Opening the ‘black box’ of distrust in environmental and natural resource management

Call for Papers
Opening the ‘black box’ of distrust in environmental and natural resource management
Journal: Society & Natural Resources
Submission window: not specified
Deadline: 30 June 2026

This special issue focuses on distrust in environmental and natural resource management, a phenomenon the editors describe as under-researched but highly relevant to collaborative governance and common-pool resource settings. The call emphasizes that distrust can shape collaborative performance, collective action, and long-term sustainability, especially in contexts marked by historical exclusion, dispossession, and unequal resource control.

The issue invites papers on the antecedents and consequences of multidimensional distrust across natural resource settings such as rural planning, environmental governance, resource management, urban ecosystems, and inter-organizational collaboration for resource protection. It especially welcomes work that examines distrust in formal and informal collaborative networks, the changing relationship between trust and distrust over time, and the methodological challenges of studying distrust in NRM contexts.

Special Issue Editors

• Jasper R. de Vries, Wageningen University.

• Owen Temby, The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, USA.

• Evelyn Roozee, McGill University, Canada.

• Dongkyu Kim, The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, USA.

• Gordon M. Hickey, McGill University, Canada.

Submission details
The word limit is 8,000 words excluding references and graphics. Authors are asked to select “distrust special issue” during submission. The call notes a June 2026 deadline and publication is expected in December 2026.

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