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Transdisciplinary research partnerships in sustainability science: an examination of stakeholder participation preferences

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Abstract

Sustaining coupled natural and human systems requires multiple forms of knowledge, experiences, values, and resources be brought into conversation to address sustainability challenges. Transdisciplinary research partnerships provide the opportunity to meet this requirement by bringing together interdisciplinary scientists with stakeholders in some or all stages of the knowledge production process. However, building partnerships to produce sustainability outcomes is a complex process requiring an understanding of the social psychological and contextual variables impacting partnerships. Here, we explore local government officials’ (LGOs’) preferences for participation in these partnerships. Using data from a statewide survey, we develop a theoretically and empirically derived model to test the relationship between a suite of factors and LGOs’ preferred transdisciplinary partnership style. We find collaboration preferences are influenced by LGOs’ confidence that researchers can help solve problems, experience with researchers, the severity and type of problem(s) occurring in the community, and partner trust. Assessing stakeholder partnership expectations may assist partners with co-designing flexible research processes that address collaboration expectations, foster dialog and social learning among project partners, and that increase the potential of research to influence change.

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Notes

  1. van Kerkhoff (2014) encourages researchers to think about partnerships in terms of generative relationships, where “new ideas, processes and practices emerge (are generated from) relationships amongst key actors” (148) and partnership structures and interactions are responsive to partner needs and changing partner conditions.

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Acknowledgments

Thank you to Dr. Bridie McGreavy for providing examples of how this research influenced her research collaborations. Portions of the manuscript were presented in a poster presentation at the 2012 Conference on Public Participation in Scientific Research in Portland, Oregon. This research was supported by the National Science Foundation award EPS-0904155 and Maine EPSCoR at the University of Maine. We thank our colleagues at the University of Maine’s Senator George J. Mitchell Center for Sustainability Solutions for spearheading the research initiative that supported this collaborative work.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Karen Hutchins Bieluch.

Ethics declarations

This research study was approved by the University of Maine Institutional Review Board and complied with ethical standards for the treatment of human subjects.

Additional information

Handled by Daniel J. Lang, University of Lueneburg, Germany.

Kathleen Bell and Mario Teisl share second author position.

This research was supported by the National Science Foundation award EPS-0904155 and Maine EPSCoR at the University of Maine; Maine Agriculture and Forest Experiment Station; and USDA NIFA.

Appendices

Appendix A: Maine municipal official survey

Economic issues

How much do you consider each of the following to be a problem for your municipality? (Please check one box for each issue.) (Response Scale: Serious Problem-Not a Problem; allowed for responses of Not Sure and Not Applicable)

Declining property tax base

Declining job opportunities

Poor business climate

Mismatch between skills of workforce and jobs

Lack of education and training opportunities for residents

Limited access to communication networks for residents and employers

Rising health care costs for residents and employers

Rising energy costs for residents and employers

Reductions in state funding (e.g. school subsidy, revenue sharing)

Declining transportation infrastructure.

Social issues

How much do you consider each of the following to be a problem for your municipality? (Please check one box for each issue.) (Response Scale: Serious Problem-Not a Problem; allowed for responses of Not Sure and Not Applicable)

Declining quality of public schools

Rising unemployment rate

Rising poverty rate

Increasing drug and alcohol abuse

Decreasing access to social services for elderly and low-income residents

Decreasing recreation opportunities

Increasing crime rate

Increasing migration to your community

Changing ethnic and cultural diversity

Decreasing access to health services

Increasing aging population (persons 65 or older)

Decreasing participation in community groups.

Environmental and natural resource issues

How much do you consider each of the following to be a problem for your municipality? (Please check one box for each issue.) (Response Scale: Serious Problem-Not a Problem; allowed for responses of Not Sure and Not Applicable)

Decreasing lake water quality

Decreasing river and stream water quality

Decreasing coastal water quality

Decreasing ground water quality

Decreasing air quality

Loss of forest land

Loss of farm land

Loss of working waterfront

Decreasing public access to natural resource areas

Increasing risks of flooding

Increasing invasive insects and/or plants

Increasing traffic congestion

Changing climate.

Policy Issues

Public policy issues may generate debate in municipalities. How much debate have you seen on the following policy issues in your municipality? (Please check one box for each issue.) (Response Scale: Serious Debate-No Debate; allowed for responses of Not Sure and Not Applicable)

Storm water regulations

Shorebird habitat regulations

Land use planning/zoning regulations

Shoreland zoning regulations

Siting of commercial wind farms

Siting of residential wind energy systems

Siting of communication towers

Siting of energy transmission lines

FEMA Flood Zone Maps

Regionalization

Do you think researchers from the University of Maine System could be of assistance in resolving some of your municipality’s issues? (Please check one box.) (Response Options: yes, no, not sure)

Do you think other organizations could be of assistance in resolving some of your municipality’s issues? (Please check one box.) (Response Options: yes, no, not sure)

Since you began your position, has your municipality worked with any researchers from a university or college in Maine? (Please check one box for each category.) (Response Options: yes, no, not sure)

How much do you trust researchers (faculty/staff) from the University of Maine System? (Please check one box.) (Response Scale: Not at all-A lot; allowed for response of Not Sure)

To what extent do you disagree or agree with the following statements: “I trust researchers (faculty/staff) from the University of Maine System because they ____.” (Please check one box for each statement.) (Response Scale: Strongly disagree-Strongly agree)

Provide scientific information

Provide unbiased information

Provide reliable information

Use my input

Respect diverse opinions

Work for the University of Maine System

Provide understandable information

Present useful information

Provide timely information

Care about my community

Focus on issues I want to know about

Have high technical competence

Share my values

Community-university partnerships are structured in many ways. We are interested in your opinion about four alternative strategies for community–university partnerships. The alternatives differ according to how municipalities and university researchers share responsibilities.

Type of partnership

Problem identification

Research

Proposed solutions

Implementation

A. University as lead partner

Univ. researchers

Univ. researchers

Univ. researchers

Municipal officials

B. University as consulting partner

Univ. researchers

Univ. researchers

Univ. researchers

Municipal officials

C. University as facilitating partner

Municipal officials

Univ. researchers

Univ. researchers

Municipal officials Univ. researchers

Municipal officials

D. University as full partner

Municipal officials

Univ. researchers

Municipal officials

Univ. researchers

Municipal officials

Univ. researchers

Municipal officials

Univ. researchers

Participation strategy you most prefer: (A, B, C or D) (write-in one letter from the list above).

Appendix B: Discrete choice analysis results: participation strategy preferences

Variable

Coefficient reference = consult

Standard error

Experience-facilitate

−0.652

0.583

Experience-full

−1.938*

1.128

Researchers helpful_yes-Facilitate

0.201a

0.491

Researchers helpful_yes-Full

1.530**a

0.607

Researchers helpful_not sure-facilitate

−0.030a

0.445

Researchers helpful_not sure-Full

0.642a

0.570

Researchers helpful_yes x experience-facilitate

1.288*

0.693

Researchers helpful_yes x experience-full

2.119*

1.189

Researchers helpful_not sure x experience-facilitate

0.783

0.632

Researchers helpful_not sure x experience-full

1.975*

1.163

Others helpful_yes-facilitate

−0.067b

0.482

Others helpful_yes-full

−0.828b

0.599

Others helpful_not sure-facilitate

−0.277b

0.487

Others Helpful_not sure-Full

−0.964b

0.597

Distance from University/College-facilitate

−0.003

0.011

Distance from University/College-full

−0.001

0.013

Municipality population-facilitate

0.001

0.001

Municipality population-full

0.002

0.002

Economic problems-facilitate

0.508**

0.224

Economic problems-full

0.536**

0.249

Environmental problems-facilitate

−0.043

0.195

Environmental problems-full

−0.089

0.222

Social problems-facilitate

−0.506**

0.238

Social problems-full

−0.514**

0.262

Policy problems-facilitate

0.495**

0.204

Policy problems-full

−0.065

0.234

Trust some-facilitate

0.175c

0.267

Trust some-full

−0.077c

0.295

Trust a lot-facilitate

0.559*c

0.287

Trust a lot-full

0.095 c

0.318

Trust properties about interests/values-facilitate

−0.660***

0.196

Trust properties about interests/values-full

−0.359

0.221

Trust properties about technical knowledge-facilitate

0.326*

0.189

Trust properties about technical knowledge-full

0.131

0.213

  1. N = 596, χ df=38 = 95.32, p < 0.001
  2. p < 0.1; ** p < 0.05; *** p < 0.01
  3. aResearchers helpful_no is the reference category
  4. bOthers helpful_no is the reference category
  5. cLow Trust is the reference category

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Bieluch, K.H., Bell, K.P., Teisl, M.F. et al. Transdisciplinary research partnerships in sustainability science: an examination of stakeholder participation preferences. Sustain Sci 12, 87–104 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-016-0360-x

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