Social-Ecological System or SES Framework

The Social-Ecological Systems Framework (SESF) is a diagnostic vocabulary developed by Elinor Ostrom since 2009 to analyze integrated natural resource management. It breaks down a system into four core components—Resource Systems, Resource Units, Governance Systems, and Actors—that converge in an action arena where interactions produce outcomes. These four components are framed by the socio-economic-political setting and the associated ecosystem as exogenous context. Below them are 56 second-level variables that serve as a field checklist. The SESF is a framework, not a theory: it helps researchers ask systematic questions and compare cases across settings, but it does not predict outcomes or explain the forces that shape the system.