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Call for Papers:
Formalised and Non-Formalised Methods
in Resource Management
Knowledge and Learning in Participatory Processes
Workshop, 21 / 22 September 2006, Osnabrück
Extended deadline for paper proposals: June 20th: Download call [pdf, 66 KB]
Participatory processes are becoming increasingly important in the management of natural resources. Policy makers, ‘experts’, and ‘lay persons’ – citizens or representatives of organised interest groups – are more and more collaborating in public decisions on issues such as water management and land use planning. Different forms of involvement have been established, allowing for varying degrees of interaction, e.g. focus groups, citizens’ juries, consensus-conferences, mediated modelling, and stakeholder platforms, to name but a few. Given the complexity of the issues and associated uncertainties, one main reason to involve non-state actors in public decisions is to incorporate different sources of knowledge and to foster social learning, which is anticipated to result in better, i.e. more informed and creative, decision-making. Other expected outcomes include the facilitation of actually reaching agreements, greater acceptance of, and compliance with, these, and generally improved communication among participants.
A spectrum of methods, instruments, tools, and models is available to structure information flows in these participatory processes. Depending on their goals and context, more or less formalised methods can be employed:
- Methods to elicit knowledge and assumptions of individuals range from qualitative interviews (non-formalised) to cognitive mapping (likewise qualitative, but strongly formalised).
- Scenario building exercises range from non-formalised, narrative story lines to formalised computer modelling.
- Role playing games range from informal discussions to formalised game settings and up to computer-implementations (agent-based models).
- Evaluation methods range from informal discussions to formalised procedures of Multi-Criteria Analysis.
- Generally, knowledge and information can be represented and conveyed either in an informal, narrative way, or with the aid of formal, often computer-based tools such as Decision Support Systems including Geographic Information Systems. In recent years one observes increased efforts to combine informal and formal approaches.
Most of the formalised methods involve some kind of modelling in order to derive generalisations from particular facts or situations, and to identify the key information. While more formalised methods have the advantage of eliciting, handling and delivering focused, clear and unambiguous information (or of making uncertainties and ambiguities transparent), their use also involves important challenges:
- The process of formalisation usually is more laborious, requires more time and specific expertise, or trained personnel, and often technical equipment, and is thus more costly.
- Stakeholders may have difficulties to accept some more formalised methods as they might not comprehend all modelling steps and thus distrust certain model implications, or simply dread the required efforts.
Researchers dealing with these questions from the perspective of different disciplines are invited to submit abstracts for papers. The workshop’s main areas of application will be land-use planning and water management. Of special interest are papers that discuss
- the strengths and weaknesses of various methods in participatory resource management with special attention to the conditions under which formalised, or non-formalised methods, respectively, are most appropriate;
- how the choice of methods depends on the goals and context of the process as well as on the particular individuals involved in the process;
- possible trade-offs between the degree of formalisation of methods and the degree of participation;
- integration of formal and informal approaches;
- the relation of method-driven participatory processes and policy implementation.
Conceptual and methodological contributions, empirical analyses of applications of selected methods and case studies are equally welcome.
On the basis of the submitted abstracts, a maximum number of 15 papers will be selected for invitation to the workshop. After notification of acceptance (30th June 2006), authors will be asked to submit short versions of their papers (1500 to 2000 words) by 31st August in order to allow the participants to get a more complete picture of all papers to be presented. A selection of papers will be published in a peer reviewed journal or book.
Abstracts of no more than 400 words should be sent to all members of the scientific committee by 15th June 2006.
The Osnabrück workshop is organised in the framework of the German-Austrian research project
PartizipA and of the EU Concerted Action Harmoni-CA / WP 5.
Scientific Committee:
Prof. Dr. Claudia Pahl-Wostl, University of Osnabrück (pahl /at/ usf.uos.de)
Dr. Jens Newig, University of Osnabrück (jens.newig /at/ usf.uos.de)
Prof. Dr. Helmut Haberl, IFF Social Ecology, Vienna (Helmut.Haberl /at/ uni-klu.ac.at)
Dr. Dale S. Rothman, Macaulay Institute, Aberdeen (d.rothman /at/ macaulay.ac.uk)
Organising Committee:
Britta Kastens, University of Osnabrück (britta.kastens /at/ usf.uos.de)
Prof. Dr. Claudia Pahl-Wostl, University of Osnabrück (pahl /at/ usf.uos.de)
Dr. Jens Newig, University of Osnabrück (jens.newig /at/ usf.uos.de)
Heidelinde Adensam, IFF Social Ecology, Vienna (Heidi.Adensam /at/ uni-klu.ac.at)
Key words: Participatory methods, participatory modelling, participatory modeling, mediated modeling
Call for papers:
First Lüneburg Workshop on Environmental and Sustainability Communication
The role of the media for human-environment interaction and sustainable development:
Taking stock and moving forward
University Lüneburg, Germany, June 22 – 23, 2006
Download call
Governance for Sustainable Development:
Steering in Contexts of Ambivalence, Uncertainty and Distributed Control
Workshop 5th-7th February 2006 in Berlin, “Umspannwerk” (www.palisa.de)
NEW: Outcomes of the workshop
Workshop programme [pdf]
Call for Papers in pdf format
The issue of sustainable development represents a problem of transformation. It requires an active shaping of long-term dynamics in social and technical structures. It thus stirs up debate about political steering and governance. The attempt to plan and regulate macro dynamics of societal development does not, however, have a good historical record. Neither science nor political practice offer adequate concepts to deal with this task. Established heuristics for improving steering capacity come to their limits when applied to sustainable development. They usually expound the need for
- clear, stable and unequivocal goals that guide the steering efforts,
- knowledge to predict dynamics and the effects of alternative options of intervention, and
- the necessary power to implement political strategies.
Science and practice of sustainable development, however, is confronted with fundamental problems in all three dimensions of steering:
- Sustainability, which concerns the balancing of potentially conflicting risk perceptions, values and interests, cannot be defined as an unequivocal and undisputed set of targets. With knowledge development and ongoing cultural and ecological transformation, sustainability goals are subject to change and controversy. Steering for sustainable development has to cope, therefore, with conflict and ambivalence.
- Knowledge of ecological cause-and-effect relations and the coupled dynamics of society, technology and nature is limited and bears fundamental uncertainties. The predictability of long-term developments and possible side-effects of intervention strategies is very limited. For this reason, steering for sustainable development has to cope with uncertainty and unintended consequences.
- The power to shape structural change in society and technology is distributed across a multitude of actors and societal subsystems. While all have particular resources to contribute, they also follow different rationalities and interests. On account of this, steering for sustainable development has to cope with a lack of central control and to face the necessity of coordinating strategies of different actor groups and social networks.
Researchers dealing with these questions from the perspective of different disciplines and problem areas are invited to submit abstracts for papers. Of special interest are papers that
- empirically examine steering situations with respect to the ambivalence of goals, uncertainty of knowledge and distribution of power, aiming to identify typical steering situations that reflect varying combinations of these characteristics.
- review and scrutinize existing steering and governance theories with respect to their implicit assumptions about defined goals, certain knowledge and centralised power, thus allowing for not only the identification of the roots of theoretical disagreement but also an indication of how a pragmatic combination of theories – by specifying the range of empirical situations to which they apply – could be accomplished.
- conceptualise steering strategies which are able to cope with ambivalence, uncertainty, and distributed power or analyse and assess empirical steering processes which are set up to deal with these challenges.
On the basis of the submitted abstracts, a maximum number of 12 papers will be selected for invitation to the workshop. Authors will then be asked to submit full draft versions of their papers until 15th January 2006 in order to allow for distribution and review by other authors. It is intended to publish a selection of papers in a special edition of a refereed international journal. Please note that we have a (limited) budget for travel expenses. Invited authors may apply for a refund of their travel expenses. Abstracts of no more than 500 words should be sent to all organisers until 30th October:
Jan-Peter Voß, Öko-Institut, Berlin, Germany
Jens Newig, USF, University of Osnabrück, Germany
Jochen Monstadt, CIRUS/EAWAG, Kastanienbaum, Switzerland.
Please copy all communication to all three addresses.
Submission of abstract: 30th October 2005
Notification of acceptance: 10th November 2005
Submission of draft paper: 15th January 2006
Workshop: 5th-7th February 2006
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Political Economy of
Participation and Public Involvement
Fall Conference of the Working Group Political Economy (Arbeitskreis Politische Ökonomie)
22.–23. Oktober 2004, Zentrum für Umweltkommunikation, Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt,
An der Bornau 2, 49090 Osnabrück
Conference Programme // aktualisiert 18.10.04 // [PDF, 233 KB]
Flyer mit logistischen Hinweisen (beidseitig auszudrucken) [PDF, 1185 KB]
Abstracts of Contributions
Anmeldung zur Tagung spätestens bis zum 19. Oktober 2004
Das Anmeldeformular gibt er hier [PDF] [RTF]
Text als pdf-Dokument
„Partizipation“ hat wieder einmal Hochkonjunktur. Kaum eine internationale Umweltschutzkonferenz, auf der nicht „good governance“ und Partizipation als Schlüsselfaktoren einer erfolgreichen Umsetzung von Maßnahmen hochgehalten werden. Nach der Diskussion um betriebliche Mitbestimmung in den 1970er Jahren geht es heute um eine Ausweitung der Beteiligung von Bürgern, Unternehmen und anderen Interessengruppen an planerischen Entscheidungen der öffentlichen Verwaltung. Mit dem Århus-Übereinkommen „über den Zugang zu Informationen, die Öffentlichkeitsbeteiligung an Entscheidungsverfahren und den Zugang zu Gerichten in Umweltangelegenheiten“ und mehreren neuen EG-Richtlinien kommen wesentliche Anstöße – und rechtliche Vorgaben – aus der internationalen und europäischen Politik. Die Tendenz: Nicht länger nur den „interessierten Kreisen“, sondern auch der breiten Öffentlichkeit soll eine weitgehende Beteiligung an (umwelt-)planerischen Entscheidungen eingeräumt werden.
Neben der aktuellen Partizipations-„Euphorie“ wächst auch die Kritik; einige sprechen bereits von der „neuen Tyrannei“ (Cooke/Kothari) der Partizipation. Dieses Spannungsverhältnis provoziert eine Debatte nicht nur über Für und Wider einer Ausweitung der Öffentlichkeitsbeteiligung, sondern auch über die Bedingungen, unter denen Partizipation erfolgreich ist sowie die Folgen (und Nebenfolgen) partizipativer Verfahren. Anlass genug, die Vorzüge, Probleme und empirischen Grundlagen der Öffentlichkeitsbeteiligung kritisch mit Ökonomen, Sozial- und Politikwissenschaftlern zu diskutieren. Empirische und theoretische Beiträge u. a. zu folgenden Themenkomplexen sind gleichermaßen willkommen.
- Zentrales Argument für mehr Partizipation ist eine erhöhte Akzeptanz und damit verbesserte Implementation politischer Maßnahmen. Unter welchen Voraussetzungen ist dies gegeben? Wie lässt sich Implementationseffektivität partizipativer – im Unterschied zu hoheitlichen – Entscheidungsverfahren überhaupt messen?
- Viele Partizipationskonzepte zielen auf Konsens oder zumindest gemeinsame Problemwahrnehmung der beteiligten Akteure. Aus polit-ökonomischer Perspektive ist zu fragen, inwieweit vorhandene Interessen und Machtpositionen – auch der Vorhabenträger bzw. Mediatoren – solche Ziele dadurch untergraben, dass „starke“ gegenüber „schwachen“ Akteuren im Beteiligungsprozess bevorzugt werden. Wie wirken sich Informationsasymmetrien zwischen Vorhabenträger und Beteiligten – in der einen wie in der anderen Richtung – aus?
- Beteiligung spielt eine große Rolle im Kontext der Entwicklungszusammenarbeit. Inwieweit sind Beteiligungskonzepte angesichts unterschiedlicher polit-ökonomischer Rahmenbedingungen zwischen verschiedenen Gesellschaftssystemen übertragbar?
- Inwieweit sind Beteiligungsprozesse geeignet, den Aufbau von Sozialkapital zu fördern?
- Beteiligung wird oft unter dem Vorzeichen „mehr Demokratie“ eingeführt, sie bedeutet aber auch Abgabe von Verantwortlichkeit an primär nicht Entscheidungsbefugte. Dies wirft Fragen der Legitimität auf.
- Es besteht der Eindruck, dass die Diskussion über Öffentlichkeitsbeteiligung in verschiedenen (internationalen wie nationalen) communites sehr unterschiedliche Züge annimmt. Wie lässt sich von der Vielfalt dieser Perspektiven für das Verständnis von Beteiligungsprozessen – letztich auch mit Blick auf eine verbesserte Praxis – lernen?
Für die Tagung stehen uns die Räumlichkeiten des hochmodern ausgestatteten Zentrums für Umweltkommunikation der Deutschen Bundesstiftung Umwelt zur Verfügung. Für Freitagabend ist eine kundige Führung durch die „Friedensstadt“ Osnabrück geplant.
Bitte schicken Sie Ihren Themenvorschlag mit Abstract bis spätestens 20. September 2004 an Dr. Jens Newig (jens.newig /at/ usf.uni-osnabrueck.de; Institut für Umweltsystemforschung, Universität Osnabrück, Albrechtstr. 28, 49069 Osnabrück). Es ist geplant, die Ergebnisse der Tagung als Sammelband zu veröffentlichen.
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