The most significant contributor to excess environmental nitrogen (N) in the US is agricultural fertilizer application. Applied N not captured by crops enters ecosystems and degrades water quality, contributes to climate change and is a threat to human health. Using a mixed methods approach, this study identifies social processes that drive Michigan corn farmers’ application of nitrogen in excess of crop demand. We use Hatt’s (2013) recently developed social attractors framework to conceptualize excess N application as a resilient practice actively reinforced by ongoing structural and organizational influences. The social attractors framework significantly improves resilience theory’s conceptualization of social systems and may facilitate social scientists’ capacity to engage in coupled systems research. Despite its analytical potential, the social attractors framework has yet to be applied empirically. This work contributes to the agricultural pollution mitigation literature, as well as explores the usefulness of social attractors for social-ecological systems (SES) research. Our findings indicate that the greater number of acres planted, more reliance on personal experience in nitrogen application decisions, and being unaware that nitrous oxide is a greenhouse gas all increase the likelihood of applying nitrogen in excess of crop demand. The social attractor framework proved useful in identifying these influential processes, theorizing their relationship to broad social values, organizations and social structures and conceptually framing N rate as an actively resilient practice in an nonlinear SES feedback system.
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