Presentation by Mark Reed

1. Working more effectively with end users
of research
What makes stakeholder participation
ustainable Uplands
in environmental management work?
nvolved
Learning to manage future change
www.see.leeds.ac.uk/sustainableuplands

2. Delivering impact
 If “impact” is about delivering economic and
social benefits from research, then you have to
get your research used by “real” people
 How can we get these people to use our
research?
 Who are these people anyway?

3. Plan
1. What do we know about how best to engage
end users with our research?
2. How can we systematically identify and engage
relevant end users with our research?

4. 1. What do we know about how best to
engage end users with our research?
ustainable Uplands
Learning to manage future change
www.see.leeds.ac.uk/sustainableuplands

5. Levels of engagement with end users
The ladder of participation (Arnstein, 1969)
ustainable Uplands
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6. Levels of engagement with end users
The wheel of participation (Wilcox, 2003)
ustainable Uplands
Learning to manage future change
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7. Levels of engagement with end users
Communication flows (Rowe & Frewer, 2000)
Facilitators Stakeholders
Communication
Facilitators Stakeholders
Consultation
Facilitators Stakeholders
Participation
ustainable Uplands
Learning to manage future change
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8. Tools vs overall process
• Participation is
more than a
collection of tools
and methods for
engaging end
users in your
research
ustainable Uplands
Learning to manage future change
www.see.leeds.ac.uk/sustainableuplands

9. ustainable Uplands
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10. 1. Start talking to people as
soon as you can
• From concept to
completion
• Make sure there’s
something to negotiate
• Avoid raising false
expectations

11. 2. Make sure you’re
talking to the right
people
• The perceived
legitimacy of your
research by
decision-makers
may be influenced
by who you do or
don’t talk to
• Lots of methods
available now for
“stakeholder
analysis”

12. 3. Make sure you know • Identify goals
what people want to with stakeholders
talk about • Be prepared to
negotiate and
compromise
• Design your
research to the
goals
• Partnerships,
ownership and
active
engagement in
the process is
more likely

13. • Communicate
e.g. information
dissemination via leaflets or
the mass media, hotlines and
public meetings
4. Be flexible: • Consult
base level of e.g. consultation documents,
opinion polls and
research-user referendums, focus groups
and surveys
participation
& methods on • Participate
e.g. citizen’s juries, consensus
your context conferences, task-forces and
public meetings with voting
& objectives
• Tailor your
methods to
context
• Manage power

14. • If you need to engage with a wide range
of research users with competing
agendas, you may need help...
• The outcome of a participatory process is
more sensitive to the manner in which it
is conducted than the tools that are used
• Don’t underestimate the power of
investing in a good facilitator to bring
people together and deliver high quality
outcomes
What makes stakeholder participation
5. Get a facilitator
in environmental management work?
nvolved

15. 6. Put local and scientific knowledge on an equal footing
• Science can help people make more informed decisions
• Local knowledge can question assumptions, and perhaps
lead to more rigorous science
What makes stakeholder participation
in environmental management work?
nvolved

16. • Decisions based on a combination of local and scientific
knowledge may by more robust due to more
comprehensive information inputs – and they’re more
likely to be relevant to end-user needs/priorities
What makes stakeholder participation
in environmental management work?
nvolved

17. 2. How can we systematically identify and
engage relevant end users with our research?
What makes stakeholder participation
in environmental management work?
nvolved

18. Stakeholder analysis
• We all have interests
• We have a stake in the
things that interest us e.g.
what happens to a landscape
you walk in
• By holding an interest, we
hold a stake: we are
stakeholders
ustainable Uplands
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19. Stakeholder analysis
• But without power…
• We can never drive our
points/stakes home and
we will never influence the
decisions that affect us
ustainable Uplands
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20. • To affect change, we need interest and power
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21. Answers key questions:
• Who are the interested parties? Who has the power to
influence what happens? How do these parties interact?
How could they work more effectively together?
ustainable Uplands
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22. What is stakeholder analysis?
“A process that:
i) defines aspects of a social and natural
phenomenon affected by a decision or action
ii) identifies individuals, groups and organisations
who are affected by or can affect those parts of
the phenomenon
iii) prioritises these individuals and groups for
involvement in the decision-making process”
Reed et al. (2009)
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23. Development of SA
• Business management roots
– Stakeholders affect business
– SA to mobilise, neutralise or defeat stakeholders, to
meet strategic objectives
• Development studies and natural resource
management
– Projects that didn’t understand stakeholders were
often hijacked or failed
– Empowering marginal stakeholders to influence
decision-making processes transparently
ustainable Uplands
Learning to manage future change
www.see.leeds.ac.uk/sustainableuplands

24. Development of SA
• Major contributions from development studies
and natural resource management:
– Recognises that stakeholders and the issues that
interest them change over time
– Advocates ongoing and evolving involvement of
stakeholders to meet needs and priorities
– Capturing diversity of potentially conflicting views
ustainable Uplands
Learning to manage future change
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25. Typology
• Three types of methods for stakeholder analysis
Methods for:
i) Identifying stakeholders
ii) Differentiating between and categorising
stakeholders
iii)Investigating relationships between stakeholders
ustainable Uplands
Learning to manage future change
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26. Rationale Normative Instrumental
Typology Identifying stakeholders Differentiating between and Investigating relationships
categorising stakeholders between stakeholders
Focus Semi- Snowball Analytical Reconstructive Social Network Knowledge
Methods Groups structured sampling categorisation categorisation Analysis Mapping
interviews (top-down) (bottom-up)
Interest- More Stakeholder-led Q
influence complex stakeholder methodology
matrices matrices categorisation
ustainable Uplands
Learning to manage future change
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27. Interest/Influence Matrices
High Context setters - highly Key players – must
influential, but have little work closely with these
interest. Try and work to affect change
closely as they could have
a significant impact
Influence
Crowd – little interest or Subjects – may be affected but
influence so may not be lack power. Can become influential
worth prioritising, but be by forming alliances with others.
aware their interest or Often includes marginalised groups
influence may change with you may wish to empower
time
Low Level of Interest High
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28. • Size is proportional to influence
• Proximity relates to how closely linked they are
to each other (in any way)
Stakeholder 3
Stakeholder 2
Stakeholder 1
Stakeholder 4
Stakeholder 5
Stakeholder 6
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29. Try it yourself
• Pairs/groups: choose a familiar issue and think
of a research project in which you might want to
involve end users
• Brainstorm potential end users
• Visualise interest/influence or influence/proximity
ustainable Uplands
Learning to manage future change
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30. More complex matrices
• Identify and evaluate stakeholders in turn:
– What is the nature of their stake?
– Level of interest – H/M/L & explanatory text if needed
– Level of influence – as above
– The most effective ways to gain their active
involvement
– Anything else we should know? Conflicts, likely
issues etc.
• If many stakeholders, categorise in relation to
the nature of their stake & select representatives
ustainable Uplands
Learning to manage future change
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31. Categorising
Stakeholder categories from Sustainable Uplands project:
• Water companies
• Recreational groups
• Agriculture
• Conservationists
• Grouse moor interests (owners/managers and
gamekeepers)
• Tourism-related enterprises
• Foresters
• Statutory bodies
ustainable Uplands
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32. Name/ Nature Interest Influence What would Things Appropriate
Organisation/ of H/M/L H/M/L incentivise we people
Group stake (comm- (comm- their should (contact
ents?) ents?) involvement? know details)
(issues,
conflicts
etc)
ustainable Uplands
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33. Stakeholder Area of Sector Perceived Perceived Comments
Group concern Represented Interest in Influence on arising during
/organisation Represented issue issue discussion
/individual
...adapt to your own needs

34. Exploring relationships
• Who is working with who? Who could be working
with who?
• Avoid exacerbating conflicts
• Work with key people who are well respected
and connected
• For example: Social Network Analysis with 80-
strong Moors for the Future Partnership...
ustainable Uplands
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35. ustainable Uplands
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36. Recreation Agriculture
Water
Conservation
Grouse
Despite apparently And despite the fact that certain
polarised views on groups have little contact with
burning, upland each other…
stakeholders in the
Peak District are
highly connected…
ustainable Uplands
The majority of individuals perceive considerable overlap between their views
Learning to manage future change
on upland management and the views of those they knowwww.see.leeds.ac.uk/sustainableuplands
from other groups

37. Exploring relationships
• Showed roles of individuals played and identified
more peripheral stakeholders
• These groups were targeted for inclusion to
reduce bias, strengthen the legitimacy of the
sample group, and include a variety of
knowledges relevant to the research process
ustainable Uplands
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38. Summary
ustainable Uplands
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www.see.leeds.ac.uk/sustainableuplands

39. Find out more…
Reed MS, Graves A, Dandy N, Posthumus H, Hubacek
K, Morris J, Prell C, Quinn CH, Stringer LC (2009) Who’s
in and why? Stakeholder analysis as a prerequisite for
sustainable natural resource management. Journal of
Environmental Management 90: 1933–1949
Reed MS (2008) Stakeholder participation for
environmental management: a literature review.
Biological Conservation 141: 2417–2431
ustainable Uplands
Learning to manage future change
www.see.leeds.ac.uk/sustainableuplands