The Politics of Participatory Sustainability Assessments: An Analysis of Power

Fritz, Livia; Meinherz, Franziska

doi:10.1017/9781108574334.006

Cited by 6 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 97 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Namely, people's interests come first, and the goal is specifically to include people's perspectives on a given issue, thereby empowering them to actively change a situation (Frank et al, 2022). This is also supported by Fritz and Meinherz (2020), who discuss the value of participatory approaches in sustainability assessments in facilitating a shift from "power over" (i.e., coercion and manipulation, − such as external experts prescribing solutions), to "power to" (i.e., resistance and empowerment-such as the political process helping marginalized societal groups gain the ability to act), and eventually create the opportunity for "power with" (i.e., cooperation and learning, such as co-creation of knowledge). Our field study is a good example of inherent power structures that can prevent participatory approaches from reaching their potential-if they are not adequately recognized and addressed through good facilitation, such as that provided by pHSA.…”

Section: Performance Of the Phsa In Our Case Studiesmentioning

confidence: 91%

Making the sustainability hotspot analysis more participatory—experiences from field research in Zambia

Droppelmann¹,

Müller²

2023

Front. Sustain. Food Syst.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Food value chains constitute a core element of food systems. Along any value chain, several bottlenecks, and obstacles negatively affect the sustainability of the entire chain. Therefore, the identification and assessment of such sustainability hotspots is a vital step in the process towards higher levels of sustainability. Over the past few decades food value chains have been supported as part of development cooperation to help alleviate poverty and ensure food and nutrition security. However, so far, a suitable methodology to assess aspects of sustainability along such food value chains was not available. Therefore, we have adapted the sustainability hotspot analysis, originally developed by the Wuppertal Institute, and enhanced it with a participatory approach, thereby making it suitable for application in the context of development cooperation. In this paper, we present a step-by-step overview of the entire assessment process by using examples from its application in Zambia’s dairy and groundnut value chains. The developed methodology allows, through participatory means, the identification and assessment of sustainability aspects by stakeholders themselves, with the validation and amplification of assessment results by locally-based value chain experts. We demonstrate that results from this participatory hotspot analysis are aligned with the principles of agroecology promoted by the FAO, and are geared towards supporting transformative food system change processes. Our key findings from the application of the participatory hotspot analysis showed that sustainability hotspots occur in the social, economic, and ecological dimensions of sustainability along both value chains. It also became clear that hotspots are frequently interconnected, requiring a holistic approach based on a solid understanding of strong sustainability when designing solutions. We conclude that our participatory hotspot analysis provides a user-friendly methodology that generates action-oriented recommendations, and provides an ideal starting point in the development process for co-learning and co-creation of knowledge aimed at generating sustainability-enhancing innovations. The application of the participatory hotspot analysis reveals information on aspects that threaten the sustainability of value chains from a stakeholder perspective. Knowledge of these perspectives is essential, especially for development practitioners tasked with designing implementation strategies to improve the sustainability of value chains.

show abstract

Section: Performance Of the Phsa In Our Case Studiesmentioning

confidence: 91%

Making the sustainability hotspot analysis more participatory—experiences from field research in Zambia

Droppelmann¹,

Müller²

2023

Front. Sustain. Food Syst.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Increasingly common practice calls for the need for researcher's or practitioner's own positionality and goals of conservation actions to be explicitly stated to allow for others to assess legitimacy (Chartier & Rodary, 2016; see Sections 2.6 and 3.1). Furthermore, any decisions and interventions should be well informed by scientific evidence and guidelines, local and historical knowledge, involve fair and just participatory processes (see Section 3.5) and clearly acknowledge key interests, agendas and power dynamics (Fritz & Meinherz, 2020b; Lewis et al, 2020).…”

Section: Navigating and Dealing With Power In Conservationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Navigating power in conservation

Shackleton

Walters

Bluwstein

et al. 2023

Conservat Sci and Prac

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The exercise of power rests on different sources of power or varying combinations of sources. When needed, we complement conceptions developed for political decision-making processes with literature concerning power in participatory development research and emphasise particularly pertinent aspects regarding participation in knowledge production processes [42].…”

Section: Conceptualising Powermentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We acknowledge that the multidimensional nature of power includes not only diverse facets of power over, but also power to and power with[41]. However, in this article, we focus exclusively on different facets of power over, partly based on[42], and do not address intersections with power with and power to. For further elaboration, please see[42].…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Whose knowledge, whose values? An empirical analysis of power in transdisciplinary sustainability research

Fritz

Binder

2020

Eur J Futures Res

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The participation of practitioners in transdisciplinary sustainability research has been heralded as a promising tool for producing 'robust' knowledge and engendering societal transformations. Although transdisciplinary approaches have been advanced as an effective avenue for generating knowledge positioned to question and transform an unsustainable status quo, the political and power dimensions inherent to such research have hardly been discussed. In this article, we scrutinise the constitution of participation in transdisciplinary research through a power lens. Guided by social theories of power and a relational understanding of participation, we analyse how diverse actors equipped with a variety of material and ideational sources wield power over the subjects, objects, and procedures of participation. We applied a qualitative meta-analysis of five transdisciplinary projects from a major German research funding programme in the field of sustainability to unveil the ways in which the funding body, researchers, and practitioners exercise instrumental, structural, and discursive power over (i) actor selection and (re-)positioning, (ii) agenda setting, and (iii) rule setting. We found that researchers primarily exert instrumental power over these three elements of participation, whereas practitioners as well as the funding body wield primarily structural and discursive power. By elucidating tacit and hidden power dynamics shaping participation in transdisciplinary research, this article provides a basis for improving process design and implementation as well as developing targeted funding instruments. The conclusions also provide insights into barriers of participatory agenda setting in research practice and governance.

show abstract

The Politics of Participatory Sustainability Assessments: An Analysis of Power

Cited by 6 publications

References 97 publications

Making the sustainability hotspot analysis more participatory—experiences from field research in Zambia

Making the sustainability hotspot analysis more participatory—experiences from field research in Zambia

Navigating power in conservation

Whose knowledge, whose values? An empirical analysis of power in transdisciplinary sustainability research

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About