Speaker
Description
Introduction
Participatory modeling (PM) is an approach in transdisciplinary research in which stakeholders are actively involved in the modeling process (Halbe et al., 2018). The aim is to improve the accuracy of quantitative models (e.g. hydrological models, yield models)(e.g., Beall et al., 2011; Buchheit et al., 2015) or make qualitative models (e.g. actor networks, decision-making processes)(e.g., Bos et al., 2020; Giordano et al., 2021) more realistic. This can contribute to the improvement of policy measures or management, supports social learning or contributes to a better understanding of values and decisions. Although the goals and tasks of PM overlap with those of real-world laboratory research (Maring et al., 2022; McPhee et al., 2021), we found that to date PM has very rarely been applied in living lab research.
Materials and methods
We analyzed 78 case studies and provide a systematic overview of 17 different methods (such as system dynamics, agent-based modeling, Bayesian networking, social network analysis etc.) and 10 objectives of PM (e.g., improving policies, understanding stakeholder priorities, improving numerical models, improve system understanding, etc.). We show (1) which PM methods were used in transdisciplinary research in the agri-food system and to what extent and in which combination each method was used how frequently, (2) which specific objectives were pursued with which method, and (3) whether correlations existed between individual PM methods and the degree of stakeholder involvement.
Results
Our results give insights into research questions and goals currently explored through PM in the agri-food system. Our results show a clear connection between specific methods and specific goals and highlight methods often used together. We also highlight which methods are applicable towards several goals or only towards specific ones, and show significant differences in how often certain methods have been used in our sample. We also found differences in the level of stakeholder participation by method or pair of methods and will provide descriptions of case studies.
Discussion
We show ways in which researchers can expand their range of skills and institutions can build capacity through targeted methods training or hiring, and which methods appear to be particularly suitable for living lab research due to their particularly strong stakeholder involvement (we plan to describe specific studies from our analysis). Our results also help reviewers evaluate living lab research proposals that include PM methods by providing case study precedents. Ultimately, we intend to help establish PM more firmly as an approach in living lab research, for example in light of the European Partnership Agroecology and the EU mission "Soil Deal for Europe", which aim to greatly expand living lab research in the agricultural sector in Europe.
References
- Beall, A., Fiedler, F., Boll, J., & Cosens, B. (2011). Sustainable Water Resource Management and Participatory System Dynamics. Case Study: Developing the Palouse Basin Participatory Model. In Sustainability (Vol. 3, Issue 5, pp. 720–742). https://doi.org/10.3390/su3050720
- Bos, S. P. M., Cornioley, T., Dray, A., Waeber, P. O., & Garcia, C. A. (2020). Exploring Livelihood Strategies of Shifting Cultivation Farmers in Assam through Games. Sustainability, 12(6). https://doi.org/10.3390/su12062438
- Buchheit, P., Campo, P., Dumrongrojwatthana, P., & Promburom, P. (2015). Companion Modelling for resilient water management: Stakeholders’ perceptions of water dynamics and collective learning at catchment scale. https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:208133261
- Giordano, R., Máñez Costa, M., Pagano, A., Mayor Rodriguez, B., Zorrilla-Miras, P., Gomez, E., & Lopez-Gunn, E. (2021). Combining social network analysis and agent-based model for enabling nature-based solution implementation: The case of Medina del Campo (Spain). Science of The Total Environment, 801, 149734. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.149734
- Halbe, J., Pahl-Wostl, C., & Adamowski, J. (2018). A methodological framework to support the initiation, design and institutionalization of participatory modeling processes in water resources management. Journal of Hydrology, 556, 701–716. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2017.09.024
- Maring, L., Ellen, G. J., & Brils, J. (2022). Report on Prioritization of Actor Needs and Criteria for Living Lab / Lighthouse Identification. https://www.soilmissionsupport.eu/fileadmin/inhalte/soilmission/pdf/sms_deliverable_3.4_final.pdf
- McPhee, C., Bancerz, M., Mambrini-Doudet, M., Chrétien, F., Huyghe, C., & Gracia-Garza, J. (2021). The Defining Characteristics of Agroecosystem Living Labs. In Sustainability (Vol. 13, Issue 4). https://doi.org/10.3390/su13041718
| Keywords | Participatory modeling; Living lab; Agriculture and agri-food; Capacity building; Evaluation |
|---|
