TY - JOUR

T1 - A theory of participation

T2 - what makes stakeholder and public engagement in environmental management work?

AU - Reed, Mark S.

AU - Vella, Steven

AU - Challies, Edward

AU - de Vente, Joris

AU - Frewer, Lynne

AU - Hohenwallner-Ries, Daniela

AU - Huber, Tobias

AU - Neumann, Rosmarie K.

AU - Oughton, Elizabeth A.

AU - Sidoli del Ceno, Julian

AU - van Delden, Hedwig

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2017 Society for Ecological Restoration

PY - 2018/4/1

Y1 - 2018/4/1

N2 - This article differentiates between descriptive and explanatory factors to develop a typology and a theory of stakeholder and public engagement. The typology describes different types of public and stakeholder engagement, and the theory comprises four factors that explain much of the variation in outcomes (for the natural environment and/or for participants) between different types of engagement. First, we use a narrative literature search to develop a new typology of stakeholder and public engagement based on agency (who initiates and leads engagement) and mode of engagement (from communication to coproduction). We then propose a theory to explain the variation in outcomes from different types of engagement: (1) a number of socioeconomic, cultural, and institutional contextual factors influence the outcomes of engagement; (2) there are a number of process design factors that can increase the likelihood that engagement leads to desired outcomes, across a wide range of sociocultural, political, economic, and biophysical contexts; (3) the effectiveness of engagement is significantly influenced by power dynamics, the values of participants, and their epistemologies, that is, the way they construct knowledge and which types of knowledge they consider valid; and (4) engagement processes work differently and can lead to different outcomes when they operate over different spatial and temporal scales. We use the theoretical framework to provide practical guidance for those designing engagement processes, arguing that a theoretically informed approach to stakeholder and public engagement has the potential to markedly improve the outcomes of environmental decision-making processes.

AB - This article differentiates between descriptive and explanatory factors to develop a typology and a theory of stakeholder and public engagement. The typology describes different types of public and stakeholder engagement, and the theory comprises four factors that explain much of the variation in outcomes (for the natural environment and/or for participants) between different types of engagement. First, we use a narrative literature search to develop a new typology of stakeholder and public engagement based on agency (who initiates and leads engagement) and mode of engagement (from communication to coproduction). We then propose a theory to explain the variation in outcomes from different types of engagement: (1) a number of socioeconomic, cultural, and institutional contextual factors influence the outcomes of engagement; (2) there are a number of process design factors that can increase the likelihood that engagement leads to desired outcomes, across a wide range of sociocultural, political, economic, and biophysical contexts; (3) the effectiveness of engagement is significantly influenced by power dynamics, the values of participants, and their epistemologies, that is, the way they construct knowledge and which types of knowledge they consider valid; and (4) engagement processes work differently and can lead to different outcomes when they operate over different spatial and temporal scales. We use the theoretical framework to provide practical guidance for those designing engagement processes, arguing that a theoretically informed approach to stakeholder and public engagement has the potential to markedly improve the outcomes of environmental decision-making processes.

KW - Decision-making

KW - Engagement

KW - Impact

KW - Knowledge exchange

KW - Sustainability Science

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85027693031&partnerID=8YFLogxK

UR - https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/rec.12541

UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/9fab01a0-9b15-38b0-8c1f-cc3158531e04/

U2 - 10.1111/rec.12541

DO - 10.1111/rec.12541

M3 - Scientific review articles

AN - SCOPUS:85027693031

VL - 26

SP - S7-S17

JO - Restoration Ecology

JF - Restoration Ecology

SN - 1061-2971

IS - S1

ER -