An Adaptive Governance Methodology for Urban Music Ecosystems: Applying the Social-Ecological Systems Framework to Small Venue Resilience

This paper presents a formal methodological framework for diagnosing and addressing challenges within urban music ecosystems, with a focused application to small venue resilience. Building upon the integrated ecological framework for popular music studies established in Waxing Ecological (McLeod, 2024), this work translates ecological theory into a structured analytical protocol. I adapt and operationalise Elinor Ostrom's Social-Ecological Systems (SES) framework—including its core subsystems, multi-tiered variables, and design principles for commons governance—to model the complex interdependencies characterising urban music ecologies. The methodology integrates insights from Complex Adaptive Systems (CAS) theory to account for non-linear dynamics, emergence, and feedback. It provides researchers and policymakers with a replicable, stepwise process for system mapping, variable identification, resilience assessment, and the design of adaptive, polycentric governance strategies. While demonstrated through the critical problem of small venue sustainability, the framework is designed as a flexible diagnostic toolkit for a wide range of problem sets within cultural ecosystems, moving decisively from ecological metaphor to rigorous socio-ecological analysis.A companion paper (McLeod, 2026) demonstrates the full empirical application of this six-phase protocol to the UK's grassroots music venue ecosystem using Music Venue Trust longitudinal data (2014–2025).