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Matarrita-Cascante, David

Directory Profile for 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, Ph.D., is a social–ecological governance scholar whose work examines how environmental outcomes emerge in fragmented landscapes, where decision-making is distributed across heterogeneous landowners, institutions, and ecological processes. His research focuses on how sociodemographic change, land-use transitions, and shifting resource-use dynamics reshape land management, environmental stewardship, and risk mitigation across rural and working landscapes.

A central contribution of his work is demonstrating that environmental outcomes such as stewardship, resilience, and risk mitigation are not determined by individual values alone, but by the degree of alignment among processes operating at multiple scales. In fragmented landscapes, outcomes emerge from the interaction and often misalignment among individual and relational dynamics, institutional arrangements, and ecological processes. By integrating interactional community perspectives with institutional and social–ecological systems frameworks, Matarrita-Cascante develops theoretical and empirical insights into how coordination is achieved, negotiated, or constrained under conditions of fragmentation and change.

Through an interdisciplinary approach that integrates community sociology, natural resource sociology, and social–ecological systems perspectives, Matarrita-Cascante examines challenges at the interface of people and their environments, including rangeland management, wildlife conservation, wildfire risk, and land-use change. His work employs quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-methods approaches across diverse contexts in the United States, Latin America, and Asia. 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., Purdum, C., Isaba, T., Jordan, S. & Meyer, M. (2026). Emerging Challenges for Wildfire Management in Rural Texas. Research brief. Texas A&M University, Department of Rangeland, Wildlife, and Fisheries Management; Hazard Reduction & Recovery Center; University of Houston, Hurricane Resilience Research Institute (HuRRI). https://hdl.handle.net/1969.1/1597509

Matarrita-Cascante, D., Werdel, T.J., & Veintimilla, C. (2026). Socio-Ecological Transformation and the Future of Wildlife Management Under Amenity Migration: A Call for Action. Sustainability, 18(7): 3238 https://doi.org/10.3390/su18073238 

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

Publications