Developing adaptive capacity through reflexivity: lessons from collaborative research with a UK water utility

Westling, Emma L.; Sharp, Liz; Rychlewski, M.; Carrozza, Chiara

doi:10.1080/19460171.2014.957334

Cited by 30 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 40 publications

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“…In light of these criticisms, the key challenge for responsible innovation can be reformulated as identifying ways to combine and balance processes of opening up and closing down (Voβ, Bauknecht, and Kemp 2006). The aim of this article is to investigate empirically in what situations and how actors identify such combinations and whether opening up and closing down are indeed balanced since few people have taken up this challenge thus far (Regeer 2009;Westling et al 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Inclusion in responsible innovation: revisiting the desirability of opening up

Mierlo

Beers

Hoes

2020

Journal of Responsible Innovation

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We investigate opening up, a crucial aim of responsible innovation, in the situation of companies initiating sector-wide change in order to take societal responsibility. Two case studies in agriculture were conducted, using a framing perspective that enlightens how issues are (re-)defined and acquire meaning in conversations. For both industry-led innovation initiatives, this showed when and how the initiatives' issue frames opened up and closed down. The results suggest that the inclusion of actors is not the panacea for opening up the innovation processes, given that responsiveness seemed more relevant. Furthermore, we confirm that closing down may occur simultaneously with opening up and as such is an inherent part of responsible innovation processes. Hence, in addition to the advocated opening up, the question of how to balance it with closing down in order to arrive at collaborative action deserves full attention.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Inclusion in responsible innovation: revisiting the desirability of opening up

Mierlo

Beers

Hoes

2020

Journal of Responsible Innovation

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“…Applications of the concept can be found across a broad range of environmental and sustainability issue areas, with four areas standing out: First, discussions about knowledge governance (Gerritsen, Stuiver, & Termeer, 2013), e.g. global environmental expertise in bodies like the IPCC and the IPBES (Beck et al, 2014); second, collaborative water and flood risk governance (Mees, Alexander, Gralepois, Matczak, & Mees, 2018;Westling, Sharp, Rychlewski, & Carrozza, 2014); third, transboundary marine spatial planning (Boström, Grönholm, & Hassler, 2016;van Tatenhove, 2017); and fourth, food security (Sonnino, Lozano Torres, & Schneider, 2014), food chain governance (Kirwan, Maye, & Brunori, 2017) and the transition of agriculture and food systems (Feindt, 2012;Feindt et al, 2008;Marsden, 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reflexive governance: exploring the concept and assessing its critical potential for sustainable development. Introduction to the special issue

Feindt

Weiland

2018

Journal of Environmental Policy & Planning

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Elaborated in publications on transition management, sustainability governance and deliberative environmental governance, 'reflexive governance' addresses concerns about social-ecological vulnerabilities, flawed conceptualisations of human-nature relations fragmented governance regimes and conditions for a sustainability transition. Key barriers to reflexive government include unavoidable politics; the influence of broader discursive systems that shape actors' strategic interests; and structural and deliberate limitations to the range of admitted epistemological understandings, normative perspectives and material practices. Against this background, the contributions to the special issue provide novel conceptual linkages between reflexive governance and boundary objects, intercultural dialogue, conflict management heuristics, discourse linguistics, theories of the policy cycle and reflexive law, network and learning theories, and Lasswell's 'developmental constructs'. Based on the contributions, we identify five inherent conceptual tensions of reflexive governance: between the openness of horizontal learning processes and the desired direction towards sustainable development; between reflexive governance as a normative or procedural concept; between expected learning orientations and other, strategic orientations; between governance as a precondition for reflexivity and reflexive learning as a precondition for reorganized governance structures; and between reflexivity as an open-ended, evolutionary process and the need to strategically defend the space for reflexivity against powerful groups with an interest in the status quo.

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“…First, our experiences endorse the value and importance of developing good field relationships (see Pettigrew 1990;Schwartz-Shea and Yanow 2012;Westling et al 2014). There are at least two reasons to underline the importance hereof in process research.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 57%

“…By not taking own interpretations for granted, checking one's own sense making, and confronting it with other ways of seeing, a researcher temporary suspends judgment, keeps the door open to consider alternative possibilities and, as such, avoids a 'rush to closure' (Schwartz-Shea and Yanow 2012; Yanow 2009). Hence, reflexivity highlights the importance of 'opening up debate' about assumptions and values and how these impact on the interpretation of data (Westling et al 2014). In our experience, a process study easily triggers this reflexive attitude.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As a consequence, we sometimes did feel the invitation and urge to deliberately change or intervene anywaysalthough it was not our intention to do so, as is the case in action research. Indeed, a deliberate intervention might have helped the collaborative to develop more informed decisions (Westling et al 2014). Still, we refrained from deliberately intervening.…”

Section: Shifting Positionalities Through Time and Across Contextsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Plunging into the process: methodological reflections on a process-oriented study of stakeholders’ relating dynamics

Vandenbussche

Edelenbos

Eshuis

2018

Critical Policy Studies

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Process-oriented approaches increasingly gain attention within policy and administrative studies. A process orientation emphasizes the ongoing, dynamic character of policy phenomena, i.e. their becoming. This article reflects upon the methodological particularities and challenges that come with doing process-oriented research. To do so, it draws on experiences with a concrete process study on stakeholders' relating dynamics within a collaborative policymaking process. This article identifies three methodological particularities: (1) the ongoing amplification of realities, (2) the shifting of positionalities of both researchers and participants, through time and across contexts, and (3) the emergence of historical-aware reflexivity. While each of these are common issues in qualitative-interpretive research, we argue how the longitudinal and poly-contextual orientation of a process study amplifies their impact on the research process and poses specific challenges. We conclude that to effectively deal with these particularities and challenges a process researcher benefits from developing and establishing good field relations, as well as from the courage to come to 'temporary' closure(s), against the background of the continuously becoming of the phenomenon under study.

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Developing adaptive capacity through reflexivity: lessons from collaborative research with a UK water utility

Cited by 30 publications

References 40 publications

Inclusion in responsible innovation: revisiting the desirability of opening up

Inclusion in responsible innovation: revisiting the desirability of opening up

Reflexive governance: exploring the concept and assessing its critical potential for sustainable development. Introduction to the special issue

Plunging into the process: methodological reflections on a process-oriented study of stakeholders’ relating dynamics

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