Space for reflexivity

A diagnostic and reflexive approach on values, knowledge and expectations at individual level is a useful baseline to prepare the group interactions and to balance representativeness and synergies in pluralistic settings

  • Meeting individuals “where they are” and encouraging them to reflect what they would bring (in terms of defended values and knowledge) to a group deliberative setting may enhance their long-term engagement and contribute to building collective capacity for mosaic landscape management;
  • Similarly, upfront asking participants who will be engaged in knowledge co-creation about their expectations from the process, i.e. expectation management, may increase participation.
  • In situations of values plurality and participatory decision-making it is more appropriate to adopt an adaptive and reflexive approach that recognises knowledge is intertwined with values and that they are mutually co-creating each other;
  • To navigate consensus, dissensus and inclusivity in multifunctional landscapes it is useful to plan for a collaborative process that alternates between consensus building and plurality recognition; in other words, reaching consensus should not be done at the expense of excluding certain viewpoints. This needs to be mentioned transparently, as agreement may not be favoured over the expression of value plurality;
  • An individual-based reflective inquiry of values and knowledge can be a relevant part of planning a multistage collaborative process towards sustainability outcomes.
  • More reflexive approaches to protected area management may enhance inclusive processes by allowing for different value and knowledge systems to co-exist.
Planning phase
Inception phase
Local
Subnational
Horcea-Milcu et al 2019 Values in transformational sustainability science: four…
Preferences, priorities, problem identification and tentative solutions – mapping system knowledge, target knowledge and transformative knowledge

Eliciting perspectives and systems understandings from a larger group of people in a systematic way to better understand the key issues that the process is framed around. Key issues are useful entry points to start entangling system dynamics - What are useful entry points in your case and to whom? This phase also asks the question of what is already known about the system by the stakeholders and what are uncertainties according to the stakeholders?

  • The iterative online survey offers a way to synthesize existing knowledge without actually meeting, online or in person.
  • The Delphi survey design helps bypass challenges in different actor preferences for how to collaborate, the perceived importance given to different issues and the practical circumstances of their involvement (e.g. professionally or privately). These differences may make it difficult (or impossible) to find a format, time, topic and language that suits everyone.
  • Complementary activities, like open ended interviews or discussions with a reference group not involved in the survey, can help clarify what information you have and what is missing.
  • Finding a unifying and specific vision for a complex landscape is hard. Identifying multiple points of common interest and a broad target like ‘liveable countryside’ can serve as a more realistic starting point for moving forward.
Planning phase
Inception phase
Local
Subnational
Fact sheet
Creating a spatial baseline understanding of knowledges and potentially diverging values of stakeholders and local residents

We collected baseline information through a large survey among residents in the area.

A Public Participation GIS (PPGIS) survey examined the relationship between perceived threats and preferences for landscape management, self-reported knowledge on environmental issues and landscape values. Respondents were asked to pinpoint locations in the landscape they consider valuable for instrumental, intrinsic, and relational reasons. These point locations were collected to visualize hotspots of values.

  • There is a broad geographic distribution of instrumental values while there is a high degree of overlap occurring between relational and intrinsic values in towns and Natura 2000 sites
  • High levels of knowledge about landscape management issues can be linked to values assigned to the local landscape. For example, those more knowledgeable about wild boar management are more likely to attribute personal identity to the landscape.
  • Multiple values can both reinforce each other and at the same time lead to value-based conflicts that need to be managed.
  • Collaboratively unpacking the knowledges and values and their complex linkages around landscape challenges and solutions is therefore central to our inclusive conservation approach.
Inception phase
Local
Guiding framework and learning process: connecting building blocks and linking strategies

Knowing what you need to know about your system is the starting point and constant framework for a targeted learning process. The Västra Harg case was informed by recent developments in resilience thinking on pathway diversity to introduce an approach for building capacity among system actors to navigate changes and move the system toward a common vision.

  • Theory, experience in systems analysis, rich case study descriptions and background material.
  • Together, building blocks 2-5 support a joint knowledge process that builds individual and collective capacity, and through that, agency.
  • Iterative modes of engagement with active facilitation.
  • Multiple sources of evidence and knowledge.
  • The conceptual framework you start with needs to be flexible enough to accommodate changes and adjustments to fit with the local context. An explorative, deliberative learning process means that you do not know beforehand exactly what the focal points will be – the framing and discussion points develop over the course of the project.
  • More iterations allow for better validation, more opportunities to triangulate and to dig deeper into issues. The combination of building blocks offers opportunities for several iterations, as time and stakeholder interests allow. In this way, the Västra Harg process sustained a multi-fora dialogue between research and practice.
  • For a fruitful collaboration it is important to clarify expectations on roles and outcomes early on and formulate a clear intent with the process that meets both your own and the partner’s interests. The approach described here has a specific objective - identifying, describing and connecting different strategies that could contribute to inclusive conservation - and this has to be made clear.
Entirety
Local
Jan Kuiper
North Europe
Building capacity for resilient and inclusive conservation of cultural landscapes
Profile picture for user jan.kuiper_39796
Jan
Kuiper
Guiding framework and learning process: connecting building blocks and linking strategies
Creating a spatial baseline understanding of knowledges and potentially diverging values of stakeholders and local residents
Preferences, priorities, problem identification and tentative solutions – mapping system knowledge, target knowledge and transformative knowledge
Space for reflexivity
Building agency through facilitated knowledge co-creation
Jan Kuiper
North Europe
Building capacity for resilient and inclusive conservation of cultural landscapes
Profile picture for user jan.kuiper_39796
Jan
Kuiper
Guiding framework and learning process: connecting building blocks and linking strategies
Creating a spatial baseline understanding of knowledges and potentially diverging values of stakeholders and local residents
Preferences, priorities, problem identification and tentative solutions – mapping system knowledge, target knowledge and transformative knowledge
Space for reflexivity
Building agency through facilitated knowledge co-creation
Jan Kuiper
North Europe
Building capacity for resilient and inclusive conservation of cultural landscapes
Profile picture for user jan.kuiper_39796
Jan
Kuiper
Guiding framework and learning process: connecting building blocks and linking strategies
Creating a spatial baseline understanding of knowledges and potentially diverging values of stakeholders and local residents
Preferences, priorities, problem identification and tentative solutions – mapping system knowledge, target knowledge and transformative knowledge
Space for reflexivity
Building agency through facilitated knowledge co-creation
NDHU, Landscape Conservation & Community Participation Laboratory
East Asia
An integrated landscape approach for revitalisation of indigenous socio-ecological production landscape and seascape in Xinshe Village, Hualien County, Taiwan
Profile picture for user pollyinusa_39800
Paulina
Karim
NDHU, Landscape Conservation & Community Participation Laboratory
East Asia
An integrated landscape approach for revitalisation of indigenous socio-ecological production landscape and seascape in Xinshe Village, Hualien County, Taiwan
Profile picture for user pollyinusa_39800
Paulina
Karim
NDHU, Landscape Conservation & Community Participation Laboratory
East Asia
An integrated landscape approach for revitalisation of indigenous socio-ecological production landscape and seascape in Xinshe Village, Hualien County, Taiwan
Profile picture for user pollyinusa_39800
Paulina
Karim
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