RESEARCH INTERESTS
My research addresses the central question of how groups of people work together to manage environmental risk in coupled human-natural systems. As an interdisciplinary environmental social scientist with a strong disciplinary grounding in environmental governance, I am interested in this field of research because collective action among diverse stakeholder groups is often necessary to address environmental risk. Likewise, risk governance actors must grapple with social and ecological dynamics that span multiple spatial/administrative scales. I organize my research program around three core themes: 1) how diverse stakeholder groups conceptualize risk, individually and collectively, 2) how policy actors navigate complex risk mitigation governance systems, and 3) how governance systems self-organize to manage environmental risk.
In this work, I draw upon tools and perspectives from policy, psychological, and environmental sciences, and I collaborative extensively with colleagues from diverse social and natural science backgrounds. My research also involves partnerships with natural resource management practitioners, extensionists, and members of other environmental stakeholder groups.
COURSES OFFERED
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ENR 3200: Environmental and Natural Resources Policy
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ENR 4450: Climate Change Policy
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ENR 7425: Collective Action in Environmental Governance
PROSPECTIVE GRADUATE STUDENTS
Students interested in working with me should consult https://sens-lab.github.io/opportunities.
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
Fried, H., M. Hamilton, R. Berardo. 2023. “Theorizing multilevel incentive structures guiding forum navigation.” Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory. muac042. https://doi.org/10.1093/jopart/muac042
Hamilton, M., M. Nielsen-Pincus, C. Evers. 2023. “Wildfire Risk Governance from the bottom up: linking local planning processes in fragmented landscapes.” Ecology and Society. 28(3). https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-13856-280303
Hamilton, M., J. Salerno, A.P. Fischer. 2022. “Cognition of feedback loops in a fire-prone social-ecological system.” Global Environmental Change. 74: 102519. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2022.102519
Palsa, E., M. Bauer, C. Evers, M. Hamilton, M. Nielsen-Pincus. 2022. “Engagement in local and collaborative wildfire risk mitigation planning across the western U.S. - Evaluating participation and diversity in Community Wildfire Protection Plans.” PLoS ONE. 17(2): e0263757. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0263757
Fried, H., M. Hamilton, R. Berardo. 2022. “Closing integrative gaps in complex environmental governance systems.” Ecology and Society. 27(1). https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-12996-270115
Hamilton, M., Fischer, A.P., Jasny, L. 2021. “Bridging collaboration gaps in fragmented environmental governance systems.” Environmental Science & Policy. 124:461-470. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsci.2021.07.014
Hamilton, M., Hileman, J., Bodin, Ö., 2020. Evaluating heterogeneous brokerage: New conceptual and methodological approaches and their application to multi-level environmental governance networks. Social Networks. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socnet.2019.08.002
Berardo, R., Fischer, M., Hamilton, M., 2020. Collaborative Governance and the Challenges of Network-Based Research. The American Review of Public Administration 0275074020927792. https://doi.org/10.1177/0275074020927792
Wilson, R.S., Herziger, A., Hamilton, M., Brooks, J.S., 2020. From incremental to transformative adaptation in individual responses to climate-exacerbated hazards. Nature Climate Change 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-020-0691-6
Hamilton, M., Fischer, A.P., Ager, A., 2019. A social-ecological network approach for understanding wildfire risk governance. Global Environmental Change 54, 113–123. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2018.11.007
Hamilton, M., Salerno, J., Fischer, A.P., 2019. Cognition of complexity and trade-offs in a wildfire-prone social-ecological system. Environ. Res. Lett. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ab59c1
Hamilton, M., Lubell, M., 2019. Climate change adaptation, social capital, and the performance of polycentric governance institutions. Climatic Change 152, 307–326. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-019-02380-2
Hamilton, M., Lubell, M., 2018. Collaborative Governance of Climate Change Adaptation Across Spatial and Institutional Scales. Policy Studies Journal 46, 222–247. https://doi.org/10.1111/psj.12224