The 2009 conference is hosted by The Science Shop, Queen's University Belfast

Civil participation in science shop projects

Introduction

In many science shop projects possible conflicts or oppositions between stakeholders have to be taken into account.  To really change things in these situations– science for impact – needs another kind of research in which the process is as important as the product (report).  Sometimes research leads to empowerment of the stakeholders.  Sometimes it leads to dialogue between opposing stakeholders. In these cases it is essential to co-create knowledge together with stakeholders.

Research process of science shop projects

Some examples of science shop projects are:

A garden-complex that will be built with houses (Van der Hoeven and Stobbelaar, 2006), a new road that can could lead along the houses of a village (Hoofwijk et al., 2007), trees in cities that bring biodiversity but also leaves in the gutter (Wolthuis et al., 2007) etc. The science shop of the Wageningen University and Research Centre gets a lot of research questions that are framed in opposing interests. This places research in a normative situation, which stresses the necessity of a clear methodology. Then, often the following steps are to be taken:

Research steps Role of stakeholders

Stakeholder analysis (social research) -Contributing to lists of names and interests

Description of the values at stake (social and natural research)  

Data finding - Adding local knowledge, doing field research

Scenario’s- Adding home-made scenario’s

Valuation of the scenario’s -Discussion among stakeholders

Results

The projects had impacts on different levels:

1.(Re) organisation of the client:   For instance ‘Ons Buiten’ a garden park in Utrecht had to reorganise itself to be able to cope with the wishes of other stakeholders, by opening up to the surroundings.

2.Discovery of new stakeholder groups:  For instance ‘The Dutch Tree Foundation’ became aware of the needs and wishes of the people in the street, while they normally focussed on politicians, officials and pressure groups. Now a new project of the Dutch Tree Foundation focussing on civilians is financed by the national government.

3. Empowerment of the client:  For instance ‘Erp Alert’ used the results to become a player that had to be taken into account, because of their unique insights (e.g. solutions on a higher level of scale).

4. New coalitions:   For example between the municipality and Ons Buiten, and even more surprising between Erp Alert and local entrepreneurs that are also in favour of their traffic solution.

Conclusions

1. In science shop projects locally based knowledge is created by merging the structural thinking and scientific knowledge of the researchers with the local knowledge of the stakeholders.  Both parties need each other for a result that can have impact.

2.The societal process created by doing research is as important as the knowledge created in the project.  The research forces stakeholders to define or to reconsider their positions, to think about possible coalitions and to discuss scenarios with the opposition. The impact of the projects is often a reshuffle of the social network.

Discussion questions

1. How to act in fast changing (political and societal) situations, where intentions and positions of the stakeholders are not clear?

2.How to assure the stakeholders that you as a researcher are not only working for the sake of your client, but also for the greater good?

3.How to involve crucial stakeholders that do not like to show their position?

Literature

Hoofwijk, H., D.J. Stobbelaar, R. Simons, R. Jaarsma. 2007. Traffic is like water…. Nuisance safety, accessibility and landscape quality in the case study Erp, Brabant (in Dutch) Science shop report 235, Wageningen University and Research Centre.

Van der Hoeven, N. & D.J. Stobbelaar, 2006. The additional value of garden parks. The meaning of garden parks in urban areas (in Dutch). Sciences shop report 222. Wageningen University and Research Centre.

Wolthuis, M. D.J. Stobbelaar, K. van Koppen, 2007. People about trees. Science shop report 234. Wageningen University and Research Centre.

Theme:

Knowledge exchange, transfer or exploitation?

Presenters Name:

Derk Jan Stobbelaar

Presenters Institution:

University of Applied Sciences Van Hall Larenstein, Wageningen University and Research Centre

Presenters Biography:

Dr. ir. D.J. Stobbelaar

Lecturer Nature and Landscape Science