1.
STEPS Centre ‘Pathways Methods’
helping appreciate alternative pathways
Andy Stirling
SPRU & STEPS Centre
University of Sussex
presentation to conference session on Nexus Methods
ESRC Methods Festival
University of Bath
5th
July 2016
www.steps-centre.org/
www.sussex.ac.uk/spru/
www.multicriteriamapping.com
www.sussex.ac.uk/spru/people/peoplelists/person/7513

2.
Conventional Risk-Based Politics
incumbent ‘sound science’ and ‘pro-innovation’ control political space

3.
specific tech technological ‘lock-in’
risk
regulation
‘closed down’
politics
risk
Options
single ‘best’ / ‘optimal’ /
most ‘legitimate’
decisions
risk
presumed benefits
case-by-case focus
narrow remits
aggregated attention
regulatory capture
technocratic procedures
narrow
assessment
knowledge
economy
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IIIIII
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Conventional Innovation Policy
incumbent ‘sound science’ and ‘pro-innovation’ control political space

4.
possible paths
multiple feasible
Innovation trajectories
choice
discourse
risk
options
perspective
ss
plural conditional
recommendations
dissensus processes
sceptical politics
catalyse, not suppress,
democracy
risk
neglected issues
excluded values
alternative pathways
ignored uncertainties
marginalised interests
precautionary principle
Sustainability
innovation
democracy
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“letting go”
diversity, discontinuity, experiment
risk
“broadening out” “opening up”
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Opening Up Space for More Democratic Struggle

5.
possible paths
multiple feasible
Innovation trajectories
choice
discourse
risk
options
perspective
ss
risk
Sustainability
innovation
democracy
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risk
“broadening
out”
“opening
up”
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METHODS
catalyse, provoke & help enable more open
political space
Opening Up Space for More Democratic Struggle

6.
Help Appreciate Alternative Pathways
Overall Aims

7.
Help Appreciate Alternative Pathways
Overall Aims
Method alone can’t do whole job: also involves encompassing process

8.
Help Appreciate Alternative Pathways
Method underpins both understanding and judgement; knowledge and action
Method alone can’t do whole job: also involves encompassing process
Overall Aims

9.
Help Appreciate Alternative Pathways
Method underpins both understanding and judgement; knowledge and action
Critical focus on alternatives: reflecting and favouring marginal interests
Method alone can’t do whole job: also involves encompassing process
Overall Aims

10.
STEPS Methodology:
An ordered repertoire of conditionally-appropriate methods
Help Appreciate Alternative Pathways
Method underpins both understanding and judgement; knowledge and action
Critical focus on alternatives: reflecting and favouring marginal interests
Repertoires: sensitive to context, positioning and plural views and pathways
Method alone can’t do whole job: also involves encompassing process
Overall Aims

11.
Intervention histories / futures - narratives, interventions, futures
Innovation histories - deep history, broad of innovation
Deliberative / Multicriteria mapping - values, knowledges, pathways
Open Space Technology - diversity, passion, responsibility
Participatory Impact Pathways Analysis - planning, monitoring, impacts
Participatory Rural Appraisal - empowering marginal voices
Participatory Scenarios - alternative views of drivers of change
Photovoice - participants is the researcher
Q Method - makes contrasting discourses visible
Scientometric Mapping - makes research more accountable
Sensitivity Analysis - destabilises technocratic modelling
Sociotechnical Imaginaries - pluralises foundations for politics
System Histories - grounded contrasts in system frames
Some Indicative Examples

12.
ENGAGE
ACTORS
help appreciate alternative pathwaysBASIC STEPS
EXPLORE
NARRATIVES
CHARACTERISE
DYNAMICS
REVEAL
STRATEGIES

13.
ENGAGE
ACTORS
help appreciate alternative pathwaysBASIC STEPS
EXPLORE
NARRATIVES
CHARACTERISE
DYNAMICS
REVEAL
STRATEGIES
A: ENGAGE ACTORS - together:
1: review relevant histories
2: analyse associated networks
3: snowball salient interests
4: prioritise most marginal
5: examine power relations
6: identify basic pathway visions
7: be alert for hidden plurality
8: seek critical feedback

14.
KENYA MAIZE RESILIENCE
Looking at alternative pathways for
agricultural livelihoods around Sakai and
Mmbasu in East & West Provinces of Kenya
Involving STEPs with
African Centre for Technology Studies
Centre for African Bio-Entrepreneurship
Tegemeo Institute, Egerton University
images and results courtesy of John Thompson, et al, STEPS
A: ENGAGE ACTORS - together:
1: review relevant histories
2: analyse associated networks
3: snowball salient interests
4: prioritise most marginal
5: examine power relations
6: identify basic pathway visions
7: be alert for hidden plurality
8: seek critical feedback

15.
KENYA MAIZE RESILIENCE
A: ENGAGE ACTORS - together:
1: review relevant histories
2: analyse associated networks
3: snowball salient interests
4: prioritise most marginal
5: examine power relations
6: identify basic pathway visions
7: be alert for hidden plurality
8: seek critical feedback
Scoping interviews
Historic panel data
Trends analysis
Rapid rural appraisals
Focus groups
Key informant interviews
Disaggregate gender, wealth, productivity
Focus on
5 “low potential” villages (Sakai)
also 3 “high potential” villages (Mmbasu)

16.
B: EXPLORE NARRATIVES
1: review relevant histories
2: elicit notions of systems
3: explore related framings
4: address Sustainability values
5: scope possible pathways
6: review aspects of incertitude
7: differentiate perspectives
8: seek critical feedback
KENYA MAIZE RESILIENCE
Explore framings: particularly
ideas about
‘resilience’, ‘innovation’ and
‘pathways‘
Test concepts in relation to
environmental change and
maize in Kenya

17.
B: EXPLORE NARRATIVES
1: review relevant histories
2: elicit notions of systems
3: explore related framings
4: address Sustainability values
5: scope possible pathways
6: review aspects of incertitude
7: differentiate perspectives
8: seek critical feedback
KENYA MAIZE RESILIENCE
Low Maize High Maize
Low-
External
Input
High-
External
Input

18.
B: EXPLORE NARRATIVES
1: review relevant histories
2: elicit notions of systems
3: explore related framings
4: address Sustainability values
5: scope possible pathways
6: review aspects of incertitude
7: differentiate perspectives
8: seek critical feedback
KENYA MAIZE RESILIENCE
Low Maize High Maize
Low-
External
Input
High-
External
Input

19.
C CHARACTERISE DYNAMICS:
1: review relevant histories
2: explore challenges/opportunities
3: scrutinise likely shocks/stresses
4: look at actors’ strength/weakness
5: examine decision/branch points
6: identify winners/losers
7: attend to issues of power/politics
8: seek critical feedback
KENYA MAIZE RESILIENCE
Alternative dryland staples
for subsistence
Alternative dryland staples
for market
Local improvement of
local maize
Assisted seed
multiplication of maize
Assisted seed multiplication
of alternative dryland staples
Individual high-value crop
commercialization
Group-based high-value crop
commercialization
Commercial delivery of new
DT maize varieties
Public delivery of new DT
maize varieties

20.
C CHARACTERISE DYNAMICS:
1: review relevant histories
2: explore challenges/opportunities
3: scrutinise likely shocks/stresses
4: look at actors’ strength/weakness
5: examine decision/branch points
6: identify winners/losers
7: attend to issues of power/politics
8: seek critical feedback
KENYA MAIZE RESILIENCE
pathways served as starting point for opening
up the discussion with farmers, scientists and
policy makers on:
Diversity of pathways in and out of maize
Relevant criteria for choosing one pathway
over another
Alternative visions of the future and
institutional support arrangements

21.
REVEAL
STRATEGIES
D: REVEAL POLITICAL ACTIONS
1: review relevant histories
2: confirm key protagonists
3: explore forms of agency
4: define possible interventions
5: identify coping strategies
6: examine possible responses
7: establish accountabilities
8: seek critical feedback
KENYA MAIZE RESILIENCE
Quantitative and qualitative data from
multicriteria mapping
Interviews and group discussions prompted by
this process

22.
REVEAL
STRATEGIES
D: REVEAL POLITICAL ACTIONS
1: review relevant histories
2: confirm key protagonists
3: explore forms of agency
4: define possible interventions
5: identify coping strategies
6: examine possible responses
7: establish accountabilities
8: seek critical feedback
KENYA MAIZE RESILIENCE

23.
REVEAL
STRATEGIES
D: REVEAL POLITICAL ACTIONS
1: review relevant histories
2: confirm key protagonists
3: explore forms of agency
4: define possible interventions
5: identify coping strategies
6: examine possible responses
7: establish accountabilities
8: seek critical feedback
KENYA MAIZE RESILIENCE

24.
Pathways Out of Maize: Orphans or Siblings?
Performance rankings for different groups of stakeholders shows a
surprising amount of optimism about alternative dryland staple crops,
especially under a set of stress tolerance criteria

25.
Pathways in Maize:
Sakai farmer performance rankings show a preference for local
maize, not new maize

26.
broadening out
opening up
STEPS Methodology A framework for balancing power and
making space for political action
to help build alternative pathways