Boundary Organizations Research Articles

Regional climate change adaptation planning in Canada: Actors and their articulation

AbstractClimate change governance presents challenges and most of the responsibility for it is offloaded to local governments often ill‐equipped to deal with it. In Canada, where climate extremes are on the rise, regional adaptation governance structures have emerged as an avenue for more efficient adaptation. Governance at this scale has the potential to mutualize expertise and means, to involve local population, and favour a vertical integration of the adaptation process. From selected examples of regional collaboration on climate change adaptation, in this short viewpoint paper, we identify some factors favouring such initiatives. The presence of “boundary organizations” such as research centres or non‐governmental organizations that can act as catalysts, is a predictor in all our cases and has been proposed in literature before. Funding opportunities can of course offer a strong incentive for various actors to get together. Other factors such as geographical or cultural particularities can shape communities’ response to the stress of climate change. More research should be led into understanding these factors and translate them into policies favouring the emergence of regional adaptation instances, especially in rural coastal zones, in Canada.

Understanding evidence ecosystems: What influences the production, translation, and use of modeled evidence in Burkina Faso, Nigeria, India, and Kenya?

Background This study sought to document and understand facilitators and barriers to producing, translating, and using modeled evidence in decision-making in Burkina Faso, Nigeria, India, and Kenya. We explored researcher-decision-maker engagement mechanisms as key facilitators of evidence use, with a focus on knowledge brokers and boundary organizations. Methods The study used sequential mixed methods drawing on data collected from surveys and key informant interviews, complemented by a rapid desk review to map modeling activities and actors. The survey was conducted online while the qualitative research entailed in-depth interviews with modelers, knowledge brokers, and decision-makers working in a representative variety of health fields, organizations, and levels of government. This study was approved by Health Media Lab IRB (Institutional Review Board) in the United States and a local IRB in each study country and conducted between September 2021 and June 2022. Results Informants interviewed for this study described a range of factors that facilitate and inhibit the use of modeled evidence in public health decision-making at the individual, organizational, and environmental levels. Key themes included the capacity to produce, translate, and use modeled evidence; the timing and relevance of modeling outputs; the existence of communications channels between modelers and decision-makers; the strength of underlying data systems; the role of sustained funding; and the impact of global crises. Conclusion This study highlights the importance of taking an ecosystem approach to supporting modeling activities, considering individual, organizational, and environmental factors and how different actors and interact to inform the production, translation, and use of modeled evidence. Structured interaction that promotes dialogue, debate, and joint sense making between the producers and users of evidence is critical to informing and influencing the use of evidence in decision-making.

Between Governance and Markets: An Assessment of Environmental Boundary Organizations

Between Governance and Markets: An Assessment of Environmental Boundary Organizations

Linking boundary organizations to co-produce actionable knowledge: A case study of ice forecasting for Great Lakes navigation

Abstract Navigating the Great Lakes during icy conditions poses significant safety challenges for the shipping sector. Available ice information is uncertain and fragmented, and navigators must seek out multiple sources for information at the spatial and temporal scales they require, if the information is available at all. Navigators have expressed that they require more highly localized and easily usable information for current and predicted ice conditions to support decision-making. In this study, we seek to meet this information need by applying a boundary organizations chain (BOC) approach to facilitate the co-production of an actionable short-term Great Lakes ice forecast. We focus on two main aspects of this research: 1) producing an actionable decision-support product that meets the needs of Great Lakes ice navigators, and 2) contributing to the knowledge co-production scholarship on BOCs by providing a detailed account of our methods to create a BOC and co-produce an actionable ice forecast. Our results support incorporating existing communities of practice (COPs) into BOCs to enhance the co-production of actionable knowledge, specifically through increasing their complementarity and embeddedness. COPs are informal networks of users that meet voluntarily to share knowledge and develop professional skills, which we found naturally builds the co-production capacities of participants (e.g. embeddedness and complementarity). We also find that COP members are well positioned to disseminate co-produced knowledge across wider user groups.

Stakeholder Engagement as a Core Component of Recreational Marine Fisheries Research, Education, and Conservation

Effective modern conservation depends on active stakeholder participation. Although stakeholder engagement is increasing, the extent of this engagement and the successful application of outcomes to science and management varies regionally and among types of fisheries. A collaborative model that emphasizes knowledge coproduction with stakeholders better identifies research needs and conservation threats, and influences research and policy outcomes. Stakeholder integration can be facilitated by nongovernment organizations, such as boundary organizations. Bonefish and Tarpon Trust is a science‐based, conservation organization founded in 1998 by recreational fishers and fishing guides that focuses on marine recreational fisheries in the Caribbean Sea and western North Atlantic Ocean. The Trust engages fishers directly, incorporating their knowledge and perspectives to identify conservation concerns, shape research, contribute to data collection, and disseminate information, and work with resource managers and scientific researchers to address conservation and management needs. This approach is demonstrated in case studies that show integration of recreational fishers in science, assessment of conservation threats, and application of findings to management for the recreational flats fishery in the Caribbean Sea and western North Atlantic Ocean, in the context of broader efforts of stakeholder collaboration toward actionable science to inform management.

Navigating dilemmas with formalization of advisory processes: Views of practitioners in the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES)

Formalization is an important aspect of the provision of scientific advice, which has received limited scholarly attention, and needs further conceptualization. Drawing on Adler and Bory’s distinction between enabling and coercive formalization, we analyze advisory processes in a boundary organization. We do so with a case study of the provision of annual fisheries advice by the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES). Based on interviews, we describe advantages and drawbacks of formalization in the views of ICES practitioners. Our findings highlight the importance of formalization and reveals ongoing challenges with navigating trade-offs between formalization and ad hoc adaptation. Despite a high level of formalization, respondents generally perceive that formalization approaches in ICES provide suitable guidance for the processes of stock assessment and advice formulation. However, they also emphasize the needs for deviations from standard procedures, justified with reference to peculiarities of situations. Lessons from ICES’ approach to formalization can be of use for other advisory contexts.

I Think; Therefore, I am. Crafting the Strategic Identity of a Boundary Organisation

I Think; Therefore, I am. Crafting the Strategic Identity of a Boundary Organisation

Strategic boundary management in university‐based living labs

AbstractUniversity‐based boundary organisations provide academics with an environment where they can interact with a wide variety of societal partners to produce knowledge and work on research projects, often of a transdisciplinary nature. This environment, however, implies that their researchers may be confronted with multiple and sometimes conflicting demands coming from various stakeholders. In this study, we focus on one such case, a Real‐world Laboratory (RwL), set up by the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. This RwL focuses on urban sustainable development challenges. Drawing on boundary work literature, we analyse the boundary work strategies employed by the lab's leading researchers to manage such demands as part of a RwL research project. We observe that the managing researchers buffer several types of boundaries in order not to compromise the transdisciplinary nature of the RwL. They appear to utilise four types of boundary devices when managing boundaries: language, people, objects, and spaces. We conclude that, to reduce tensions, the managing researchers should acknowledge the presence of boundaries early on in their RwL research project, that is, during its conception phase.

The Discursive Boundary Work of Recontextualizing Science for Policy: Opening the Black Box of an Organization’s Genre System and Intermediary Genre Sets

Governments the world over require scientific knowledge to inform policy makers’ decision-making processes. The recontextualization of this information for nonscientific audiences has received much attention, though it has primarily focused on publicly available texts. Little is known about the discursive nature of how science is transformed and repurposed and the confidential writing performed by boundary organizations that are working between science and policy. This ethnographic study explores the collaborative discursive activity involved in efforts by a boundary organization—the Council of Canadian Academies—to recontextualize science for policy makers. The analysis opens the discursive black box of the genre system and intermediary genre sets involved in one project, which led to the publication and distribution of the boundary object of an advisory report, Older Canadians on the Move. I claim that the discursive boundary work involves a complex genre system containing several sequential genred activities through which science is transformed and a boundary object created.

Navigating complexity: looking at the potential contribution of a boundary organisation in Portugal to evidence-informed policy

Governments deal increasingly with multidimensional problems involving high levels of complexity. These so-called wicked problems, such as climate change, demand coordinated and coherent government action, as well as multi-stakeholder approaches. Boundary Organisations (BO), working at the knowledge-interface of the science–policy–society nexus may contribute substantially to both ends. This paper considers the potential contribution of the recently created Competence Centre for Planning, Policy, and Foresight of the Public Administration (PlanAPP), a Portuguese BO at the centre of government, to evidence-informed policy. To this goal, we focus on two streams of literature, Policy Coordination and Coherence (PCC) and Knowledge Governance (KG). An analytical framework with two dimensions is proposed: the first dimension considers if and how PlanAPP engages in boundary work; the second dimension looks at the activities that PlanAPP implements and their potential for PCC and KG. Our results support the idea that PlanAPP is promoting work on the knowledge-interface for public policy, with the potential to become a main player in supporting governments to address policy issues, including wicked problems, whilst potentially triggering a shift to knowledge governance in Portugal’s public administration. Nevertheless, PlanAPP could further intensify boundary activities, especially by increasing civil society participation and producing shared outputs that all actors involved recognise as legitimate, increasing trust in policy and institutions. This study’s methodology may be replicated to improve understanding of BOs and their contribution to policymaking in other contexts.

Indigenous peoples at the heritage–climate change nexus: Examining the effectiveness of UNESCO and the IPCC’s boundary work

Abstract There is increasing recognition that Indigenous knowledges have considerable potential to enhance collective understandings of and improve responses to complex ecological threats, such as those to cultural heritage from climate change. At the same time, it appears that Indigenous peoples face structural barriers to participation in international organisations that advance knowledge about those problems. Using the conceptual framework of boundary organisations (BOs) theory and case studies of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and UNESCO, I argue that the lack of meaningful Indigenous engagement in international knowledge institutions is not just an ethical problem; it also undermines the effectiveness of their assessments. The future success of their boundary work partly depends on further engagement with Indigenous stakeholders. At least at the heritage–climate change nexus, the salience, legitimacy, and credibility of IPCC and UNESCO assessments require substantive Indigenous representation alongside other state/non-state parties. Successful experiences in biodiversity governance indicate that incorporating the principles of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) would enhance Indigenous engagement in UNESCO and the IPCC.

Knowledge brokering at the environmental science-policy interface — examining structure and activity

The environmental science-policy interface, consisting of dynamic interactions between various actors, is increasingly an object of study. In this interface, new types and kinds of boundary organisations are emerging and new types of knowledge brokering are taking place. Given the increasing calls for more evidence-based policy, it is pertinent to examine what type of SPI can be identified at the national level, how knowledge is brokered in it and how boundary organisations function and are positioned within the network. To do this, we utilise a mixed method approach, combining a survey questionnaire and interviews as data collection methods with social network analysis and qualitative content analysis to examine the national science-policy interface in the environmental domain in Finland. Our results show a centralised network with weak reciprocal links. The network is centred more around knowledge brokers and users than knowledge producers. In this network, knowledge is mainly brokered through media and personal communication, with no single actor group assuming responsibility. The boundary organisation studied here engages in brokering activities and actively creates venues for knowledge brokering. Our findings are in line with previous research, demonstrating the need for further strengthening of not only the structural foundations of the science-policy interface, but also of the actors engaging in knowledge brokering.

ECOSYSTEM SERVICES AS THE OBJECT OF INTERDISCIPLINARY COLLABORATION

The concept of ecosystem services embodies an ideological framework, serves as a subject for fundamental research, provides methodological groundwork for applied projects, offers a practical approach to natural resource management, acts as a platform for international governmental and non-governmental collaboration, and serves as a means of knowledge production. The article presents the results of a systematic literature analysis focused on identifying key research trends in the field of ecosystem services that need further attention and development. It also highlights promising directions for transdisciplinary collaboration in the implementation and management of ecosystem services. Research methods involved iterative information retrieval, analysis of scientific papers, and review of contemporary methodological approaches. Based on the processed sources, seven comprehensive research directions of ecosystem services and twenty branches were identified. Ecosystem services are characterized as boundary objects. The main findings point to the need for integration of scientific disciplines, involvement of a wide range of stakeholders, and consolidation of development perspectives across various fields to achieve a compromise between ecosystem services utilization and conservation. The role of boundary organizations in achieving these goals is emphasized. An insufficient integration between social and ecological disciplines in Ukrainian science is identified along with probable reasons for this situation. The conclusions underscore the importance of a transdisciplinary approach to ecosystem services research. Future research prospects include expanding collaboration between researchers and practitioners, as well as refining methodological approaches for comprehensive ecosystem services study.

The Organization of Market Boundaries

Abstract In contrast to the main focus on market boundaries as spontaneous orders, this article investigates how and why market boundaries are ordered through organization. It proposes three elemental ordering processes – mutual adaptation, institutions, and organization – to conceptualise individual market boundary formation. Based on a longitudinal study of a financial market, the organization of both market demarcations and boundary constitution is analysed. It is illustrated how boundaries were subject to much organization and reorganization, to protect the market’s legitimacy and function. Explanations for the use of market boundary organization suggestively stem from both boundary competition and complementarity – to replace or reinforce boundaries formed by other ordering processes, in order to direct market content.

Understanding evidence ecosystems: What influences the production, translation, and use of modeled evidence in Burkina Faso, Nigeria, India, and Kenya?

This study sought to document and understand facilitators and barriers to producing, translating, and using modeled evidence in decision-making in Burkina Faso, Nigeria, India, and Kenya. We explored researcher-decision-maker engagement mechanisms as key facilitators of evidence use, with a focus on knowledge brokers and boundary organizations. The study used mixed methods drawing on analysis from key informant interviews and surveys, complemented by a rapid desk review to map modeling activities and actors. The survey was conducted online while the qualitative research entailed in-depth interviews with modelers, knowledge brokers, and decision-makers working in a representative variety of health fields, organizations, and levels of government. This study was approved by Health Media Lab IRB (Institutional Review Board) in the United States and a local IRB in each study country and conducted between September 2021 and June 2022. Informants interviewed for this study described a range of factors that facilitate and inhibit the use of modeled evidence in public health decision-making at the individual, organizational, and environmental levels. Key themes included the capacity to produce, translate, and use modeled evidence; the timing and relevance of modeling outputs; the existence of communications channels between modelers and decision-makers; the strength of underlying data systems; the role of sustained funding; and the impact of global crises. This study highlights the importance of taking an ecosystem approach to supporting modeling activities, considering individual, organizational, and environmental factors and how different actors and interact to inform the production, translation, and use of modeled evidence. Structured interaction that promotes dialogue, debate, and joint sense making between the producers and users of evidence is critical to informing and influencing the use of evidence in decision-making.

Navigating the stormy seas of building ‘trust’ as a boundary organisation connecting marine science with policy and management

Improving knowledge exchange among scientists and decision-makers is a critical component of navigating ocean sustainability challenges. Boundary organisations are one approach to facilitating knowledge exchange and influencing marine policy and management. However, to effectively do so, boundary organisations must navigate various challenges that can undermine the extent to which they are considered as trusted by partners. At present, there is a lack of specific guidance on how boundary organisations can navigate these challenges and build trust. We seek to address this gap empirically via in-depth qualitative analysis, using the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) as a case study. Through interviews with requesters of ICES advice (i.e. the users of the knowledge), we sought to understand (i) the benefits that requesters derived from working with ICES and (ii) the factors that can affect the extent to which requesters trust the advice generated and provided by ICES. Our results show that requesters gain numerous benefits from requesting advice from ICES (e.g., being able to rely on an independent scientific body, receiving best available scientific evidence, and being engaged in processes which enable sharing of expertise and scientific knowledge). We also identified factors that contribute to increased trust in ICES (e.g., ICES processes, good relationships between requesters and ICES, and the requester's ability to understand ICES advice). Conversely, trust in ICES was negatively affected when there was a production of poor-quality advice, a lack of transparency, and when ICES advice went beyond its original remit. In presenting these insights from ICES, this study provides guidance for organisations operating at the interface of marine science and policy and helps them to navigate the stormy seas associated with maintaining trust.

Individual-Based Model use in Marine Policy

ABSTRACT Individual-based models (IBMs) are increasingly used in marine conservation research, making this is an ideal time to assess IBM use in marine policy. IBMs can contribute important information to marine management and policy questions, as they offer complex methods of understanding ecosystems and animal behaviour, by allowing for heterogeneity in both individuals and environments. A review of 108 international peer-review publications utilizing marine IBMs was conducted using Web of Science (WoS). It was determined that 55% of the WoS articles claimed that the IBMs were relevant or important to marine conservation policy or management. A relevant English-language policy document was located for 83% of the IBMs, but only 32% were cited, while 85% of the same policy documents cited a different, non-IBM, modelling method. A separate survey of 175 policy documents from the Government of Canada was conducted. Of the 60 that contained citations, zero documents cited an IBM, while 75% cited a different modelling method. Of 407 webpages reviewed from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the New Zealand Department of Conservation, and the UK Government website, only 4% referenced IBMs. This research demonstrates that, despite claims of usefulness by researchers, IBMs are not used to inform policy, while other model methods are commonly cited. Modellers should not assume that their model will inherently be useful for policy and should instead ensure that they are: 1) addressing a policy need; and 2) making the information accessible to policymakers by crafting a communication plan and/or joining a relevant boundary organization.

Diversifying Boundary Organizations: The Making of a Global Platform for Indigenous (and Local) Knowledge in the UNFCCC

Abstract The creation of the Local Communities and Indigenous Peoples Platform under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) set out to incorporate Indigenous and local knowledge into the science–policy landscape of the climate field. The Platform is a crucial case of institutional change, as it signals an incipient shift from a science-centric toward a pluralistic approach to knowledge in global climate governance. This article traces this process of change in the politics and practices underlying the establishment and design of the Platform as an interface for Indigenous and local knowledge holders. The analysis shows that the sui generis design of the Platform was the product of bricolage (recombination) and translation (recontextualization) of disparate elements with the purpose of accommodating various political demands in an altogether new kind of knowledge–policy interface: a diverse boundary organization. The article makes an empirical contribution to the historical development of knowledge politics in the UNFCCC and a theoretical contribution to the study of boundary organizations by advancing a broader conceptualization that transcends science-centric approaches.

Investigating the barriers and pathways to implementing satellite data into air quality monitoring, regulation and policy design in the United Kingdom

Satellite measurements relevant to air quality could help to inform policy and assist the monitoring and management of key air quality issues, both in the United Kingdom and internationally. This study investigates the barriers facing experts, across both scientific research and air quality management, in translating and incorporating satellite data into end user activities, and identifies pathways for the use of current and future satellite data by potential end users. Through an iterative Delphi-inspired two-round study, two groups of experts were issued parallel, near-identical surveys. These groups were Group A: current users of satellite data such as satellite product developers, researchers and air quality scientists, and Group B: potential end users of satellite data such as regulatory bodies, local authorities, government departments and independent air quality consultancies. This study confirmed that satellite data has had minimal penetration into Group B activities, and that a number of barriers currently prevent its adoption into regulation, namely: personnel-related issues such as lack of resources, technical skills and training, and technical limitations such as spatio-temporal resolution, uncertainties and data storage concerns. Despite this, there was a strong desire across both groups for collaboration and joint data exploration, but current progress has been minimal. Moving forward, we propose the creation of a network of experts, facilitated by a dedicated boundary organisation, designed to promote collaboration and knowledge exchange between these two groups, with the objective of transferring satellite data sets into end user work flows and to prepare end users to utilise future data sets.

The geopolitics of expertise at the science-policy interface

There are a number of inequalities at the climate science-policy interface. In this paper, we are interested in geographical inequalities in the expertise that composes key scientific and boundary organizations, such as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), in which the majority of scientists are from the global North. To address these inequalities, scientists and policy-makers from Brazil have developed strategies to increase their influence in the climate science-policy interface at the international level. Based on two case studies, one on the Brazilian Panel on Climate Change (BPCC) and another on the Brazilian Earth System Model (BESM), we examine three of these geopolitical strategies: expertise integration, counter-expertise and expertise sovereignty. The first sought to further integrate Brazilian expertise into the IPCC through a national panel that mirrored the intergovernmental one. The second aimed to develop a ‘counter-panel’ that would react to supposedly inaccurate information related to Brazil in IPCC reports drafts. The third sought to develop national expertise so that Brazil could become one of the few countries that do Earth System modelling. As a result, it would become autonomous from global North countries in modelling its own territory and have the results of its model reviewed by the IPCC. We conclude by examining how successful each of these strategies were and the relevance and risks of each of them.