Upcoming conferences

A number of interesting conferences are in sight, most of which I will have to miss because of an imminent family enlargement, but you might be able to make it. I did (or still have to) work on a number of contributions together with other authors.

IRSPM, Copenhagen
The 13th Annual Conference of the International Research Society for Public Management, Copenhagen Business School, April 6, 2009 – April 8, 2009.
Together with Katrien Termeer I worked on a paper in the Panel track 'Managing transitions in public sector infrastructure' entitled "Theoretical multiplicity for the governance of transitions: the energy producing greenhouse case".

ECPR Joint Sessions, Lissabon
The Joint Sessions of workshops of the European Consortium of Political Research, 14th - 19th April 2009.
Together with Maartje van Lieshout, Katrien Termeer and Noelle Aarts, I work on a paper for the session 'Studying the Political through Frame Analysis' entitled "Framing scales and scaling frames".

IHDP, Bonn
7th International Science Conference on the Human Dimensions of Global Environmental Change (Open Meeting), "Social Challenges of Global Change" originally scheduled for 15-19 October 2008, will take place from April 26-30 2009 in Bonn, Germany.
Together with Helen Ingram, Marcela Brugnach and Katrien Termeer, I'm working on a paper for the session 'Institutionally challenged: history and prospects of managing river basins in a changing global environment', entitled "The Co-Production of Knowledge about Water Resources: Framing, Uncertainty and Climate Change".

KSI, Amsterdam
First European Conference on Sustainability Transitions: Dynamics & Governance of Transitions to Sustainability, 4th to 6th June 2009Felix Meritis, Amsterdam.
Together with my colleagues at the Public Administration and Policy Group, Katrien Termeer, Renate Werkman and Gerard Breeman, I worked on a paper entitled "The value of theoretical multiplicity for steering transitions towards sustainability".

MOPAN, Dublin
16th Annual Conference on Multi-Organisational Partnerships, Alliances and Networks (MOPAN), NUI Maynooth, June 17th - 20th 2009.
Together with the network for reserach and facilitation of multi-actor collaboration 'Cycloop' I'm organizing a Symposium “Competing claims on space – Framing interests in multi-actor collaboration”

AISDRC, Utrecht
15th Annual International Sustainable Development Research Conference July 5-8, 2009, Utrecht, Netherlands.

"Disentangling approaches to framing" paper just published in Human Relations

It all started in October 2004 in Wageningen. Still a PhD student at the University of Leuven at the time, I was lucky to join a small group of experienced scholars in the field of framing research. Together with Barbara Gray, Roy Lewicki, Linda Putnam, Noelle Aarts, René Bouwen and Cees van Woerkum, we spent a weekend at Hotel 'De Wageningse Berg' to sort out the conceptual confusion among framing researchers. The basis for the 3 by 2 matrix of approaches to framing research was developed there. Now, four years, numerous revisions and a move to Wageningen later, Human Relations has published our article in its February 2009 issue. If you are interested in how people make sense in and of conflicts and negotiations, in the differences and overlaps between cognitive and interactional approaches to framing, or in the potential contributions of embodied cognition or discursive psychology to framing research, then this article might be of use to you.

The final reference is:

Dewulf, A., Gray, B., Putnam, L., Lewicki, R., Aarts, M., Bouwen, R., & van Woerkum, C. (2009). Disentangling approaches to framing in conflict and negotiation research: a meta-paradigmatic perspective. Human Relations, 69(2), 155-193.

To download the article click here

MOPAN 2009 Call for papers

The call for papers is out for the

16th Annual MOPAN Conference

June 17th - 20th 2009

National University of Ireland, Maynooth

Here are some important dates:

Closing Date for Abstracts

Abstracts of proposed papers, posters and other media (500 words maximum) are due by Friday 13th March 2009 and should clearly indicate the content of the final paper / poster / other. (See registration dates & charges).

Closing Date for Full Papers

To be able to include them in the proceedings, full papers are due by Friday 15th May 2009.
All contributions should be submitted by e-mail to nirsa@nuim.ie.

More information can be found on the website: http://www.nuim.ie/nirsa/news/mopan_conference/index.shtml

Conference on Sustainability Transitions

The Dutch Knowledge Network on System Innovations has announced its International Conference for 2009:

First European Conference on Sustainability Transitions
Dynamics & Governance of Transitions to Sustainability

4th and 5th June 2009, Felix Meritis, Amsterdam, the Netherlands

Deadline for paper abstracts is January 31, 2009.

More information can be found on the conference website: http://www.ksinetwork.nl/conference2009/

Towards a relational concept of uncertainty

As the Newater project is approaching its completion, results and products are appearing at increasing speed. One of these is a paper on uncertainty authored by Marcela Brugnach and Claudia Pahl-Wostl (University of Osnabruck), Tharsi Taillieu (University of Leuven) and myself. This paper on 'knowing too little', 'knowing too differently' and 'accepting not to know' was recently published in Ecology and Society.

Abstract

Uncertainty of late has become an increasingly important and controversial topic in water resource management, and natural resources management in general. Diverse managing goals, changing environmental conditions, conflicting interests, and lack of predictability are some of the characteristics that decision makers have to face. This has resulted in the application and development of strategies such as adaptive management, which proposes flexibility and capability to adapt to unknown conditions as a way of dealing with uncertainties. However, this shift in ideas about managing has not always been accompanied by a general shift in the way uncertainties are understood and handled. To improve this situation, we believe it is necessary to recontextualize uncertainty in a broader way—relative to its role, meaning, and relationship with participants in decision making—because it is from this understanding that problems and solutions emerge. Under this view, solutions do not exclusively consist of eliminating or reducing uncertainty, but of reframing the problems as such so that they convey a different meaning. To this end, we propose a relational approach to uncertainty analysis. Here, we elaborate on this new conceptualization of uncertainty, and indicate some implications of this view for strategies for dealing with uncertainty in water management. We present an example as an illustration of these concepts.

Reference

Brugnach, M., A. Dewulf, C. Pahl-Wostl, and T. Taillieu. 2008. Toward a relational concept of uncertainty: about knowing too little, knowing too differently, and accepting not to know. Ecology and Society 13(2): 30. [online] URL: http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol13/iss2/art30/ (open access!)