working with end users of research

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What makes stakeholder participation

in environmental management work?

Working more effectively with end users

of research

Delivering impact

If “impact” is about delivering economic and

social benefits from research, then you have to

get your research used by “real” people

How can we get these people to use our

research?

Who are these people anyway?

Plan

1. What do we know about how best to engage

end users with our research?

2. How can we systematically identify and engage

relevant end users with our research?

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1. What do we know about how best to

engage end users with our research?

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Levels of engagement with end users

The ladder of participation (Arnstein, 1969)

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Levels of engagement with end users

The wheel of participation (Wilcox, 2003)

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Levels of engagement with end users

Communication flows (Rowe & Frewer, 2000)

Facilitators Stakeholders

Facilitators Stakeholders

Facilitators Stakeholders

Communication

Consultation

Participation

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Tools vs overall process

• Participation is

more than a

collection of tools

and methods for

engaging end

users in your

research

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1. Start talking to people as soon as you can

• From concept to completion

• Make sure there’s something to negotiate

• Avoid raising false expectations

2. Make sure you’re talking to the right people

• The perceived legitimacy of your research by decision-makers may be influenced by who you do or don’t talk to

• Lots of methods available now for “stakeholder analysis”

• Identify goals with stakeholders

• Be prepared to negotiate and compromise

• Design your research to the goals

• Partnerships, ownership and active engagement in the process is more likely

3. Make sure you know what people want to talk about

4. Be flexible: base level of research-user participation & methods on your context & objectives

• Communicate e.g. information

dissemination via leaflets or the mass media, hotlines and public meetings

• Consult e.g. consultation documents,

opinion polls and referendums, focus groups and surveys

• Participate e.g. citizen’s juries, consensus

conferences, task-forces and public meetings with voting

• Tailor your methods to context

• Manage power

nvolved

What makes stakeholder participation

in environmental management work?

5. Get a facilitator

• If you need to engage with a wide range of research users with competing agendas, you may need help...

• The outcome of a participatory process is more sensitive to the manner in which it is conducted than the tools that are used

• Don’t underestimate the power of investing in a good facilitator to bring people together and deliver high quality outcomes

nvolved

What makes stakeholder participation

in environmental management work?

6. Put local and scientific knowledge on an equal footing

• Science can help people make more informed decisions

• Local knowledge can question assumptions, and perhaps lead to more rigorous science

nvolved

What makes stakeholder participation

in environmental management work?

• Decisions based on a combination of local and scientific knowledge may by more robust due to more comprehensive information inputs – and they’re more likely to be relevant to end-user needs/priorities

nvolved

What makes stakeholder participation

in environmental management work?

2. How can we systematically identify and engage relevant end users with our research?

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Stakeholder analysis

• We all have interests

• We have a stake in the

things that interest us e.g.

what happens to a landscape

you walk in

• By holding an interest, we

hold a stake: we are

stakeholders

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Stakeholder analysis

• But without power…

• We can never drive our

points/stakes home and

we will never influence the

decisions that affect us

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• To affect change, we need interest and power

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Answers key questions:

• Who are the interested parties? Who has the power to

influence what happens? How do these parties interact?

How could they work more effectively together?

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What is stakeholder analysis?

“A process that:

i) defines aspects of a social and natural

phenomenon affected by a decision or action

ii) identifies individuals, groups and organisations

who are affected by or can affect those parts of

the phenomenon

iii) prioritises these individuals and groups for

involvement in the decision-making process”

Reed et al. (2009)

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Development of SA

• Business management roots

– Stakeholders affect business

– SA to mobilise, neutralise or defeat stakeholders, to

meet strategic objectives

• Development studies and natural resource

management

– Projects that didn’t understand stakeholders were

often hijacked or failed

– Empowering marginal stakeholders to influence

decision-making processes transparently

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Development of SA

• Major contributions from development studies

and natural resource management:

– Recognises that stakeholders and the issues that

interest them change over time

– Advocates ongoing and evolving involvement of

stakeholders to meet needs and priorities

– Capturing diversity of potentially conflicting views

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Typology

• Three types of methods for stakeholder analysis

Methods for:

i) Identifying stakeholders

ii) Differentiating between and categorising

stakeholders

iii)Investigating relationships between stakeholders

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Focus

Groups

Semi-

structured

interviews

Snowball

sampling

Interest-

influence

matrices

More

complex

matrices

Stakeholder-led

stakeholder

categorisation

Q

methodology

Social Network

Analysis

Knowledge

Mapping

Identifying stakeholders Differentiating between and

categorising stakeholders

Investigating relationships

between stakeholders

Analytical

categorisation

(top-down)

Reconstructive

categorisation

(bottom-up)

Normative Instrumental

Methods

Typology

Rationale

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Interest/Influence Matrices High

Low

Influence

Context setters - highly

influential, but have little

interest. Try and work

closely as they could have

a significant impact

Key players – must

work closely with these

to affect change

Crowd – little interest or

influence so may not be

worth prioritising, but be

aware their interest or

influence may change with

time

Subjects – may be affected but

lack power. Can become influential

by forming alliances with others.

Often includes marginalised groups

you may wish to empower

Level of Interest High

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Stakeholder 3

Stakeholder 4

Stakeholder 2

Stakeholder 1

Stakeholder 5

Stakeholder 6

• Size is proportional to influence

• Proximity relates to how closely linked they are

to each other (in any way)

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Try it yourself

• Pairs/groups: choose a familiar issue and think

of a research project in which you might want to

involve end users

• Brainstorm potential end users

• Visualise interest/influence or influence/proximity

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More complex matrices

• Identify and evaluate stakeholders in turn:

– What is the nature of their stake?

– Level of interest – H/M/L & explanatory text if needed

– Level of influence – as above

– The most effective ways to gain their active

involvement

– Anything else we should know? Conflicts, likely

issues etc.

• If many stakeholders, categorise in relation to

the nature of their stake & select representatives

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Categorising

Stakeholder categories from Sustainable Uplands project:

• Water companies

• Recreational groups

• Agriculture

• Conservationists

• Grouse moor interests (owners/managers and

gamekeepers)

• Tourism-related enterprises

• Foresters

• Statutory bodies

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ustainable Uplands Learning to manage future change

Name/

Organisation/

Group

Nature

of

stake

Interest

H/M/L

(comm-

ents?)

Influence

H/M/L

(comm-

ents?)

What would

incentivise

their

involvement?

Things

we

should

know

(issues,

conflicts

etc)

Appropriate

people

(contact

details)

Stakeholder

Group

/organisation

/individual

Area of

concern

Represented

Sector

Represented

Perceived

Interest in

issue

Perceived

Influence on

issue

Comments

arising during

discussion

...adapt to your own needs

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ustainable Uplands Learning to manage future change

Exploring relationships

• Who is working with who? Who could be working

with who?

• Avoid exacerbating conflicts

• Work with key people who are well respected

and connected

• For example: Social Network Analysis with 80-

strong Moors for the Future Partnership...

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Despite apparently

polarised views on

burning, upland

stakeholders in the

Peak District are

highly connected…

And despite the fact that certain

groups have little contact with

each other…

The majority of individuals perceive considerable overlap between their views

on upland management and the views of those they know from other groups

Water

Recreation Agriculture

Conservation

Grouse

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ustainable Uplands Learning to manage future change

Exploring relationships

• Showed roles of individuals played and identified

more peripheral stakeholders

• These groups were targeted for inclusion to

reduce bias, strengthen the legitimacy of the

sample group, and include a variety of

knowledges relevant to the research process

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Summary

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Find out more…

Reed MS, Graves A, Dandy N, Posthumus H, Hubacek

K, Morris J, Prell C, Quinn CH, Stringer LC (2009) Who’s

in and why? Stakeholder analysis as a prerequisite for

sustainable natural resource management. Journal of

Environmental Management 90: 1933–1949

Reed MS (2008) Stakeholder participation for

environmental management: a literature review.

Biological Conservation 141: 2417–2431