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
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.
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This research study was approved by the University of Maine Institutional Review Board and complied with ethical standards for the treatment of human subjects.
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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 |
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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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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-016-0360-x