Conceptual Framework (gec-conceptual-framework)

GEC publishes work that is theoretically and empirically rigorous. The conceptual framework is what makes a human-dimensions paper more than a description: it names the concepts, specifies how they relate, and dictates what evidence would confirm or disconfirm the argument. This is the heart of a GEC paper — treat it as a load-bearing contribution, not boilerplate.

When to trigger

• Defining the concepts, mechanisms, and relationships the paper rests on
• A reviewer said the paper is "atheoretical," "descriptive," or "the framework does no work"
• Adapting an established framework (IPCC vulnerability, Ostrom SES/IAD, MLP transitions, livelihoods)
• Building an original framework or integrating two traditions

What a strong GEC framework does

1. Generates the question. The framework should make clear why the question follows — the gap from gec-literature-positioning is what it is built to close.
2. Defines concepts precisely. Vulnerability, adaptive capacity, resilience, governance, transition, equity — these are contested terms. State which definition you use and why.
3. Specifies relationships and mechanisms. Name the causal or constitutive links (driver → pressure → response; hazard × exposure × vulnerability; actors × institutions × outcomes). A diagram often helps.
4. Dictates the evidence. The framework must say what observations would support or undermine it — this is the bridge to gec-research-design.
5. Is interdisciplinary by construction. Connect a domain concept to a social-science concept so the framework speaks across GEC's literatures.

Common frameworks (adapt, don't decorate)

Anti-patterns

• Citing a framework in the intro then never using it to structure the analysis
• A "kitchen-sink" framework with every fashionable concept and no mechanism
• Undefined contested terms (resilience, vulnerability) used loosely
• A framework that cannot be confronted with evidence (unfalsifiable)

Referee-pushback patterns and the GEC-specific fix

These are the framework objections GEC referees write most often, paired with the move that converts them. The signature GEC failure is a framework borrowed from natural science with the human-dimensions content thinned to a label.

Worked micro-example (illustrative — coastal adaptation vignette)

A team frames a mixed-methods study of climate adaptation and social vulnerability in a coastal delta region. Numbers below are illustrative.

• Weak version (desk-reject risk): "We apply a resilience lens to flooding in the delta." Resilience is undefined; the framework predicts nothing; the social half is a sentence.
• GEC-strong version: the framework specifies hazard exposure (storm-surge depth) × differentiated entitlements (land tenure, credit access) → adaptive action → residual vulnerability. It commits to a livelihoods-plus-entitlements definition of vulnerability, and predicts that households in the bottom tenure tier adapt 40% less (illustrative) despite equal exposure.
• Payoff: when the survey shows adaptive-action rates of 0.62 vs 0.37 (illustrative) across tenure tiers at equal surge exposure, the framework — not the hazard alone — explains the gap, and a pure biophysical rival cannot.

Calibration anchors (hedged where uncertain)

• Interdisciplinary integration bar: a GEC framework that a social scientist and a domain scientist would both recognise as theirs clears the bar; one half present, the other labelled, does not.
• Falsifiability bar: if no realistic observation could undermine the framework, referees treat it as narrative, not theory.
• Global-significance framing: the framework should explain why the mechanism travels beyond the case, even when the evidence is local; confirm the journal's current scope statement on its author guidelines for the exact wording.

Output format

【Core concepts】defined (with the definition chosen)
【Relationships / mechanism】the links the framework asserts
【Interdisciplinary link】the domain ↔ social-science connection
【Evidence implied】what would confirm / disconfirm it
【Diagram?】yes/no (recommended for complex frameworks)
【Next】gec-research-design

Supplementary resources

• ../../resources/external_tools.md — conceptual frameworks and systems-mapping tools
• ../../resources/official-source-map.md — GEC emphasis on theoretical rigor