To co-produce or not to co-produce

As part of the SESYNC project on "The science of knowledge use in decision-making" and led by Maria Carmen Lemos, we have published a piece in Nature Sustainability on the co-production of knowledge between scientistis and decision-makers.

To co-produce or not to co-produce

Researchers, stakeholders and funding organizations have embraced co-production of knowledge to solve sustainability problems. Research focusing on the practice of co-production can help us understand what works in what contexts and how to avoid potentially undesirable outcomes.

In this Comment, we discuss knowledge co-production as a focus of research and as a rapidly spreading practice among scientists, stakeholders and funders seeking to increase the role of science in solving society’s most pressing problems. We write as a group of researchers, stakeholders, funders and co-production practitioners operating at the intersection of knowledge production and use — a space that happily is becoming larger and more crowded. We believe in advancing co-production as an important approach to increasing the impact of science, but we also believe that doing so requires recognizing its limitations and grappling with problems that arise as the practice of co-production becomes more broadly taken up and institutionalized.

Lemos, M. C., Arnott, J. C., Ardoin, N. M., Baja, K., Bednarek, A. T., Dewulf, A., … Wyborn, C. (2018). To co-produce or not to co-produce. Nature Sustainability, 1(12), 722–724. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-018-0191-0

Nine lives of uncertainty in decision-making: strategies for dealing with uncertainty in environmental governance

Together with my colleague Robbert Biesbroek, I have published a paper on decision-making under uncertainty, in the journal Policy and Society.

Nine lives of uncertainty in decision-making: strategies for dealing with uncertainty in environmental governance

Governing complex environmental issues involves intensive interac- tion between public and private actors. These governance pro- cesses are fraught with uncertainties about, for example, the current state of environmental affairs, the relevant set of decision alternatives, the reactions of other actors to proposed solutions or the future developments likely to affect an issue. Uncertainty comes in different shapes and sizes and different strands in the literature, which has placed emphasis either on the substance of the issue (e.g. in environmental sciences) or on the decision-making process (e.g. policy sciences). In this paper, we bring together these different strands of literature on uncertainty to present a novel analytical framework. We build on the argument that the nature ofuncertainty consists of three types: epistemic uncertainty (involving the lack of knowledge about a particular system), ontological uncertainty (irre- ducible unpredictability due to inherently complex system beha- vior) and ambiguity (conflicts between fundamentally different frames about the issue at hand). Scholars have also argued the importance of differentiating between three different objects of uncertainty: substantive uncertainty (uncertainty about the content of decisions or policy issues), strategic uncertainty (uncertainty about the actions of other actors in the strategic game of deci- sion-making) and institutional uncertainty (uncertainty about the rules of the game in decision-making). The framework is useful for analyzing and addressing the nine lives of uncertainty in decision- making. Better understanding of the range of uncertainties is crucial to design more robust policies and governance arrangements and to deal with wicked environmental problems.

Dewulf, A., & Biesbroek, R. (2018). Nine lives of uncertainty in decision-making: strategies for dealing with uncertainty in environmental governance. Policy and Society, 37(4), 441–458. https://doi.org/10.1080/14494035.2018.1504484 (Open Access)

I presented this as a poster at the Annual Workshop of the Society for Decision Making under Deep Uncertainty at the University of  Oxford in November 2017:

Power in and over Cross-Sector Partnerships: Actor Strategies for Shaping Collective Decisions

As part of a special issue edited by Sandra Schruijer on Dynamics of Interorganisational Collaborative Relationships in the journal Administrative Sciences, our paper on power strategies in collaborative partnerships has been published.

Power in and over Cross-Sector Partnerships: Actor Strategies for Shaping Collective Decisions

While cross-sector partnerships are sometimes depicted as a pragmatic problem solving arrangements devoid of politics and power, they are often characterized by power dynamics. Asymmetries in power can have a range of undesirable consequences as low-power actors may be co-opted, ignored, over-ruled, or excluded by dominant parties. As of yet, there has been relatively little conceptual work on the power strategies that actors in cross-sector partnerships deploy to shape collective decisions to their own advantage. Insights from across the literatures on multiparty collaboration, cross-sector partnerships, interactive governance, collaborative governance, and network governance, are integrated into a theoretical framework for empirically analyzing power sources (resources, discursive legitimacy, authority) and power strategies (power over and power in cross-sector partnerships). Three inter-related claims are central to our argument: (1) the intersection between the issue field addressed in the partnership and an actor’s institutional field shape the power sources available to an actor; (2) an actor can mobilize these power sources directly in strategies to achieve power in cross-sector partnerships; and, (3) an actor can also mobilize these power sources indirectly, through setting the rules of the game, to achieve power over partnerships. The framework analytically connects power dynamics to their broader institutional setting and allows for spelling out how sources of power are used in direct and indirect power strategies that steer the course of cross-sector partnerships. The resulting conceptual framework provides the groundwork for pursuing new lines of empirical inquiry into power dynamics in cross-sector partnerships.

Dewulf, A., & Elbers, W. (2018). Power in and over Cross-Sector Partnerships: Actor Strategies for Shaping Collective Decisions. Administrative Sciences, 8(3), 43. https://doi.org/10.3390/admsci8030043 (Open Access!)

Special Issue on "Diagnostics of case studies on environmental virtual observatories for connective action"

In the Wageningen Journal of Life Science, a special issue has been published by the EVOCA project.

Environmental virtual observatories for connective action

According to the Preface for the issue:

This Special Issue of NJAS – Wageningen Journal of Life Sciences contains a coherent set of first reports of research carried out within the International Research and Education Funds (INREF) program Responsible life-sciences innovations for development in the digital age: Environmental Virtual Observatories for Connective Action (EVOCA), funded by Wageningen University and Research and its research partners. This program explores whether and how the increased availability of information and communication technologies (ICTs) may be leveraged to support collective management of crops, water resources, livestock, wildlife and (human, animal and plant) diseases in several countries of rural Africa. In relation to this, the programme has a special interest in the potential of new ICT to support the co-creation of relevant knowledge by making community-based environmental monitoring part and parcel of citizen science activities that add value to available information. In addition, it is interested in exploring whether increased connectivity may support new forms of collective mobilization (labeled ‘connective action’) to address environmental challenges. The program aims to develop and test digital platforms that can support such functions in close collaboration with stakeholders and users across six case studies in Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya and Rwanda.

The special issue includes a introduction paper, led by Katarzyna Cieslik, and a concluding paper, led by Cees Leeuwis.

• Leeuwis, C., Cieslik, K. J., Aarts, M. N. C., Dewulf, A., Ludwig, F., Werners, S. E., & Struik, P. C. (2018). Reflections on the potential of virtual citizen science platforms to address collective action challenges: Lessons and implications for future research. NJAS - Wageningen Journal of Life Sciences, (July), 0–1. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.njas.2018.07.008
• Cieslik, K. J., Leeuwis, C., Dewulf, A., Lie, R., Werners, S. E., van Wessel, M., … Struik, P. C. (2018). Addressing socio-ecological development challenges in the digital age: Exploring the potential of Environmental Virtual Observatories for Connective Action (EVOCA). NJAS - Wageningen Journal of Life Sciences, (July), 0–1. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.njas.2018.07.006

My PhD student Andy Nyamekye has also contributed to two papers in the special issue:

• Nyadzi, E., Nyamekye, A. B., Werners, S. E., Biesbroek, R. G., Dewulf, A., Slobbe, E. Van, … Ludwig, F. (2018). Diagnosing the potential of hydro-climatic information services to support rice farming in northern Ghana. NJAS - Wageningen Journal of Life Sciences, (July), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.njas.2018.07.002
• Nyamekye, A. B., Dewulf, A., Van Slobbe, E., Termeer, C. J. A. M., & Pinto, C. (2018). Governance arrangements and adaptive decision-making in rice farming systems in Northern Ghana. NJAS - Wageningen Journal of Life Sciences, (April), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.njas.2018.07.001

Social media hypes about agro-food issues: Activism, scandals and conflicts

Some time ago, Tim Stevens has published a paper on social media hypes as part of his PhD research.

Social media hypes about agro-food issues: Activism, scandals and conflicts

Abstract
Events and controversies in the agro-food domain frequently generate peak selective activity on social media. These social media hypes are a concern to stakeholders because they can affect public opinion and policy, and are almost impossible to predict. This study develops a model for analysing social media hypes and builds a typology to provide insights into the dynamics of social media hypes in the context of agro-food governance. Five cases of peak social media activity in the Dutch livestock sector are analysed along four dimensions: (1) peak patterns of activity, (2) issues and frames, (3) interaction of actors, and (4) media interplay. An analysis of the dimensions and the interrelations across cases shows that social media hypes revolve around activism, scandals, and conflicts – each with characteristic patterns of activity, framing, interaction and media interplay. Hypes do not just result from important events in the sector, but are generated through the use of organizing concepts with a hashtag to evaluate and establish occasions. Peak activity thus revolves around a few themes and is recurrent and judgmental. Moreover, stakeholders play an active role in instigating and framing social media hypes. Our results show the need to adopt a proactive and interactive approach that transcends the view of social media as a mere communication channel to respond in crisis situations.

Stevens, T. M., Aarts, N., Termeer, C. J. A. M., & Dewulf, A. (2018). Social media hypes about agro-food issues: Activism, scandals and conflicts. Food Policy, (February). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodpol.2018.04.009

Does information on the interdependence of climate adaptation measures stimulate collaboration?

As a final result of the ECOMPRIS project, a paper has been published in Regional Environmental change. It is the result of an interdisciplinary collaboration between Merel van der Wal, Paul Opdam, Ingrid Coninx, Eveline Steingröver, Sven Stremke and myself, led by Claire Vos.

Does information on the interdependence of climate adaptation measures stimulate collaboration? A case study analysis

A key issue in implementing adaptation strategies at the landscape level is that landowners take measures on their land collectively. We explored the role of information in collective decision-making in a landscape planning process in the Baakse Beek region, the Netherlands. Information was provided on (a) the degree to which measures contribute to multiple purposes, (b) whether they are beneficial to stakeholders representing different sectors of land use, and (c) the need for landscape-level implementation of adaptation measures. Our analysis suggests that the negotiation process resulted in collective decisions for more collaborative adaptation measures than could be expected from individual preferences previous to the planning session. Based on the results, it is plausible that the provided information enhanced integrative agreements by leading stakeholders to realize that they were mutually interdependent, both in acquiring individual benefits as well as in implementing the measures at the landscape level. Our findings are significant in the context of the emerging insight that targeted information provision for climate adaptation of landscapes can support collaboration between the relevant stakeholders.

The paper is published Open Access and is freely available at https://doi.org/10.1007/s10113-018-1306-x

Results from the Mountain-EVO project: two publications on the social and hydrological aspects of water

Two publications resulting from the Mountain-EVO project have become available. They both address the social and hydrological aspects of water governance.

The paper by Feng Mao and others addresses the implications of how social and hydrological systems are conceptualized when studying their resilience. The paper by Julian Clark and others develops a theoretical framework on hydrosocialities and applies it to two remote mountain communities in the Mustang region in Nepal.

Mao, F., Clark, J., Karpouzoglou, T., Dewulf, A., Buytaert, W., & Hannah, D. (2017). HESS Opinions: A conceptual framework for assessing socio-hydrological resilience under change. Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, 21(7), 3655–3670. https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-21-3655-2017

Clark, J., Gurung, P., Chapagain, P. S., Regmi, S., Bhusal, J. K., Karpouzoglou, T., … Dewulf, A. (2017). Water as Time-Substance: The Hydrosocialities of Climate Change in Nepal. Annals of the American Association of Geographers, 4452(July), 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1080/24694452.2017.1329005

User-driven design of decision support systems for polycentric environmental resources management

Another result from the Mountain-EVO project has been published in Environmental Modelling and Software. The paper was led by Zed Zulkafli, former postdoc at Imperial College and now Lecturer at Universiti Putra Malaysia. The paper presents and a participatory framework for designing decision-support systems that builds on understanding the decision making processes and on iterative design of the user interface. The framework is illustrated with a Peruvian case study.

User-driven design of decision support systems for polycentric environmental resources management

Open and decentralized technologies such as the Internet provide increasing opportunities to create knowledge and deliver computer-based decision support for multiple types of users across scales. However, environmental decision support systems/tools (henceforth EDSS) are often strongly science-driven and assuming single types of decision makers, and hence poorly suited for more decentralized and polycentric decision making contexts. In such contexts, EDSS need to be tailored to meet diverse user requirements to ensure that it provides useful (relevant), usable (intuitive), and exchangeable (institutionally unobstructed) information for decision support for different types of actors. To address these issues, we present a participatory framework for designing EDSS that emphasizes a more complete understanding of the decision making structures and iterative design of the user interface. We illustrate the application of the framework through a case study within the context of water-stressed upstream/downstream communities in Lima, Peru.

Zulkafli, Z., Perez, K., Vitolo, C., Buytaert, W., Karpouzoglou, T., Dewulf, A., … Shaheed, S. (2017). User-driven design of decision support systems for polycentric environmental resources management. Environmental Modelling & Software, 88, 58–73. 

The is open access and can be downloaded from http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.envsoft.2016.10.012

Coping with the wicked problem of climate adaptation across scales: The 5-R Governance Capabilities

As part of a special issue on Working with wicked problems in socio-ecological systems a paper based on a collaborative effort between members of the Public Administration and Policy (Wageningen University) has been published in the journal Landscape and Urban Planning. The paper builds on and extends the Governance Capabilities framework developed earlier by our group (see Termeer et al., 2013), and applies to the analysis of the governance of climate change adaptation. Each of the governance capabilities addresses a particular dimension of wicked problems, and absence of the capability leads to particular risks (see the table below).

This is the abstract of the paper:

Adapting social-ecological systems to the projected effects of climate change is not only a complex technical matter but above all a demanding governance issue. As climate change has all the characteristics of a wicked problem, conventional strategies of governance do not seem to work. However, most conventional governance institutions are poorly equipped to enable, or at least tolerate, innovative strategies. This paper analyses the various strategies used to cope with the wicked problem of climate adaptation across scales, and the institutional conditions that enable or constrain such strategies. For this, it relies on a theoretical framework consisting of five governance capabilities that are considered crucial for coping with wicked problems: reflexivity, resilience, responsiveness, revitalization and rescaling. This framework is used to analyse the governance of adaptation to climate change at three different levels: the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and its activities to assist adaptation; the European Union and its climate adaptation strategy; and the Netherlands and its Delta Program. The results show that conventional governance strategies are rather absent and that mixtures of reflexive, resilient, responsive, revitalizing and rescaling strategies were visible at all levels, although not equally well developed and important. In contrast to the literature, we found many examples of enabling institutional conditions. The constraining conditions, which were also present, tend to lead more to postponement than to obstruction of decision-making processes.

Termeer, C. J. A. M., Dewulf, A., Karlsson-Vinkhuyzen, S. I., Vink, M. J., & Vliet, M. van (2016). Coping with the wicked problem of climate adaptation across scales: The Five R Governance Capabilities. Landscape and Urban Planning, 154, 11–19.

The paper can be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2016.01.007 or downloaded here

Framing ecosystem services at the landscape scale: two publications from the ECOMPRIS project

As part of strategic research programme of Wageningen University on Informational Governance for Sustainability, several research projects are on-going. I'm involved in the interdisciplinary ECOMPRIS project that has come to an end in December 2015. Two more publications have resulted from this project.

Framing ecosystem services: Affecting behaviour of actors in collaborative landscape planning?

Land Use Policy, 46 (2015) 223-231

Paul Opdam, Ingrid Coninx, Art Dewulf, Eveliene Steingröver, Claire Vos, Merel van der Wal

The concept of ecosystem services shifts the human–nature relationship from a conservation-oriented into a utility-oriented one. Advocates of the concept assume that it can alter the attitude and behaviour of human actors with respect to nature. The ecosystem services concept has so far received little attention in scientific literature about collaborative landscape planning. Consequently the potential of information about ecosystem services to influence landscape planning processes is unknown. In this paper we address the impact of different storylines about ecosystem services on actor behaviour. In these storylines, we distinguish three frames on ecosystem services: a social–cultural frame (emphasizing social–cultural services), an economic frame (emphasizing production services) and a sustainability frame (highlighting regulation services). We propose a conceptual framework in which we connect the concept of framing to attitudinal, sender–receiver and contextual factors. The framework is illustrated by a spatial planning experiment with academic students and by a case of collaborative landscape planning. The student exper- iment illustrates how attitudinal factors may intervene in the impact frames on actor behaviour. The case analysis shows how researchers who facilitated collaborative landscape planning used various frames as they attempted to build up the actor network to create collaborative relations in different phases of the planning process. The significance of our paper is that we provide an approach to investigate how information on ecosystem service benefits is processed by multiple actors in collaborative landscape planning processes. Our exploration implies that planners who facilitate a collaborative planning pro- cess have to be aware that purposively using ecosystem service frames stimulates engagement of actors with diverging backgrounds

This publication can be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2015.02.008 or downloaded here

Does information on landscape benefits influence collective action in landscape governance?

Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, 18 (2016), 107-114

Paul Opdam, Ingrid Coninx, Art Dewulf, Eveliene Steingröver, Claire Vos, Merel van der Wal

There is general understanding that collaboration is a key element in the governance for a sustainable environment. In this context knowledge utilization has become a popular research topic. However, the role of information content in enhancing collaboration has been rarely addressed. We consider two types of information on mutual dependencies between actors that result from ecological interdependencies in the landscape: information on landscape sites providing multiple benefits to a range of stakeholders, and information on how these benefits depend on coordinated landscape–level management. Our survey of recent literature indicates that although there is a sound theoretical basis for the assumption that such information would enhance collaboration, the issue has been the subject of little empirical research thus far. We found some supporting studies demonstrating social network building and collective action, but none of them separated the effect of the information content from the effect of the organized social learning process. To increase understanding of the potential for informational governance of landscapes resources, we argue there is a need to integrate recent advances in the analysis of social network building in environmental management with emerging insights in knowledge utilization and spatial interdependencies of landscape benefits.

This publication can be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cosust.2015.12.006 or downloaded here

EVOs, knowledge and resilience in the digital age

As a result of the Mountain-EVO project, an article has appeared on-line in the journal Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability on Environmental Virtual Observatories (EVOs). It has been written by scholars from Imperial College, Birmingham University and Wageningen University, led by the project postdocs Timothy Karpouzoglou and Zed Zulkafli.

Environmental Virtual Observatories (EVOs): prospects for knowledge co-creation and resilience in the Information Age

Timothy Karpouzoglou, Zed Zulkafli, Sam Grainger, Art Dewulf, Wouter Buytaert, David M Hannah

Developments in technologies are shaping information access globally. This presents opportunities and challenges for understanding the role of new technologies in sustainability research. This article focuses on a suite of technologies termed Environmental Virtual Observatories (EVOs) developed for communicating observations and simulation of environmental processes. A strength of EVOs is that they are open and decentralised, thus democratising flow and ownership of information between multiple actors. However, EVOs are discussed rarely beyond their technical aspects. By evaluating the evolution of EVOs, we illustrate why it is timely to engage with policy and societal aspects as well. While first generation EVOs are primed for scientists, second generation EVOs can have broader implications for knowledge co-creation and resilience through their participatory design.

The article is Open Access and can be found at  http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cosust.2015.07.015

Karpouzoglou, T., Zulkafli, Z., Grainger, S., Dewulf, A., Buytaert, W., & Hannah, D. M. (2016). Environmental Virtual Observatories (EVOs): prospects for knowledge co-creation and resilience in the Information Age. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, 18, 40–48. doi:10.1016/j.cosust.2015.07.015

Governing the future of the delta? An article and a PhD position.

The climate change issue has put a long term decision-making horizon high on the agenda of water governance in delta areas. Long term planning seems more needed than ever, but the future presents itself as broad range of possible scenarios - climate scenarios, socio-economic scenarios, political scenarios, ... - surrounded by irreducible uncertainties. Does this mean we can do nothing more than wait and see, try to adapt to whatever happens, and hope for the best? Not necessarily. Bringing long term considerations into short term decision-making might be both feasible and fruitful.

A paper on this topic, which I co-authored with Katrien Termeer, just appeared on-line in the Journal of Water and Climate Change (http://www.iwaponline.com/jwc/up/jwc2015117.htm). The paper is about the potential of adaptive delta management to contribute to governance capabilities for dealing with the wicked problem of climate change adaptation. This is the abstract:

Due to the long term character of the policy issue, the associated uncertainties and the large variety of affected stakeholders, adapting densely populated delta areas to the impacts of climate change is an important governance challenge and a wicked problem. In this paper, we analyse adaptive delta management (ADM), a policy development approach that relies on adaptation tipping points and adaptation pathways, used by the Dutch Delta Programme to climate proof the Dutch delta. ADM operationalizes adaptive management ideas for the long term governance of river deltas. Taking a governance perspective, we assess the potential of ADM to contribute to each of the five governance capabilities required to deal with wicked problems: reflexivity, responsiveness, resilience, revitalization and rescaling. We conclude that ADM can contribute substantially to the governance capabilities of resilience (through robustness and flexibility) and rescaling (through addressing the time scale mismatch). ADM has the potential to contribute to the governance capabilities of reflexivity and responsiveness, but also has some characteristics that could result in non-reflexivity and non-responsiveness. Enabling ADM as a policy development approach for long term issues requires a long term commitment to iterative policy revision, flexibility and learning in the broader governance system.

The paper can be downloaded here

Work on this topic will continue. Last month, the Ducht Research Council (NWO) awarded a grant for a 4-year project "Deciding about the New Delta: Towards governance arrangements that enable forward-looking decisions on critical water infrastructure". Water management infrastructure has a critical role in enabling and protecting the myriad of activities and resources in deltas all over the world. However, decision-making about constructing, replacing and maintaining structures with lifetimes of 50-100 years has to account for highly uncertain long-term developments, including socio-economic and biophysical developments. Moreover, most existing governance arrangements are ill-equipped to enable forward-looking decisions due to short electoral cycles, vested interests in the status quo, inability to deal with uncertainties, and the tendency to discount the future. The overall question addressed by the PhD position in this project is: how can governance arrangements enable the incorporation of long-term developments in short-term decisions on water management infrastructure? The focus of this project will be on two types of physical assets in the Dutch delta where forward-looking decisions are urgent and consequential: hydraulic structures and wastewater systems. Partners in this project are Rijkswaterstaat, RIONED, Tauw, Hanzehogeschool Grongingen, and waterboard Zuiderzeeland.

This means we are currently looking for a candidate for this PhD position at the Public Administration and Policy group at Wageningen University. We are looking for a social scientist with a completed Master's degree in public administration or related discipline, excellent research skills and a keen interest in water governance and long-term policy issues.

Applications are welcome until 6 September 2015 through this link:
http://www.wageningenur.nl/en/Jobs/Vacancies/Show/PhD-position-governance-arrangements-enabling-forwardlooking-decisions-on-critical-water-infrastructure.htm


 

Informational governance projects at Wageningen University

As part of strategic research programme of Wageningen University on Informational Governance for Sustainability, several research projects are on-going. I'm involved in two of them and they have produced nice factsheets that give an overview of these projects. Click on the banners or links below for the factsheets.

Factsheet ECOMPRIS: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0By5AhRfmoR2fQ3lCTWJlM1pMVk0
Factsheet social media: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0By5AhRfmoR2fcXg2c1FQYm84R1k/

Adaptive governance of mountain ecosystem services for poverty alleviation

More than a year ago we drafted a one-page project idea about citizen science, virtual observatories, social networks and adaptive governance for the ESPA (Ecosystem Services for Poverty Alleviation) call of the British Research Council. Then followed a number of important steps, including a brainstorming session in a coffee bar in Lima, an exercise in interdisciplinary proposal writing and a joint effort to draft a response to the reviews. Last month, Wouter Buytaert (PI of the proposal at Imperial College), David Hannah (Co-PI at Birmingham) and myself (Co-PI at Wageningen) were invited to defend our proposal in London. A week later we received the good news that the proposal had been recommended for funding by the ESPA board!

The project is meant to start in the fall, and we will be looking for a social science postdoc (3-year, full time, based at Wageningen) in this cross-disciplinary research project. This position will involve working with local researchers in  mountain regions in Peru, Ethiopia, Kyrgizstan and Nepal. The title and a summary of the project can be found below.

Adaptive governance of mountain ecosystem services for poverty alleviation enabled by environmental virtual observatories (MOUNTAIN-EVO)

Ecosystem services (ESS) management can alleviate poverty if it is embedded in local processes of adaptive governance that rely on continuous monitoring and knowledge co-generation. This is especially the case in remote mountain regions, where poverty is often interlocked with multiple ecosystem threats, data scarcity, and high uncertainties. In these environments, it is paramount to generate locally relevant knowledge about multiple ESS and how they impact local livelihoods. This is often problematic. Existing environmental data  collection tends to be geographically biased towards more densely populated regions, and prioritised towards strategic economic activities that bypass the poor. Data may also be locked behind institutional and technological barriers and monopolised by the better educated or politically connected. These issues create a “knowledge trap” for data-poor regions, which is especially acute in remote and hard-to-reach mountain regions. This project will blend cutting-edge concepts of adaptive governance with technological breakthroughs in citizen science and knowledge co-generation to break this vicious circle.

Our central research question is how recent conceptual and technological innovations in environmental sensing, data processing, interactive visualisation and participatory knowledge generation can be leveraged to implement demand-driven, interactive and multidirectional approaches to knowledge generation about ESS. Our approach to this question is built around the notion of Environmental Virtual Observatories: decentralised and open technology platforms for knowledge generation and exchange that enable participation of marginalised and vulnerable communities bypassed by the traditional mechanisms.

Our case studies are 4 remote and poor mountain regions characterised by acute degradation of ESS, in particular water supply, soil fertility, and land cover. We will implement a process of participatory data collection and processing on these ESS and their trade-offs, embedded in the local NGO and educational setting. Mechanisms of continuous evaluation and improvements will be set up, and tested for usefulness, robustness and impact on human wellbeing. Our goal is not to develop specific solutions to specific problems. Rather, we will leverage the cross-disciplinary nature of our consortium to create a flexible and adaptive set of tools, methods and concepts to promote resilient ESS for poverty alleviation.

PhD position on the role of social media hypes and controversies in sustainability governance

As part of the Informational Governance research programme at Wageningen University, a proposal for a Phd project submitted by Noelle Aarts (Strategic Communication group) and myself (Public Administration and Policy group) has been granted! We are now looking for a PhD candidate on the following topic:

Social media as the new playing field for the governance of sustainable agro-food systems: Twitter hypes, controversies and stakeholders’ strategies

Governmental, business and civil society organizations engaged in the governance of sustainable agro-food systems face the challenge of dealing with an increasingly important but capricious public sphere formed by the social media. Public and private decision-making processes about sustainable agro-food systems are increasingly affected by both hypes and controversies in the social media, often through their interplay with mass media like newspapers, radio or television. Little is known, however, about what happens to information about sustainable agro-food systems when it travels through social media networks, or when and how hypes or controversies arise. To deal with this capricious public sphere, governmental, business or civil society organizations are developing and trying out strategies for monitoring or engaging with social media, but little is known about what these communication strategies entail and what their impact is. By monitoring and analysing Twitter activity related to sustainable agro-food systems, this project will study (1) when and how information leads to hypes or controversies on Twitter; (2) which social media strategies are used by governmental, business and civil society organizations to deal with this new public sphere; and (3) what the impact is on public and private decision-making processes about sustainable agro-food systems.

We are looking for someone with a keen interest in communication and sustainability governance, familiarity with social media and ICT tools, and preferably a background in both quantitative and qualitative research methods. The official job opening for a 4-year Phd position at Wageningen University can be found at www.academictransfer.com/17549. The deadline for applications is March 17th. You can contact Noelle or myself if you need more information.

PhD position on “Multi-actor governance for sustainable materials management”

In the framework of the policy support centre on sustainable materials management (SuMMa) of the Flemish government that will start in 2012, a PhD position is available on the topic of “Multi-actor governance for sustainable materials management”. The PhD researcher will be employed at the HUBrussel and jointly supervised with Wageningen University. The promoter of the PhD research will be Prof. Dr. ir. Katrien Termeer (Wageningen University) and co-promoters will be Marc Craps (HUBrussel) and myself.

For more information or to apply, please contact Marc Craps or Art Dewulf.

Description of the project

The governance challenges for sustainable materials management are manifold. Entire production and consumptions systems need to be innovated to be able to close the materials circle, requiring transformations from linear supply chains to production-consumption-production cycles. Even without considering the challenges of redesigning material flows on a global level, these transformations present difficult exercises in steering society in a more sustainable direction. Multi-actor governance, implying cooperation between a wide range of public and private actors, is required to make this happen. Working across the boundaries of organizations will be necessary, between government organizations, designers, industries, retailers, NGO’s, consumers, research and education etc. Closing materials cycles creates new interdependencies between government and businesses (e.g. coordinating innovations in materials processing with regulations on production systems and waste treatment), and between producers and consumers (e.g. producers start to depend on consumers for their supply of reusable materials).
Multi-actor governance implies a broad innovation in the public policy field. Focusing on policy networks and policy communities is both more encompassing and discriminating. It involves attention to informal, non-governmental as well as formal, governmental mechanisms, and further differentiation of actors and relationships within the government as well as in society. In any policy domain, a variety of actors take initiatives to achieve their objectives and develop relationships to influence the outcomes. This multi-actor process shapes societal coordination. The patterns that emerge do not rest solely on government authority, but on a multiplicity of in(ter)dependent actors, specific to the policy arena. As such, the networks that develop in this process are – at least to large extent – self-organizing. They function as informal social systems, rather than bureaucratic structures, based on mutual, open-ended commitment, rather than formal contracts.
This research project involves answering fundamental questions, like how can existing concepts and theoretical frameworks on multi-actor collaboration be further developed to make them relevant and applicable for the complex sustainability challenges of materials management? It also involves applied research questions related to the concrete Flemish cases and practices at the core of this research proposal.

Requirements

We are looking for a social scientist with a background in public administration, policy sciences, organization sciences, or communication sciences and a keen interest in multi-actor governance and interaction processes in complex sustainability issues. Academic writing skills are important, because the dissertation will be composed of journal articles in international peer reviewed journals. Fluency in Dutch and English and good communication skills are required to work with stakeholders in cases of sustainable materials management. Experience with empirical research projects, interdisciplinary research, group process facilitation and both qualitative and quantitative research methods will be considered as an advantage.

Uncertainties in climate change projections and water management

The interdisciplinary paper on "Uncertainties in climate change projections and regional downscaling in the tropical Andes: implications for water resources management" has been accepted and published in the open access journal Hydrology and Earth System Sciences. This is the full reference:

Buytaert, W., Vuille, M., Dewulf, A., Urrutia, R., Karmalkar, A., and Célleri, R.: Uncertainties in climate change projections and regional downscaling in the tropical Andes: implications for water resources management, Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, 14, 1247-1258, doi:10.5194/hess-14-1247-2010, 2010.

The paper can be downloaded here. My contribution focuses on the possibilities of adaptive (rather than "predict-and-control") approaches in the face of severe uncertainties about future scenarios.

The cooperation with Wouter Buytaert (now at Imperial College in London) has also recently resulted in a research grant from the UK Natural Environment Research Council for a project entitled "Towards a virtual observatory for ecosystem services and poverty alleviation", as part of the Ecosystem Services for Poverty Alleviation Programme. Guided by three diverse case studies in the Andes and the Amazon basin, we will develop techniques and methods for the identification of priority issues and beneficiaries, communication of model simulations, and integrating local managers' knowledge and practice in modelling systems.

(Re)framing uncertainties in water management practice

The title of this post is also the title of the recently completed dissertation by Dr. (!) Nicola Isendahl at the University of Osnabrück. Before a commission consisting of Claudia Pahl-Wostl, Jens Newig, Carolin Rettig and myself, Nicola defended her dissertation succesfully on March 24th!

Apart from a theoretical and methodological discussion of uncertainties, frames and water management strategies, the dissertation summarizes the results of three journal articles. The third one (actually the second in the order of the dissertation), entitled "Using framing parameters to improve handling of uncertainties in water management practice" has just been published in Environmental Policy and Governance and can also be downloaded here. With an eye to practical usefulness, a recurring theme in Nicola's dissertation, the identified parameters or dimensions of how water managers frame uncertainties, are used as starting points for developing strategies for dealing with the uncertainties. Some of these strategies involve reframing how the uncertainties are understood to identify new options. This is a quote from the abstract:

"We apply recently developed parameters of the framing of uncertainty in two sub-basins of the Rhine, the Dutch Kromme Rijn and the German Wupper. We present and discuss the results of a series of stakeholder interactions in the two basins aimed at developing strategies for improving dealing with uncertainties. The strategies are amended and synthesized in a check-list based on the uncertainty framing parameters as a hands-on tool for systematically identifying improvement options when dealing with uncertainty in water management practice."

Given the policies of the University of Osnabrück, the whole dissertation should become publicly available soon.

Knowledge for Climate PhD position “Making sense of climate impacts" at Wageningen University

After favourable review by scientific and societal referees, the Knowledge for Climate board has decided to fund the full proposal submitted by our "Governance of Climate Adaptation" consortium! The consortium has been awarded the Center of Excellence label. In the framework of this 4-year research and action programme, we are looking for candidates for the following PhD position at our group (www.pap.wur.nl)

“Making sense of climate impacts: Understanding and dealing with the variety of climate change frames in governance processes”

Promotor: Prof. Dr. Katrien Termeer
Co-promotor: Dr. Art Dewulf

Behind the apparent consensus that climate change is an important issue, a world of different perspectives or frames emerges (Benford & Snow, 2000; Chong & Druckman, 2007; Dewulf, et al., 2009; Schön & Rein, 1994). Effective, legitimate and resilient adaptation strategies require more than a broad agreement that climate change is important. First, in a new and not yet institutionalized policy domain, tuning with sectors like spatial planning, water, nature, agriculture, industry or infrastructure becomes crucial – these different worlds need to be connected somehow and the spatial scale for doing so is not self-evident. Second, in a multi-level governance context (Hooghe & Marks, 2003), tuning is also needed between local, regional, national and international levels on the administrative scale, which operate with different frames of reference. Third, the time scale for climate change goes much further than the usual planning horizon of governments, companies or societal organizations (Haug, et al., 2009). The long term scenarios for climate impacts, although plausible, do involve margins of uncertainty, which can be used as excuses not to act (Keeling, 2009).

All of this provides endless possibilities to frame the seriousness, urgency or scale of climate adaptation in widely diverging ways. The increasingly polarized discussion between ‘climate sceptics’ and ‘climate alarmists’, which has reached the mainstream media and political parties, testifies to this. Therefore, the variety of climate adaptation frames is likely to play an important role in climate adaptation governance processes, and we assume that the way these frame differences are handled will affect the progress and outcomes of these governance processes.

The aim of this research project is to answer this key question: How to realize effective, legitimate and resilient adaptation strategies in a situation of diverging frames about spatial, temporal and administrative scales for climate adaptation, within and between governments, businesses, scientists, societal actors and the media? The following research questions will be addressed:

• How do the actors in climate adaptation policy processes interactively deal with their frame differences?
• What is the potential of these ways of dealing with frame differences to prevent (or stir up) controversies?
• What is the influence of climate frames in the media on climate frames or controversies in policy processes?
• Which interventions for dealing with multiple frames can contribute to effective, legitimate and resilient climate adaptation and how?

The research will be carried out in cooperation with stakeholders from Dutch regional 'hotspots' for climate adaptation, therefore fluency in Dutch is required. Are you interested or do you know potential candidates? Please contact art . dewulf @ wur . nl (without the spaces).

Knowledge for Governance of Climate Adaptation

Knowledge for Climate is a research programme for the development of knowledge and services that make it possible to climate proof the Netherlands. Governmental organisations (central government, provinces, municipalities and water boards) and businesses, actively participate in research programming through the input of additional resources (matching). The overall goal is to assess investments to be made in spatial planning and infrastructure over the coming twenty years in terms of their resistance to climate change, and for making changes where necessary.

Our Public Administration and Policy Group at Wageningen University has brought together a consortium with Utrecht University, VU Amsterdam, Radboud University Nijmegen and Erasmus University Rotterdam, that has submitted the winning pre-proposal for research into the governance of climate adaptation. We are now very busy developing the full proposal, together with regional hotspot partners and our international academic partners: University of East Anglia, Stockholm Resilience Center and Oldenburg University.

The summary of the project pre-proposal reads as follows:

"Climate proofing the Netherlands is not only a technical issue but also a demanding matter of governance. The specific complexities of adaptation governance call for new advanced governance knowledge. This programme will develop and test forms of governance that can contribute to realizing adaptation options, and to increasing the adaptive capacity of society.

The program will be concentrated around four concepts and corresponding work packages:
- organizing connectivity
- (re)allocating responsibilities and risks
- coping with controversies
- normative principles for adaptation

To fulfil the dual ambition of developing practically relevant and scientifically sound knowledge, two supporting methodological work packages will be set up: collaborative action research and comparative analysis across regional and national boundaries. This interdisciplinary programme will result in new insights in climate governance; tested governance strategies, instruments and structures; innovative methods; and international comparison of adaptation efforts between Netherlands, Sweden, Germany and UK."

If all goes well, we could start setting up action research projects on climate adaptation strategies with a group of 8 PhDs, a postdoc and a number of senior researchers from the involved universities, as of March 2010. But first, the full proposal has to worked out, projects have to be defined and substantial co-funding needs to be committed by hotspot partners.