Speaker
Description
There is a broad agreement that in order for science to enable actual change and foster real-life innovations, we need to connect practitioners to researchers (Lang et al., 2012; McPhee et al., 2021). How can researchers find and engage farmers and other stakeholders and involve them in the research process? One emerging method for transdisciplinary agricultural research is so called agroecosystem living labs, were scientist work together with farmers and other stakeholders in order to address complex transdisciplinary problems, and explore innovative agricultural practices (McPhee et al., 2021). In the process of establishing living labs, networks and partnerships have been shown to be key enabling factors to succeeding (Berberi et al., 2023). Identifying already existing networks of practitioners can therefore be an advantage when developing participatory initiatives such as living labs (Hvitsand et al., 2022). In the project PREPSOIL (Funded by the European Union under the Mission Soil (project number 101070045), which aims to raise awareness and engagement about soils in Europe, we map so called Communities of Practice, which is a way of describing groups of practitioners who share a concern for sustainability challenges, and have an interest for developing techniques or approaches. The purpose is both to enable practitioners that share an engagement for soil health to engage within and across countries, but also to document groups that use innovative practices to enhance soil health. A starting point for identifying Communities of Practice has been national stakeholder groups – e.g. National Hubs, regional networks around agricultural advisors, researchers or NGOs focused on soil health. On the PREPSOIL homepage there is also an opportunity for stakeholders to sign up themselves, and engage in a forum. After identifying groups of actors, the research partners of PREPSOIL documents the groups by making a video interview and helping the group to describe themselves at the PREPSOIL homepage. The process is ongoing during 2024, with the aim of documenting 80 communities of practice across Europe.
Preliminary results of the mapping process are that the language barrier is proving to be a challenge in order for practitioners in different regions of Europe to engage together, e.g. on the online forum. In addition, the collaboration with other Communities of Practice or researchers might seem time-consuming, with unclear actual direct gains for the group. Research initiatives, e.g. living labs, that involve Communities of Practice should be closely connected with an actual problems that the practitioners face, in order to motivate participation. There also seems to be a need for resources and structure – e.g. enabling study visits or translated news pieces which are easily accessible, in order for the groups to be able to exchange knowledge across countries. The role of researchers and agricultural advisors as mitigators of the learning processes seems important, as well as funding for activities. One way of simplifying communication and initiatives for living labs and other initiatives which is under development within PRESOIL is an app, where researchers can communicate and collaborate with stakeholders and citizens through so called soil quests. How this type of technology can enable more engagement and collaboration within potential living lab initiatives is yet an open question, but it seems clear from the experiences of PREPSOIL that these types of tools are needed in order to make participation in research more accessible and functional.
References
Berberi, A., Beaudoin, C., McPhee, C., Guay, J., Bronson, K. and Nguyen, V. M. (2023) 'Enablers, barriers, and future considerations for living lab effectiveness in environmental and agricultural sustainability transitions: a review of studies evaluating living labs', Local Environment.
Hvitsand, C., Raanaas, R. K., Gjotterud, S. and Nicolaysen, A. M. (2022) 'Establishing an Agri-food living lab for sustainability transitions: Methodological insight from a case of strengthening the niche of organic vegetables in the Vestfold region in Norway', Agricultural Systems, 199.
Lang, D. J., Wiek, A., Bergmann, M., Stauffacher, M., Martens, P., Moll, P., Swilling, M. and Thomas, C. J. (2012) 'Transdisciplinary research in sustainability science: practice, principles, and challenges', Sustainability Science, 7, pp. 25-43.
McPhee, C., Bancerz, M., Mambrini-Doudet, M., Chrétien, F., Huyghe, C. and Gracia-Garza, J. (2021) 'The Defining Characteristics of Agroecosystem Living Labs', Sustainability, 13(4).
| Keywords | Living labs; Participation,;Soil health;Transdisciplinary research |
|---|
