Value of Information and Decision Pathways: Concepts and Case Studies

Glynn, Pierre D.; Rhodes, Charles; Chiavacci, Scott J.; Helgeson, Jennifer; Shapiro, Carl; Straub, Crista L.

doi:10.3389/fenvs.2022.805214

Cited by 5 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 106 publications

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“…Norms and values drive how political decisions are made: they tend to reflect the priorities, prevalent beliefs, and values of stakeholder communities and of their representatives (Akerlof, 1997;Elster, 1989). BBHV and human and social factors also affect how information is perceived, valued, communicated, and often manipulated (or gamed) during decision-making processes, and also in the construction and application of models (Glynn et al, 2022a(Glynn et al, , 2022b. Lastly, decisionmaking, participatory modeling processes, and model construction and applications rarely, if ever, fully acknowledge the sources of knowledge that they involve (often innately), or even more so the knowledge gaps, oversimplifications, and knowledge fragmentation that is more consciously being applied (Sterman, 2012).…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Recognizing political influences in participatory social-ecological systems modeling

Lim

Glynn

Shenk

et al. 2023

SESMO

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Stakeholder participation in social-ecological systems (SES) modeling is increasingly considered a desirable way to elicit diverse sources of knowledge about SES behavior and to promote inclusive decision-making in SES. Understanding how participatory modeling processes function in the context of long-term adaptive management of SES may allow for better design of participatory processes to achieve the intended outcomes of inclusionary knowledge, representativeness, and social learning, while avoiding unintended outcomes. Long-term adaptive management contexts often include political influences -- attempts to shift or preserve power structures and authority, and efforts to represent the political and economic interests of stakeholders -- in the computer models that are used to shape policy making and implementation. In this research, we examine a period that included a major transition in the watershed model used for management of the Chesapeake Bay in the United States. The Chesapeake Bay watershed model has been in development since the 1980s, and is considered by many to be an exemplary case of participatory modeling. We use documentary analysis and interviews with participants involved in the model application and development transition to reveal a variety of ways in which participatory modeling may be subject to different kinds of political influences, some of which resulted in unintended outcomes, including: perceptions of difficulty updating the model in substantive ways, “gaming” of the model/participatory process by stakeholders, and increasing resistance against considering uncertainty in the system not captured by the model. This research suggests unintended or negative outcomes may be associated with both participatory decision-making and stakeholder learning even though they are so often touted as the benefits of participatory modeling. We end with a hypothesis that further development of a theory of computer model governance to bridge model impact and broader theories of environmental governance at the science-policy interface may result in improved SES modeling outcomes.

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Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Recognizing political influences in participatory social-ecological systems modeling

Lim

Glynn

Shenk

et al. 2023

SESMO

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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Knowledge sources, narratives, and living in social-ecological systems

Cockerill,

Glynn,

Cerrutti

et al. 2024

Mitig Adapt Strateg Glob Change

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Humans exist as part of social-ecological systems (SES) in which biological, physical, chemical, economic, political and other social processes are tightly interwoven. Global change within these systems presents an increasingly untenable situation for long-term human security. Further, knowledge that humans possess about ourselves and SES represents a complex amalgamation of individual and collective factors. Because of various evolutionary pressures, people often reject this complex reality in favor of more simplistic perceptions and explanations. This thought paper offers an overview of how and where people acquire knowledge and how that knowledge acquisition process reflects and influences narratives, which subsequently affect efforts to address challenges in SES. We highlight three narratives as examples of constraints on finding ways forward toward a more resilient future. Our focal narratives include tendencies to conflate tame and wicked problems; to posit a false human-nature duality; and to resist the explanatory evidence from biocultural evolution. We then discuss the human cognitive propensity to create narratives to think about how we might intentionally develop narratives that are more appropriate for living in coevolving SES.

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Closing nature connectedness to foster environmental culture: investigating urban residents’ utilization and contribution to parks in Vietnam

Khuc,

Tran,

Thinh

et al. 2024

Discov Sustain

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This study aims to investigate the potential for enhancing financial contributions to nature conservation and/or environment protection contributed by citizens and/or the private sector in Vietnam. Specifically, the study empirically examines the antecedents of the utilization patterns and financial contribution of city dwellers to public and national parks. We introduce and use a novel CBMM analytic method (Bayesian mindsponge mindspongeconomics combined with Culture Tower) to analyze the dataset of 535 Vietnamese urban residents surveyed in late 2020. Empirical results demonstrate that the more frequently individuals visit parks, the more likely they are to contribute financially to projects in parks as a whole. In addition, having trees in the house positively correlates with donations to national park conservation projects, while the intention to visit a national park in the next 12 months encourages urban residents to contribute to planting projects in public parks. These results suggest that improved environmental literacy and nature connectedness can help encourage citizens to act collectively to help alleviate the financial burden in dealing with environmental issues. We also found that the increased frequency of bushmeat consumption impedes people’s intention to support conservation projects, implying that the consumer culture of nature might be a hindrance in the efforts to engage the public. Based on the findings, this study offers not only the key solution to alleviate financial burdens for nature conservation but also paves the way to nurture and foster environmental culture associated with closer nature connectedness and improved consumption culture for a sustainable future in years to come.

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Value of Information and Decision Pathways: Concepts and Case Studies

Cited by 5 publications

References 106 publications

Recognizing political influences in participatory social-ecological systems modeling

Recognizing political influences in participatory social-ecological systems modeling

Knowledge sources, narratives, and living in social-ecological systems

Closing nature connectedness to foster environmental culture: investigating urban residents’ utilization and contribution to parks in Vietnam

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