Diverse Perceptions of Stakeholder Engagement with

Authors: Elizabeth Allen Chad Kruger FokYan Leung Jennie C Stephens

Publish Date: 2013/06/22

Volume: 3, Issue: 3, Pages: 343-356

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Abstract

Integrating stakeholder perspectives is increasingly important in environmental science as a growing number of research projects are justified with a “solutions” orientation prioritizing societal relevance In earth systems modeling there is potential for model developers to engage with stakeholders who may use modeling results to inform decisions about resource management and policy Challenges associated with stakeholder engagement relate to how researchers perceive the role of stakeholders and how they view the utility of integrating knowledge and perspectives from outside academia in model development This study analyzes researchers’ perceptions of stakeholder engagement within BioEarth a large collaborative regional earth systems modeling project designed to integrate input from agriculture and forestry sector decisionmakers The project addresses the impact of climate change on water nitrogen and carbon cycling in the US Pacific Northwest Surveys and semistructured interviews were conducted to assess perceptions of stakeholder engagement among the 18principal investigators PIs Results reveal that PIs have varying perceptions of the role of stakeholders in earth systems modeling and diverse assessments of the optimal type and timing of stakeholder engagement As funding agencies and research institutions promote increased collaboration with stakeholders from outside academia these findings demonstrate fundamental differences of opinion among environmental scientists regarding the value of stakeholder engagement This research has implications for transdisciplinary research projects that seek to address sustainability challenges by involving stakeholders in technical academic modeling Facilitating learning opportunities for researchers who are new to stakeholder engagement is essential as is close collaboration among researchers with different levels of prior stakeholder engagement experiencesA growing sense of urgency in addressing sustainability challenges is leading to increased motivation for environmental scientists to justify the societal influence of their research Backstrand 2003 van Kerkhoff and Lebel 2006 Scientists are increasingly asked to consider not only the scientific credibility and adequacy of their work but also its salience to the needs of the public and its legitimacy among stakeholders beyond their scientific peers Cash et al 2003 Stakeholder engagement is often conceptualized as communication of research results after the project is complete Green et al 2009 although the value of engaging with stakeholders during the knowledge production process is increasingly recognized Callon 1999 Phillipson et al 2012Coinciding with efforts to strengthen linkages between knowledge and action in environmental research Kates et al 2001 Stephens and Graham 2008 is the promotion of transdisciplinarity an approach characterized by partnerships that cross boundaries among fields of research and modes of inquiry and between academic and nonacademic actors Kates 2002 Wainwright 2010 Most definitions of transdisciplinarity articulate an explicit incorporation of knowledge and goals of stakeholders that includes processes of mutual learning between science and society Scholz et al 2000 As increasing numbers of large transdisciplinary research projects involving engagement with stakeholders Stephens and Graham 2010 are encouraged and supported multiple anticipated and unanticipated challenges and opportunities for learning are emerging Romsdahl and Pyke 2009With regard to climate change research a “usability gap” has been identified fostering new types of interactions between researchers and potential “users” of knowledge has been suggested as a way to narrow the gap between what scientists understand as useful and what decisionmakers consider usable Lemos et al 2012 As research institutions and scientists respond to the call to generate usable research many questions and uncertainties related to effective strategies for stakeholder engagement are emerging These questions include How should communication be structured And what approaches maximize mutual understanding and appreciation for different kinds of knowledge Cash et al 2003A diversity of approaches to involving nonacademic stakeholders in academic research has emerged These approaches involve different types of researcher–stakeholder interactions and different potential for coproduction of knowledge Stephens et al 2008 Voinov and Bousquet 2010 Palmer 2012 Participatory research has been defined as any research that integrates stakeholder knowledge into the research process Blackstock et al 2007 Participatory Action Research is one evolving approach with a long history that entails researchers’ and stakeholders’ active engagement as members of a knowledge production collective focused on effecting social change Greenwood et al 1993 Kindon et al 2008 Smith et al 2010 Related approaches include knowledge cooperatives and competency groups involving researchers and local communities Phillipson et al 2012 Another approach increasingly applied in environmental problem solving is groupbased system dynamics modeling variations of which include collaborative participatory and mediated modeling van den Belt 2004 Antunes et al 2006 Gaddis et al 2007 Prell 2007 Becu et al 2008 The process helps stakeholders understand connections and causal relationships between aspects of the human–ecological system being studied and has been applied in contexts of watershed planning and managing habitat for endangered species for example Beall and Ford 2010 Beall et al 2011Among these multiple different approaches to stakeholder engagement some research has reflected on the quality and type of interactions between researchers and stakeholders Becu et al 2008 Reed et al 2009 Romsdahl and Pyke 2009 McNie 2012 Clavisi et al 2013 Gourmelon et al 2013 Within this work on researcher–stakeholder interactions a limited amount of attention has been paid to researchers’ perceptions of the value of the stakeholder interactions Reed et al 2009 Romsdahl and Pyke 2009Models have been referred to as “boundary objects” as they enable joint collaborative knowledge production by experts and decisionmakers Cash et al 2003 and they have potential to provide “useful” tools that can play a translational role in communicating knowledge to stakeholders Model development involves determining types and structure of both input and output information and stakeholder engagement during rather than after the model design process has potential to enhance the salience and legitimacy of the model Phillipson et al 2012In the case of a processbased earth system model development begins with a mechanistic representation of parts of the system as they change over time and then integrates human dimensions of the system after other model components have been linked Ford 1999 Bernholdt et al 2005 The proposed stakeholder engagement approach for the processbased regional earth system modeling project in this study includes iterative meetings with diverse stakeholders who provide insights guidance and feedback to the modeling team

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