Enhancing the role of participatory scenario planning processes: Lessons from Reality Check exercises

This paper critically assesses a series of scenario planning exercises in the Washington Metropolitan region and the State of Maryland within a broad and evolving framework of participatory planning. Reality Check, as the exercises were called, were a daylong set of activities using tools that encouraged stakeholder participation to develop scenarios focused on long-term regional sustainability. The paper draws upon planning theory, participant reactions, media reports, post-exercise outcomes and author's experiences of shaping the process. It illustrates how the model was adapted to multiple scales and contexts, and variations in desired technical complexity. The paper concludes that such processes have an inherent value in capturing the issues of the future and in creating awareness and knowledge. It argues that certain considerations such as early strategic engagement of stakeholders, flexibility of technical tools and diversity among organizers, all played a role in enhancing the dialogue. Furthermore, it suggests that when timed with favorable external conditions and designed within suitable institutional frameworks, they have the potential to provide a foundation from which tangible regional benefits can be realized.     

Connecting adaptation and strategy: The role of evolutionary theory in scenario planning

In this study, evolutionary theory is used to analyze and critique the strategic process of scenario planning. We argue that scenario planning can be strengthened as a theory- and practice-oriented process through the incorporation of evolutionary theory in the scenario narrative process, and in the subsequent implementation phases in response to environmental change. First, this paper addresses scenario planning in relation to theoretical perspectives on strategic planning and forecasting. Then, the concepts of variation, selection, retention, organizational learning and inertia are used to analyze scenario planning as a strategic process. This study argues that because scenario planning mirrors modes of variation and selection at the organizational level, evolutionary theory is a useful approach for assessing the plausibility of scenario narratives and strengthening the theoretical foundation of scenario planning as a process. By utilizing an evolutionary framework throughout the scenario planning process, this method has a better chance of encouraging exploratory strategic thinking without reinforcing non-blind variation or inertial practices. Concepts including inertia can also be used to better address bias and myopia in the scenario planning process. Additionally, evolutionary theory can be used to assess how entities learn from the outcomes of scenario planning as the environment changes over time.     

Transdisciplinary co-production: Designing and testing a transdisciplinary research framework for societal problem solving

Transdisciplinary research is often promoted as a mode of knowledge production that is effective in addressing and solving current sustainability challenges. This effectiveness stems from its closeness to practice-based/situated expertise and real-life problem contexts. This article presents and tests one approach within transdisciplinary research, which specifically focuses on increasing the participation of actors from outside of academic in knowledge production processes, called transdisciplinary (TD) co-production. The framework for TD co-production focused on five focal areas (inclusion, collaboration, integration, usability, and reflexivity) in three research phases (Formulate, Generate, Evaluate). This paper tests and evaluates the use of this framework in five research projects. The results discuss how the focal areas and research phases dealt with many crucial issues in transdisciplinary knowledge production. They stimulated a high level of stakeholder participation and commitment to the research processes, and promoted knowledge integration and reflexive learning across diverse sectors and disciplines. The approach, however, came up against a number of practical barriers stemming primarily from institutional, organizational and cognitive differences of the participating organizations. While TD co-production increased the usability of the results in terms of their relevance and accessibility, it paradoxically did not ensure their anchoring in respective institutional and political contexts where societal change occurs.     

The power of collaborative deliberation in stakeholder dialogue seminars

This paper quantifies the added value of using collaborative deliberation as an engagement element in a stakeholder dialogue seminar arranged over 3 days in Norway in 2015 with a wide range of national, regional and local stakeholders. The topic addressed was the possible impacts in western Norway from a hypothetical nuclear accident in the UK. The first day included information provision while the following 2 days were devoted to collaborative deliberation on the issue. Two questionnaire surveys were used to measure the degree of learning, networking, involvement and problem solving reported by the participants after the first day and the third day. The results from the surveys clearly suggest that collaborative deliberation gave an added value compared to information provision alone in our stakeholder dialogue seminar.     

Performance Management in the Public Sector: Past Experiences, Current Practices and Future Challenges

This paper reviews developments in research into public-sector performance management over the past 20 years. Particular attention is paid to four increasingly influential research approaches in this area: multidimensional stakeholder approaches, the balanced scorecard approach, institutional approaches and the radical learning approach. Opportunities for applying these approaches in further research are also outlined. These opportunities are discussed in light of changing reform agendas centred on growing concerns with managing outcomes and relative performance evaluation as means of fostering an enhanced citizen or beneficiary orientation, inter-organisational collaboration and learning in the public sector.     

Stakeholder prioritization and reporting: Evidence from Italy and the US

This study investigates the considerations that might be made by managers when choosing between mutually exclusive stakeholder expectations and reaching and engaging in a dialogue with them. In addition, the study also examines if there are systematic differences across countries (Italy and the US) in the decision to address the concerns of various stakeholder groups. Data was collected from 244 managers and 72 companies simultaneously in two different national business contexts, Italy and the US. The results of the study provide some evidence that managerial perception of three stakeholder group characteristics – power, legitimacy, and urgency – form a parsimonious group of variables that explain the process of stakeholder prioritization. However, only limited support was found for the relationship between salience accorded to a stakeholder group and engagement efforts directed toward the group. The results of the study also show that the managerial decision as to which of the stakeholder groups’ demands to address will be influenced by society-specific expectations. The significance of this study lies in investigating the stakeholder prioritization and engagement process, as it is being practiced, which, one could argue, would help in developing guidelines for effective stakeholder management that stands a realistic chance of being adapted and followed.     

Opportunities and challenges of the ecosystem approach

Humanity will continue to struggle with solving its existential problems in the future if command-and-control continues as the predominant approach to environmental and natural resources management. Recognizing the ecosystem perspective, complex adaptive systems (CAS) theory and transdisciplinary collaboration as conceptual opportunities to developing innovative and socially robust solutions is an important step in the right direction. However, because ecosystems are constantly evolving, human co-development has to account for inherent ecological uncertainty. Thus, sustainability depends on a continuous reevaluation of objectives, continuous knowledge generation, stakeholder involvement and a deeper understanding of evolving social and ecological dynamics. These requirements of continuity are hardly met by current approaches consisting of consecutive transdisciplinary projects focused on solving the most urgent problems of mismanagement at hand. Therefore, in this paper we argue for an organizational setup when pursuing an ecosystem approach and outline essential characteristics, inherent opportunities and fundamental challenges. Promising benefits of this approach include tested yet proactive interventions, public credibility, resource efficiency, long-term relationship building, community participation and ultimately sustainable development. Thereby, sustainability is aspired to and supported by a shared vision, organizational co-evolution, an organizational culture promoting innovation and an external autonomy to self-organize.     

Risk transfer and stakeholder relationships in Public Private Partnerships

Drawing on stakeholder theory, this study seeks to gain an insight into the stakeholder management strategies used by the Procuring Authority in Irish road Public Private Partnerships to manage its complex stakeholder relationships.Based on interviews with 38 key stakeholders the findings of this study indicate that the allocation, transfer and management of risk impact on the quality of stakeholder relationships. A proactive and somewhat accommodating approach is used by the Procuring Authority in its relationship with the Special Purpose Vehicle, while there is some evidence that collaborative relationships exist between the public sector bodies responsible for allocating risk.     

Co-commissioning of public services and outcomes in the UK: Bringing co-production into the strategic commissioning cycle

Commissioning as a planning, resource mobilization and prioritization activity needs to harness user and community co-production of public services and outcomes. Based on a public value model, we map how commissioners can go beyond traditional consultation and participation processes to achieve co-commissioning with citizens. Moreover, we discuss how public sector organizations can use their strategic commissioning process to support and embed citizen voice and action in their problem prevention, treatment and rehabilitation strategies to achieve the quality of life outcomes desired by both citizens and public service commissioners.     

Stepping into futures: Exploring the potential of interactive media for participatory scenarios on social-ecological systems

In this paper, we present a strategy for the development of interactive media scenarios to help communicate uncertainties and complexities in coupled human and natural systems. Insights arising from Complex Adaptive Systems theory advocate the need for more adaptive perspectives on natural resources management. For the collaborative exploration of future complexities and uncertainties, participatory scenario development has proven to be a powerful approach. A range of communication strategies with benefits for conveying complexity, however, has not yet been adopted by scenario developers. We present a framework of criteria with which we structurally analyze the benefits of interactive media communication. First, we consider requirements of feasibility, flexibility and stakeholder contributions. Then, we synthesize criteria for the communication of Complex Adaptive Systems. Finally, we set criteria for communicatory clarity and engagement. Using this framework, we review several science communication fields, including landscape visualization, serious gaming and visual analytics. We then develop a strategy for interactive media communication in participatory scenario development, including two work-in-progress examples. This strategy employs mixed media, micro-games and accessible stakeholder contributions in a geo-web context, and is suitable for participatory work in live settings as well as on-line, from a local to a global scale.     

Managing the landscapes of the Australian Northern Territory for sustainability: Visions, issues and strategies for successful planning

The Northern Territory in Australia is a unique place. The region covers one sixth of the land mass of Australia with a population of only 200 000 people. One third of this population is indigenous and just over half of the land is under Aboriginal land title (mostly communal ownership). The landscapes in this region are still in a relatively good condition yet a large proportion of the indigenous population that reside within them are seen to be living with major social and health problems. The governance of the region is a complex mixture of Federal, Territory, and local Government, as well as indigenous and non-indigenous land ownership. To date, planning has largely been ad hoc and influenced by external factors, with little regard for Aboriginal aspirations for the future. Currently there is growing interest in developing the region which would appear to be associated with a drought that is adversely affecting the agricultural potential of southern States of Australia. This paper discusses some of the issues associated with the lack of a shared vision for the future of the NT. It recommends the use of an integrated holistic approach to planning, as defined by a Leitbild, as a strategy for creating a shared vision and working towards successful sustainable landscape planning. Other strategies put forward include placing an economic value on the ecological and cultural significance of the region, in particular providing real jobs on remote Aboriginal communities through developing enterprises based on sustainable use of wildlife and payment for the ecosystem services that Aboriginal land management provides, and applying more empowering methods of participation in scenario modelling for the future using Geographic Information Systems and other visualisation technology.     

Is private social, ethical and environmental reporting mythicizing or demythologizing reality?

There is some evidence that private social, ethical and environmental reporting (SEER) between companies and their core institutional investors has started to evolve over recent years. However, there is little research exploring the private SEER process in detail. This paper seeks to address this evolving area of corporate communication using interviews. The evidence reveals a series of mutual benefits to companies and institutional investors arising from the private SEER process. Companies are gaining from SEE engagement and dialogue, as they are using the process to inform public SEE disclosure. They are using private SEE disclosure to preempt investor surprises. Institutional investors are benefiting from the supplementary SEE information gained in private communications with investee companies. They are also using information on managers’ SEE performance gained from private dialogue, as a proxy for management quality. The private SEE disclosure process appears to be nurturing mutual understanding between companies and their core institutional investors. Drawing from a pedagogic perspective, applied previously to SER and stakeholder engagement, as well as to accounting education, we show that ‘good’ private SEE disclosure should take on the characteristics of a dialogic, problem-posing, educative process. We consider four potential outcomes. Such a process may demythologize SEE issues. However, there is also the possibility that a recreated joint myth may emerge from collaborative dialogue between two such powerful groups. Other possible outcomes are that companies may capture the process in order to perpetuate their own SEE myth or that private SEE disclosure may dwindle as public SEE disclosure improves.     

Reciprocity in Corporate Tax Compliance—Evidence from Ozone Pollution

In a tax—public goods reciprocity framework between citizens and the state, managers view taxes as a payment to the government in exchange for public goods, and hence they adjust their willingness to pay taxes as public good quality changes. We show that corporate tax planning intensity increases with ground-level ozone pollution. Revisions in ozone pollution regulations cause counties that failed the revised and more stringent standards to reduce ozone pollution. Consequently, firms headquartered in these counties reduced corporate tax planning intensity relative to firms in other counties. The ozone-tax link varies in the predicted directions with public attention to pollution, potential welfare loss due to ozone, managers’ stakeholder orientation, taxpayers’ polluting status, political preferences, and civic norms. We also find consistent results for Superfund cleanups of hazardous waste sites. Our research sheds light on reciprocity as a potential mechanism influencing corporate tax compliance.     

Corporate Social Responsibility: The Link Between Sustainability Disclosure and Sustainability Performance

This paper explores the relation between sustainability performance and sustainability disclosure within the Australian extractive industries. The study utilizes Ullmann's (1985) stakeholder framework, which depicts sustainability disclosure and performance as two components of management strategy for dealing with stakeholder demands. Consistent with this framework, we predict a positive performance–disclosure relation. Extending prior research that has utilized problematic environmental performance indices such as CEP indices or toxic emissions levels, we develop a sustainability performance index based on the International Finance Corporation's Measuring Sustainability Framework (2001). Using data from 339 mining and energy firms listed on the Australian Securities Exchange in 2006, we find that corporate sustainability performance is strongly associated with disclosure as expected. Sustainability disclosure is also greater for firms with a proactive communication strategy as manifested through press release activity. Finally, asset age and firm size are both positively associated with sustainability, consistent with predictions from the stakeholder framework.     

公共服务战略管理中的公众参与：原因、机制与意义

公共服务战略管理是战略管理途径在公共服务领域的运用,是制定公共服务战略并实施和评价战略的过程,以此更好地满足公共需求。公众是公共服务最直接的受众,应该把公众纳入公共服务战略管理的研究框架之中。同时,适当的公众参与对公共服务的有效供给及公共服务战略绩效的提高有着十分重要的作用。     

Managing group processes in transdisciplinary future studies: How to facilitate social learning and capacity building for self-organised action towards sustainable urban development?

Challenges for future urban development are complex and characterised by ambiguous problem definitions or unclear, conflicting and dynamically changing goals. Transdisciplinary research promises new ways of dealing with uncertainty and complexity by including non-academic actors into the research process and fostering social learning for better and more effective research. Depending on the level of participation and the number and heterogeneity of actors involved, appropriate designs for group processes but also associated skills are essential. In this article, we scrutinise the dynamics of groups to better understand how to effectively promote social learning and capacity building for selforganised action beyond project enc. Based on experiences of a participatory scenario planning process in the city of Korneuburg and substantiated with theories on groups and their development, we conclude with five propositions emphasising researchers’ responsibility in processes of societal change, the role of external facilitators, the scope and time needed for group building, the acknowledgement of various phases of group processes as well as requirements for social learning.     

Testing the rhetoric: An approach to assess scenario planning's role as a catalyst for urban policy integration

Policy integration has become a high-priority objective for urban planning and management. At the same time, the transportation and urban planning fields have increasingly employed scenario planning approaches, not only to develop long-term strategy, but also—potentially—to strengthen organizational networks and encourage collaborative action. Yet these latter supposed outcomes of scenario planning remain under-theorized and largely untested. In this study, we propose a methodology, based on established theories of collaboration, to test the ability of a particular type of scenario planning to encourage collaboration between participants. We demonstrate the approach using a scenario planning process undertaken within the transportation and urban planning community in Portugal. The pre-/post-test experimental design uses a survey designed to assess participants’ propensity for future collaboration by measuring change in individuals’ perceptions and understandings. The results suggest that the process likely modestly increased participants’ propensity to collaborate, primarily by strengthening inter-agency networks. The effects on participants’ views and understanding remain inconclusive. We suggest that specific challenges in applying this specific scenario planning approach to public sector contexts may limit the method's potential in achieving inter-organizational collaboration. Nonetheless, only more widespread efforts to formally test the scenario planning rhetoric will reveal the true impacts on organization change.     

“How are you vulnerable?”: Using participation for vulnerability analysis in emergency planning

Scientists in many fields of research have developed models, theories, and concepts attempting to grasp and manage dangers that are often difficult to imagine. Among the different perspectives, the science and technology studies (STS) vulnerability approach seems very promising. Relying on a constructivist paradigm, it is based on an inductive collection and analysis of a wide range of factors, with a particular focus on cultural factors and actual day-to-day practices. In this paper, we present the roots of this approach and we display findings based on three case studies exploring emergency planning in three different contexts (a city near a SEVESO plant, a school near a nuclear plant, and a city confronted to multiple catastrophic scenarios). The cases studies were realized by conducting three Focus Groups with different types of stakeholders (citizens, teachers, firemen, decision-makers, etc.). After presenting the results of the case studies, we discuss how stakeholders’ participation can inform such type of vulnerability analysis in the context of emergency planning. We argue that participation fosters a deep understanding of actual safety governance practices which allows innovative results to emerge as well as it initiates a learning process among the participants. It contributes to questioning the relations between decision-makers, experts, and citizens. It has the potential of bypassing the positivist and quantitative rationale of safety, and thus, of redefining the vulnerability governance. As a conclusion, we question the role of such STS vulnerability approach within the actual vulnerability governance.     

Materiality in an integrated reporting setting: Insights using an institutional logics framework

Using institutional logics as a theoretical framework and interviews with 20 preparers from 14 large organisations listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE), this paper focuses on examining differences in integrated reporting practices. The results reveal how a finance-centric market and professional logic interact with a stakeholder logic, leading to differences in the materiality determination process. Market-dominated firms have an internally focused approach to setting materiality which emphasises value-relevance for financial capital providers. Where logics are contested, materiality becomes an amalgamation of the factors which are important for shareholders and other stakeholders and essential for demonstrating compliance with codes of best practice. Organisations with market, professional and stakeholder logics aligned have the most sophisticated materiality determination processes. The emphasis shifts from lengthy reporting and compliance to providing a comprehensive account of the value creation process and how the business ensures long-term sustainability. In this way, how logics are instantiated may explain the considerable variation being observed in integrated reports. There are also implications for the propensity of firms either to view integrated reporting as a hegemonic challenge or to internalise it as part of a process of positive organisational change.     

Environmental scenarios and local-global level of community engagement: Environmental justice, jams, institutions and innovation

National climate change policy currently operates on a continuum from the local community to the supra-national level. These initiatives include local deliberative processes of low-carbon futures as well as local-global interactions in ‘eco-innovation jam’ dialogues carried out in a virtual space, but founded on communicating with local stakeholder groups. Experiences from national processes and international examples of these structured dialogues of community engagement raise important questions of environmental justice and deliberative processes that facilitate participation by some groups, but perhaps also neglect others. This is particularly relevant since the environmental justice discourse traditionally frames environmental concerns in a place-bound manner that includes local responses to environmental questions. In this paper we argue the importance of local and global forums and deliberative processes for community engagement in order to incorporate stakeholders’ perceptions of future options for low-carbon living, travelling and consuming services and products. Important policy transformations in planning for low-carbon societies are outlined and results from cases are discussed. We conclude with three remarks about the importance of citizen participation for understanding local conditions for change, processes of localized internationalization, and new roles for nation states facing the climate change challenge. We also recognise the importance of the local and global level of deliberative processes targeting sustainable urban futures.