Week 6 – using narratives to choose ways to engage with environmental problems

Overview

1.  We have used 5 approaches to study environmental problems

2.  We need to capture the information from all those methods

3.  We’d like to get information from other stakeholders and experts

4.  We can analyze these for knowledge, control and values and choose mode of engagement

5.  Example – KCV leads to scenarios as major step

6.  Conclusions

1. Review the approaches

  Patterns

  Stock and Flow Systems

  Network

  Risk and Uncertainty

  Games

2. Examples of different information

  Stock and Flow vs. Network for a food web   Mass balance

  Resilience

  Patterns vs. Stock and Flow   Pattern of unlimited population growth

  Positive feedback

  Games vs. Uncertainty   Game against nature

  Sources of uncertainty

Narratives

  Simply – the story or stories

  Could be:   Verbal or written   Drawings   Map – historical or placement of important resources   Models – such as stock and flow   videos

  Capture all the information possible

  Don’t start from the answer

3. Process to capture multiple perspectives and local experts

4. Problem types and strategies

Problem typology

Value alignment

Value conflict

Information available

Simple (Regulations)

CPR (Institutions)

Information lacking

Information (Research)

Wicked (Entrepre-neurial)

Management strategies

High control Low control

Sufficient knowledge

Optimal project management

Hedging/diversification

Uncertainty Scientific Adaptive Managment

Scenarios

Eng

ag

ing

with

p

rob

lem

s K C V Effective modes

of engagement

L L L Scenarios and expanded narratives L L H

L H L Environmental Entrepreneurism

L H H Scientific Adaptive Manage

H L L Multi-criteria

H L H Hedging/Diversification

H H L CPR - institutions

H H H Optimal Project Management

Knowledge:Control:Value

5. Building scenarios: Assumptions

  Lake restoration will involve the entire community

  Building trust will take deliberate effort

  What will the lake and the region look like?   Modernity   Post-modernity   Second modernity (Gross)   Retro-modernity

  Went through an analysis of what conditions and values each of these worldviews think will be in their future

Considering values mismatches in looking for approaches

  Range of worldviews means that there will be values mismatches   Example: Individualists will favor population growth whereas

Deep Ecologists will favor zero population growth

  Not our job to solve these debates

  Can include disparate values as a factor in choosing how to address environmental problems

Ind

ividu

alist:

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no

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Re

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Expe

rt Lake

Ma

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n:

Mo

saic

De

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log

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list: Yo

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all c

razy!

6. Conclusions

  The multiple perspectives provide us with a range of different types of information.

  We can use the information to choose how to engage with solving the problem.

  This will entail understanding   Knowledge/uncertainty

  Control and scale

  Values mismatches

  Range of options becomes focused