No Stakeholder Is an Island: Human Barriers and Enablers in Participatory Environmental Modelling

Daniel C. Kenny and Juan Castilla-Rho
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Daniel C. Kenny: School of Information, Systems and Modelling, Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology, University of Technology Sydney (UTS), Sydney, NSW 2007, Australia
Juan Castilla-Rho: Faculty of Business, Government & Law, University of Canberra (UC), Canberra, ACT 2617, Australia

Land, 2022, vol. 11, issue 3, 1-26

Abstract: Sustainability science strives to hone our ability to tackle problems that involve interconnected economic, social, and environmental systems. Addressing the root causes of these problems requires a more nuanced understanding of how human behaviour can undermine stakeholder engagement efforts towards effective conflict management and resolution. Participatory modelling—the co-production of knowledge via facilitated modelling workshops—plays a critical role in this endeavour by enabling participants to co-formulate problems and use modelling practices that aid in the description, solution, and decision-making actions of the group. While the difficulties of modelling with stakeholders are widely acknowledged, there is still a need to more concretely identify and categorize the barriers and opportunities that human behaviour presents to this type of engagement process. This review fills an important gap in participatory modelling practice by presenting five broad categories of barriers, along with strategies that can assist in overcoming them. We conclude with a series of actions and future research directions that the participatory modelling community as a whole can take to create more meaningful and behaviourally-attuned engagements that help stakeholders take concrete steps towards sustainability in natural resource management.

Keywords: social-ecological systems; participatory modelling; stakeholder engagement; human behaviour; social learning; behavioural science (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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