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Matarrita-Cascante, David

David Matarrita-Cascante

Associate Professor
Office:  
HFSB 322
Email:  
Phone:  
(979) 314-8478
Resume/CV

Education

Undergraduate Education
B.S. Agricultural Economics, University of Costa Rica.
Graduate Education
MSc. Rural Sociology, Penn State University
Ph.D. Rural Sociology, Penn State University

Areas of Expertise

Professional Summary

David Matarrita-Cascante’s, Ph.D., scholarship examines rural change and adaptation at the intersection of community, governance and social–ecological systems. His research investigates how sociodemographic, economic, environmental and resource-use change reshape community capacity, land management, and environmental stewardship across rural and working landscapes.

A central contribution of his work is demonstrating that adaptation, resilience and sustainability are shaped not by values alone, but by interacting constraints rooted in social relations, institutional design and governance structures. By integrating interactional community perspectives with institutional and social–ecological systems literatures, Matarrita-Cascante explains how communities mobilize, coordinate and govern under conditions of social, economic and environmental change.

Through an interdisciplinary approach that integrates community sociology, natural resource sociology and social–ecological systems thinking, Matarrita-Cascante examines key challenges at the interface of people and their environments. He employs quantitative, qualitative and mixed-methods approaches across diverse contexts in the United States, Latin America and Japan. Throughout his career, he has secured, both independently and in collaboration with other investigators, over $8 million in funding for research and pedagogical initiatives.

Selected Publications

Matarrita-Cascante, D., McCord, S., Landaverde, R., Veintimilla, C., Treadwell, M., Werdel, T. J., Likins, J., Muhl, R., & Ulrich-Schad, J. (2026). Beyond the productivist ideal: Understanding the drivers of land stewardship among amenity migrants transforming agrifood systems in rangelands. Agriculture and Human Values, 43(20). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-025-10824-y

Werdel, T., Matarrita-Cascante, D., & Lucero, J. (2024). State of traditional ecological knowledge in the wildlife management profession. Journal of Wildlife Management, 88(6), e22579.
https://doi.org/10.1002/jwmg.22579

Matarrita-Cascante, D., Lucero, J., Veintimilla, C., Treadwell, M., Fox, W., & Tolleson, D. (2023). Leveraging social science research to advance contemporary rangeland management: Understanding the “new faces” of range managers. Rangelands, 45(1), 1–11.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rala.2022.11.004

Matarrita-Cascante, D., & Brennan, M. A. (2023). One more time: Conceptualizing community development in the 21st century. Community Development, 54(6), 899–912.
https://doi.org/10.1080/15575330.2022.2145325

Matarrita-Cascante, D., Trejos, B., Qin, H., Joo, D., & Debner, S. (2017). Conceptualizing community resilience: Revisiting conceptual distinctions. Community Development, 48(1), 105–123.
https://doi.org/10.1080/15575330.2016.1248458

Matarrita-Cascante, D., Brennan, M. A., & Luloff, A. E. (2010). Community agency and sustainable tourism development: The case of La Fortuna, Costa Rica. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 18(6), 735–756.
https://doi.org/10.1080/09669581003653526

All Publications