Case Studies in the Environment is pleased to announce the winners of the 2023 Case Studies in the Environment Prize Competition.
Eligible submissions are judged for their ability to translate discrete case studies into broad, generalizable findings; for advancing a strong perspective and engaging narrative; for being accessible to their intended audiences; for addressing topics that are important or notable in their novelty, impact, or urgency; and which contribute to the teaching of environmental concepts to students and/or practitioners.
The winning case study from the 2023 competition, “Building Resilience in Jamaica’s Farming Communities: Insights From a Climate-Smart Intervention,” from The University of the West Indies’ Donovan Campbell and Shaneica Lester, demonstrates that while climate change poses immense threats to the environment and to human livelihoods, adaptation also provides opportunities to strengthen a community.
“This positivity and sense of agency is critical to the success of climate initiatives,” noted CSE Editor-in-Chief Dr. Jennifer Bernstein. “The editorial team felt that the manuscript exemplifies the journal at its best–identifying and evaluating an important environmental question using robust interdisciplinary methods.”
The honorable mention articles from the 2023 competition are “Teaching the Complex Dynamics of Clean Energy Subsidies With the Help of a Model-as-Game,” from Rochester Institute of Technology’s Eric Hittinger, Qing Miao, and Eric Williams; and “Barriers and Facilitators for Successful Community Forestry: Lessons Learned and Practical Applications From Case Studies in India and Guatemala,” from Vishal Jamkar (University of Minnesota), Megan Butler (Macalester College), and Dean Current (University of Minnesota).
“‘Teaching the Complex Dynamics of Clean Energy Subsidies’ recognizes the value of subsidies, while at the same time acknowledging contextual constraints. The game itself allows students to work through subsidy design via a number of cases, and provides high quality material for use immediately in the classroom. This is a wildly useful tool, and exemplifies what we want to see with respect to accessible pedagogy using environmental case studies as a focus.”
“Barriers and Facilitators for Successful Community Forestry” is the author team’s second case study contribution to the journal, extending the well-developed framework of their previous article, “Understanding Facilitators and Barriers to Success: Framework for Developing Community Forestry Case Studies” and applying it to two unique locations.
Both the winning case study and honorable mentions have been made freely available to the public at online.ucpress.edu/cse.
The Case Studies in the Environment team extends their gratitude to everyone who submitted articles for the 2023 competition. For previous Case Studies in the Environment Prize Competition winners, please see our prize competition landing page.
Case Studies in the Environment is a journal of peer-reviewed case study articles and case study pedagogy articles. The journal informs faculty, students, researchers, educators, professionals, and policymakers on case studies and best practices in the environmental sciences and studies.
online.ucpress.edu/cse