(Un)intended effects of participation in sustainability science: A criteria-guided comparative case study

Musch, Annika-Kathrin; Streit, Anne von

doi:10.1016/j.envsci.2019.10.004

Cited by 37 publications

(18 citation statements)

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“…However, in a recent review, Turnhout et al ( 2020 ) indicate that the political dynamics of transdisciplinary processes aimed at transformation often remain underemphasized in both practice and research, and most scholarship tends to focus on addressing and enacting practical, methodological or institutional aspects of transdisciplinarity (such as in Pohl and Hadorn 2008 ; Lang et al 2012 ; Brandt et al 2013 ). This focus seems likely to intensify within the recently observed turn towards effectiveness-orientation in, and functionalization of, stakeholder inclusion in transdisciplinarity (Musch and von Streit 2020 ; Chilvers and Kearnes 2020 ; Schmidt et al 2020 ). This emphasis on ‘effectiveness’ in transdisciplinarity arises in part due to the “trend that funding agencies increasingly favour transdisciplinary projects focusing on directly applicable outputs” (Musch and von Streit 2020 : 63).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This focus seems likely to intensify within the recently observed turn towards effectiveness-orientation in, and functionalization of, stakeholder inclusion in transdisciplinarity (Musch and von Streit 2020 ; Chilvers and Kearnes 2020 ; Schmidt et al 2020 ). This emphasis on ‘effectiveness’ in transdisciplinarity arises in part due to the “trend that funding agencies increasingly favour transdisciplinary projects focusing on directly applicable outputs” (Musch and von Streit 2020 : 63). Stakeholder inclusion might devolve into ‘tick-the-box’ requirements, or worse: lead to tokenism or oppression through participation (e.g., Cooke and Kothrari 2001 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Unraveling the politics of ‘doing inclusion’ in transdisciplinarity for sustainable transformation

et al. 2021

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Transdisciplinary research and innovation (R&I) efforts have emerged as a means to address challenges to sustainable transformation. One of the main elements of transdisciplinary efforts is the ‘inclusion’ of different stakeholders, values and perspectives in participatory R&I processes. In practice, however, ‘doing inclusion’ raises a number of challenges. In this article, we aim to contribute to re-politicizing inclusion in transdisciplinarity for transformation, by (1) empirically unraveling four key challenges that emerge in the political practice of ‘doing inclusion’, (2) illustrating how facilitators of inclusion processes perform balancing acts when confronted with these challenges, and (3) reflecting on what the unfolding dynamics suggests about the politics of stakeholder inclusion for societal transformation. In doing so, we analyze the transdisciplinary FIT4FOOD2030 project (2017–2020)—an EU-funded project that aimed to contribute to fostering EU R&I systems’ ability to catalyze food system transformation through stakeholder engagement in 25 Living Labs. Based on 3 years of action-research (including interviews, workshops and field observations), we identified four inherent political challenges to ‘doing inclusion’ in FIT4FOOD2030: (1) the challenge to meaningfully bring together powerful and marginalized stakeholders; (2) combining representation and deliberation of different stakeholder groups; (3) balancing diversities of inclusion with directionalities implied by transformative efforts; and (4) navigating the complexities of establishing boundaries of inclusion processes. We argue that by understanding ‘doing inclusion’ as a political practice, necessitating specificity about the (normative) ambitions in different inclusion settings, facilitators may better grasp and address challenges in transdisciplinarity for transformation.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Unraveling the politics of ‘doing inclusion’ in transdisciplinarity for sustainable transformation

et al. 2021

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“…Important factors for achieving societal impact include the motivation of societal actors as well as conducive institutional factors and political contexts (Hansson & Polk, 2018; Lux et al, 2019), as well as close interactions between scientific actors and their target groups (Hoffmann et al, 2019). Missed project targets however point to an inadequate understanding of the feasibility of certain approaches (Musch & von Streit, 2020). These results suggest the need for detailed reflection on how planned activities affect the involved actors in a given context; how this context might shape a process; how impact pathways might unfold; as well as the role of power, agency, and enabling conditions for research projects.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Enabling Players to Develop Theories of Change for Sustainable Development: A Serious Game

Tribaldos

Schneider

2021

Simulation & Gaming

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Introduction Sustainable development and sustainability transformations have reached high urgency on national and international agendas and involve new knowledge and learning processes. Transdisciplinary co-production of knowledge as a research approach in combination with the methodological elaboration of theories of change have potential to support transformative learning processes. Both approaches engage with questions about the actors involved, impact pathways, or the role of power and agency in a given context. Intervention We introduce the THEORY OF CHANGE GAME, which applies theory of change thinking to transdisciplinary projects aiming for sustainable development. A combination of board and card game, it evolves around collaborative discussions. Method We explain the iterative development rounds of the game through several game sessions in different settings and analyse whether and how the game supports social learning for sustainable development. To assess social learning, we draw on the typology developed by Baird et al. (2014) , which includes cognitive, relational, and normative learning. Results The iterative development rounds took place first in academic settings and then in a non-academic event. Our observations during the game and the debriefing rounds after the game demonstrate that social learning takes place in the form of cognitive and relational learning. Verified findings on normative learning would need other assessment approaches. Discussion and conclusion Several development rounds supported the design of a game that is suitable to support social learning for sustainable development. We see the potential of the game mainly in cognitive and relational learning. Further work on gamification elements could help to enhance the entertainment component of the game.

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“…Due to the complexity of geographical issues, the practice of geographic analysis usually requires participatory approaches to support stakeholder participation and interdisciplinary collaboration (Cutts, White, and Kinzig 2011;Lin et al 2013b;Lin and Chen 2015). Because geographic issues are normally relevant to human life and usually attract the attention of both stakeholders and the public, geo-analysis cannot be exclusively an expert domain; it also requires the participation of different stakeholders and the public to supply useful resources and valuable feedback (Voinov and Bousquet 2010;Voinov et al 2016;Jordan et al 2018;Musch and von Streit 2020). By contrast, collaboration involves higher levels of participation and can help to address geographical issues through joint actions (e.g., co-modeling and co-decision-making) (Basco-Carrera et al 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Activity-based process construction for participatory geo-analysis

Chen

Yue

et al. 2020

GIScience & Remote Sensing

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Due to its advantages in participation and collaboration, participatory geo-analysis has been used for solving different types of geographical issues. Participatory geo-analysis is usually a complicated process consisting of various tasks that may involve different multidisciplinary participants. Previous studies have focused primarily on how to improve participation in specific individual tasks, especially idea discussion and decision-making, but they have ignored collaboration throughout the entire process. During a complete participatory geo-analysis effort, the various participants should concentrate on their familiar work and fully exploit their talents to perform work collaboratively. Therefore, we propose an activity-based process construction method to assist different participants in understanding the geo-analysis process and in concentrating on their familiar work. Eight core activities are established for the geo-analysis process: (1) context definition and resource collection, (2) data processing, (3) data analysis, (4) data visualization, (5) geo-analysis model construction, (6) model effectiveness evaluation, (7) geographical simulation, and (8) decision making. By using a visualization-based method, different activities can be linked together to represent the entire analytical process. Moreover, each activity is designed via a specialized web-based workspace in which online tools and resources are accessed to assist the participants with their geo-analysis practices. A prototype system was developed based on the proposed method, and a case study on a participatory risk assessment of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was demonstrated using this system. The result suggests that the proposed method can promote collaboration among participants with different backgrounds, and verifies its feasibility and suitability.

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(Un)intended effects of participation in sustainability science: A criteria-guided comparative case study

Cited by 37 publications

References 38 publications

Unraveling the politics of ‘doing inclusion’ in transdisciplinarity for sustainable transformation

Unraveling the politics of ‘doing inclusion’ in transdisciplinarity for sustainable transformation

Enabling Players to Develop Theories of Change for Sustainable Development: A Serious Game

Activity-based process construction for participatory geo-analysis

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