Abstract
Values of the public are a key and dynamic component of bushfire governance SES. Learning to work with these values is a significant challenge for government and environmental managers and an important aspect of policy transition in many contexts. During such transitions, collaborative research can play a key role in social learning, but this may be particularly challenging for agencies with dominant expertise in technical and ecological domains. We examined how collaborative research supported social learning to incorporate values of the public in bushfire governance in the State of Victoria, Australia. Following disruption of a major bushfire, new policy directions were established, including greater attention to expectations and participation of communities in bushfire management. Among other actions, the state environmental agency supported this policy transition by establishing a 3-year research collaboration to better understand and incorporate values of the public in their decision making. As both participants and observers of this research, we analyzed publications, unpublished internal reports, and notes from meetings and workshops to identify how the collaborative research facilitated and constrained learning. Analysis revealed how collaborative research presents interruptions in the form of questioning of plans and routines (including of researchers), joint concept development, collection and sharing of new information, tensions within the research collaboration, idea generation building on research insights, and action research to develop new tools or frameworks. These forms of disruption operated in different ways, involving different groups of actors, levels of collaboration, and opportunities for feedback, and these in turn had implications for the forms of learning that occurred. Collaborative research also identified constraints to learning that, in some instances, set the stage for further learning, for example through capacity building and further research.
Highlights
Over a sustained period, researchers have called for better incorporation of values of communities and the broader public in environmental and social–ecological systems (SES) governance (e.g., Bengston 1994, Thacher and Rein 2004)
Collaborative research can play a key role in social learning, but this may be challenging for agencies with dominant expertise in technical and ecological domains
We examined how collaborative research supported social learning to incorporate values of the public in bushfire governance in the State of Victoria, Australia
Summary
Researchers have called for better incorporation of values of communities and the broader public in environmental and social–ecological systems (SES) governance (e.g., Bengston 1994, Thacher and Rein 2004). Develop a shared language for recognizing and talking about values Enhance organizational capacity in disciplines with expertise in understanding, measuring, and incorporating values in decision making Identify values and priorities relevant to bushfire and its management through social analysis and community engagement Use participatory processes for value identification and objective setting, e.g., value-based conversations Select values of the public and institutional values for objective setting and analysis Explicitly link objectives to values and valued properties of landscape and communities Structure analysis in relation to selected values and objectives Identify links between management actions and valued properties of SES Develop metrics and qualitative indicators that reflect values of public and relevant ways of knowing Use participatory processes to develop key tools such as asset registers (e.g., participatory mapping) Develop and evaluate a set of alternative management options that reflect full range of value priorities Use deliberative or structured approaches that explicitly evaluate options against values and objectives Design participatory processes to inform option selection (e.g., citizen juries) Develop value-based narratives to account for decisions She developed strategic questions that helped regional planning teams consider how these values might be related to landscape assets, or in other tangible ways be amenable to planning decisions, in part guided by the “pathways of valuing” described above. Some aspects of the case indicate double-loop learning, questioning how practice is undertaken: the question-based approach encouraged DELWP regional staff to consider qualitative information alongside the spatially based and quantitative assessment that was in routine use
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