UW Professor Advances Scholarship on Stakeholder Engagement in Working Landscapes

A group of more than 160 researchers and practitioners -- including a University of Wyoming visiting assistant professor -- has released a suite of materials dedicated to advancing understanding of stakeholder engagement and the effectiveness of collaboration in working landscapes.

Across two years and four workshops, the group produced a report, a research agenda, a special issue of the journal Socio-Ecological Practice Research and an editorial describing the process. To read the report, go here. The special issue, much of which is published open access, is available here.

“I was working on a multiyear, multistate water quality and quantity project that did a lot of stakeholder engagement, and I just kept wondering: ‘How do we know collaboration makes a difference? How do we study that?’” says Weston Eaton, from UW’s Haub School of Environment and Natural Resources, who helped lead the process. “I knew I was not the only one asking those questions.”

Eaton began to gauge interest in exploring these questions and received responses from hundreds of people willing to participate. With the help of an advisory committee and Southwest Decision Resources, a team of professional facilitators, working groups formed around six themes, which became the basis of a shared research agenda aimed at better understanding collaboration in natural resource spaces.

The six themes were justice, equity, diversity and inclusion; ethics; research and practice; context; process; and outcomes and measurement.

“What is really important about this work is that researchers and practitioners were working together and both able to contribute their knowledge and expertise,” Eaton says. “That has not always been the case.”

Improved stakeholder engagement, the editorial says, has the potential to empower people to contribute to decisions that impact their lives, encourage environmentally responsible behavior and address inequalities.

And yet, growing interest in taking advantage of these benefits has outpaced scientific research on its effectiveness and best practices. The co-produced agenda identifies critical needs and opportunities for researchers, practitioners and policymakers.

In addition to producing a variety of publications, the working groups formed an informal network of researchers and practitioners working to improve the knowledge and practice of stakeholder engagement.

“There was some hesitation coming into this process, but people formed a learning community around it that I think will endure,” Eaton says.

The special issue was supported by UW’s Ruckelshaus Institute, a division of the Haub School that supports stakeholder-driven solutions to environmental challenges through collaboration, convening and communication.

For more information, email Eaton at weaton@uwyo.edu.