larger constraints)

6. Vulnerability Framework

  • Core Focus: Who is exposed, sensitive, and lacks adaptive capacity?

  • Strengths:

    • Centered on equity, social differentiation

  • Gaps:

    • Doesn’t address causes (only outcomes)

  • Linked With:

    • Political Ecology (for causal analysis)

    • SLF (for coping strategies)

7. Landscape Approach

  • Core Focus: Multi-scalar, spatially explicit trade-offs in land use

  • Strengths:

    • Useful for mapping stakeholder tensions

    • Spatially grounded

  • Gaps:

    • Doesn’t inherently account for feedbacks or inequality

  • Linked With:

    • SES (for dynamic mapping)

    • Political Ecology (for spatial justice and policy power)

🔗 Overall Synergy

  • Power + Strategy + System Feedback: Political Ecology × SLF × SES

  • Adaptation + Rules + Space: Resilience × Commons × Landscape

  • Justice + Practice: Vulnerability × SLF × Political Ecology

This map ensures each dimension of your thesis — ecological, spatial, temporal, social, and institutional — is covered by interwoven, complementary lenses.

Graph View