Archetype Analysis in Sustainability and Land Governance Research

Archetype analysis is a powerful approach to reveal recurrent patterns of factors and processes that shape the sustainability of social-ecological systems. Knowledge of archetypical patterns across cases has supported a better understanding of key sustainability challenges related to land use, climate change adaptation, vulnerability, large-scale land acquisition, ecological footprints, and regional development, among others. The approach featured prominently in UNEP’s (2007) Global Environmental Outlook 4, and it has been applied to a growing range of topics in the past years. Archetypical patterns can be analyzed using diverse qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods (e.g. qualitative comparative analysis, cluster analysis, meta-analysis of case studies, scenario development). The choice of methods depends on the purpose and context of the research. However, best practices of archetype analysis and promising combinations of multiple methods are currently a prime frontier of innovation.