Flurina Schneider

Researchers' roles in knowledge co-production: experience from sustainability research in Kenya, Switzerland, Bolivia and Nepal

Co-production of knowledge between academic and non-academic communities is a prerequisite for research aiming at more sustainable development paths. Sustainability researchers face three challenges in such co-production: (a) addressing power relations; (b) interrelating different perspectives on the issues at stake; and (c) promoting a previously negotiated orientation towards sustainable development. A systematic comparison of four sustainability research projects in Kenya (vulnerability to drought), Switzerland (soil protection), Bolivia and Nepal (conservation vs. development) shows how the researchers intuitively adopted three different roles to face these challenges: the roles of reflective scientist, intermediary, and facilitator of a joint learning process. From this systematized and iterative self-reflection on the roles that a researcher can assume in the indeterminate social space where knowledge is co-produced, we draw conclusions regarding training. Copyright , Beech Tree Publishing.

Envisioning sustainable water futures in a transdisciplinary learning process : combining normative, explorative, and participatory scenario approaches

Competing water demands for household consumption as well as the production of food, energy, and other uses pose challenges for water supply and sustainable development in many parts of the world. Designing creative strategies and learning processes for sustainable water governance is thus of prime importance. While this need is uncontested, suitable approaches still have to be found. In this article we present and evaluate a conceptual approach to scenario building aimed at transdisciplinary learning for sustainable water governance. The approach combines normative, explorative, and participatory scenario elements. This combination allows for adequate consideration of stakeholders’ and scientists’ systems, target, and transformation knowledge. Application of the approach in the MontanAqua project in the Swiss Alps confirmed its high potential for co-producing new knowledge and establishing a meaningful and deliberative dialogue between all actors involved. The iterative and combined approach ensured that stakeholders’ knowledge was adequately captured, fed into scientific analysis, and brought back to stakeholders in several cycles, thereby facilitating learning and co-production of new knowledge relevant for both stakeholders and scientists. However, the approach also revealed a number of constraints, including the enormous flexibility required of stakeholders and scientists in order for them to truly engage in the co-production of new knowledge. Overall, the study showed that shifts from strategic to communicative action are possible in an environment of mutual trust. This ultimately depends on creating conditions of interaction that place scientists’ and stakeholders’ knowledge on an equal footing.

Meeting the challenges of transdisciplinary knowledge production for sustainable water governance

Abstract Increasing pressure on mountain water resources is making it necessary to address water governance issues in a transdisciplinary way. This entails drawing on different disciplinary perspectives, different types of knowledge, and different interests to answer complex governance questions. This study identifies strategies for addressing specific challenges to transdisciplinary knowledge production aiming at sustainable and reflective water governance. The study draws on the experiences of 5 large transdisciplinary water governance research projects conducted in Austria and Switzerland (Alp-Water-Scarce, MontanAqua, Drought-CH, Sustainable Water Infrastructure Planning, and an integrative river management project in the Kamp Valley). Experiences were discussed and systematically analyzed in a workshop and subsequent interviews. These discussions identified 4 important challenges to interactions between scientists and stakeholders—ensuring stakeholder legitimacy, encouraging participation, managing expectations, and preventing misuse of data and research results—and explored strategies used by the projects to meet them. Strategies ranged from key points to be considered in stakeholder selection to measures that enhance trustful relationships and create commitment.

Assessing the sustainability of water governance systems: the sustainability wheel

We present and test a conceptual and methodological approach for interdisciplinary sustainability assessments of water governance systems based on what we call the sustainability wheel. The approach combines transparent identification of sustainability principles, their regional contextualization through sub-principles (indicators), and the scoring of these indicators through deliberative dialogue within an interdisciplinary team of researchers, taking into account their various qualitative and quantitative research results. The approach was applied to a sustainability assessment of a complex water governance system in the Swiss Alps. We conclude that the applied approach is advantageous for structuring complex and heterogeneous knowledge, gaining a holistic and comprehensive perspective on water sustainability, and communicating this perspective to stakeholders.

Exploring Water Governance Arrangements in the Swiss Alps From the Perspective of Adaptive Capacity

Abstract In times of increasing uncertainty because of climate and socioeconomic changes, the ability to deal with uncertainty and surprise is an essential requirement for the sustainability of alpine water governance. This article aims to contribute to the understanding of the adaptive capacity of water governance arrangements in the Swiss Alps and to propose options for reforms. To this purpose, we evaluated the current arrangements and the ways the actors have dealt with water shortages in the past, based on qualitative interviews and a document review. The research revealed that the adaptive capacity of the investigated arrangements is rather high with regard to reactive ways of responding to water shortage problems. However, there is limited capacity to proactively anticipate possible changes and to find prospective solutions on a regional scale. We conclude that with increased environmental and social pressures, forms of proactive water resource governance should be introduced, taking into account the welfare of people in both upstream and downstream areas.

Enhancing transformative research for sustainable development: mutual learning within the Future Earth research platform

In recent years, td research has been buoyed by a tailwind from the internatinal Future Earth research platform which stresses that knowledge for sustainability transformations should be coproduced in transdisciplinary ways. Future Earth is an emerging network on an international as well as on regional and national levels. It tries to push transdisciplinary research by encouraging the research community to implement transdisciplinary approaches and by providing training, as well as through their Knowledge Action Networks (KANs) that are meant to bridge gaps between disciplines and societal actors in sustainability transformations.

Montanaqua: tackling water stress in the alps: water management options in the crans-montana-sierre region (valais)

MontanAqua: Tackling Water Stress in the Alps. Water Management Options in the Crans-Montana-Sierre Region (Valais) GAIA 25/3(2016): 191–193 |

Nachhaltige Nutzung natürlicher Ressourcen: Der Beitrag der Sozial- und Geisteswissenschaften

Wie konnen die Sozial- und Geisteswissenschaften zur nachhaltigen Ressourcennutzung beitragen? Diese Frage wurde bei der SAGW-Tagung Nachhaltige Ressourcennutzung ‐ von der Evidenz zur Intervention diskutiert. Im Zentrum standen Fragen zu Werteorientierung und Gerechtigkeit, Einbeziehung von Stakeholdern und Umsetzungsorientierung sowie die disziplinenubergreifende Zusammenarbeit innerhalb der Geistes- und Sozialwissenschaften.

Potentials and constraints of modeling for transdisciplinary co-producing strategies for sustainable water governance

Both climate change and socio-economic development will significantly modify the supply and consumption of water in future. Consequently, regional development has to face aggravation of existing or emergence of new conflicts of interest. In this context, transdisciplinary co-production of knowledge is considered as an important means for coping with these challenges. Accordingly, the MontanAqua project aims at developing strategies for more sustainable water management in the study area Crans-Montana-Sierre (Switzerland) in a transdisciplinary way. It strives for co-producing system, target and transformation knowledge among researchers, policy makers, public administration and civil society organizations. The research process basically consisted of the following steps: First, the current water situation in the study region was investigated. How much water is available? How much water is being used? How are decisions on water distribution and use taken? Second, participatory scenario workshops were conducted in order to identify the stakeholders’ visions of regional development. Third, the water situation in 2050 was simulated by modeling the evolution of water resources and water use and by reflecting on the institutional aspects. These steps laid ground for jointly assessing the consequences of the stakeholders’ visions of development in view of scientific data regarding governance, availability and use of water in the region as well as developing necessary transformation knowledge. During all of these steps researchers have collaborated with stakeholders in the support group RegiEau. The RegiEau group consists of key representatives of owners, managers, users, and pressure groups related to water and landscape: representatives of the communes (mostly the presidents), the canton (administration and parliament), water management associations, agriculture, viticulture, hydropower, tourism, and landscape protection. The aim of the talk is to explore potentials and constraints of scientific modeling of water availability and use within the process of transdisciplinary co-producing strategies for more sustainable water governance.

Knowledge production and dissemination in sustainable agriculture as a transdisciplinary process – experiences from Switzerland

Implementation of innovation is traditionally described by the term “knowledge transfer”. It is mainly seen as a linear, one dimensional process and implies that technologies are supposed to be developed by research and transferred by extension services to users. Based on first insights into two research projects related to present experiences in soil conservation and to the evolution of organic agriculture in Switzerland it can be shown that the “linear model of knowledge transfer” is too limiting to address societal knowledge production for sustainable development. There is evidence that the described classical conceptions of knowledge production do not reflect the communication and innovation processes which have to be understood as a result of an interplay between everyday life and the structures in which it is embedded. Classical models imply a separation between the places, institutions and actors in the process of knowledge production at the one hand and knowledge use at the other. However, in practice the knowledge system of agriculture is much more complex. Farmer-to-farmer interactions and the knowledge backflow from farmers to researchers, extensionists and policy makers should not be neglected. Yet knowledge is exchanged and co-produced rather than transferred between these actors acting at different societal levels.