TY  - JOUR
AV  - public
A1  - Schmidt, L
A1  - Falk, T
A1  - Siegmund-Schultze, M
A1  - Spangenberg, J H
TI  - The Objectives of Stakeholder Involvement in Transdisciplinary Research. A Conceptual Framework for a Reflective and Reflexive Practise
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2020.106751
JF  - Ecological Economics (TSI)
SN  - 0921-8009
PB  - Elsevier
N1  - The transdisciplinary research projects INNOVATE (01LL0904A-
01LL0904E), LEGATO (01LL0917A-01LL0917O), and TFO
(01LL0912A, D, E, F, G H, J, M) were funded by the German Federal
Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) under the Sustainable Land
Management programme. In the case of INNOVATE, the Brazilian
counterparts entered with their own funds. The paper has been written
with support of the CGIAR Research Program Grain Legumes and
Dryland Cereals. We would like to thank all our German and non-
German partners for their contributions and discussion about the projects'
transdisciplinary approaches. The authors are grateful to three
anonymous reviewers whose knowledgeable and constructive commentaries
helped to improve the initial version of the paper.
N2  - Transdisciplinary research is a well-recognised approach to address complex real-world problems. However, the
literature on a central aspect of transdisciplinarity, namely stakeholder involvement, largely lacks a reflection on its objectives. In response, we present a framework defining four general rationales for stakeholder involvement: normative, substantive, social-learning, and implementation objectives. We demonstrate the applicability of the framework and analyse how the design and processes of three collaborative research projects dealing with
sustainable land management in Southern Africa, Southeast Asia, and South America were affected by motivations
to include stakeholders. Our assessment indicates that at the projects' outset, many scientists pursued a normative rationale and saw stakeholder involvement as a burden. In the course of the projects, the substantive objective became more relevant as being closely linked to the core mandate of scientists. The projects also aimed for social learning and implementation processes, which, however, did not remain uncontested among team members. Overall, our
study indicates that jointly negotiating, clarifying, communicating, and reflecting the underlying objectives of
stakeholder involvement can help developing more effective interaction strategies and clarifying expectations.
The conceptual framework can guide a systematic reflective and reflexive practise and support the planning and
co-designing of future transdisciplinary research projects.
KW  - Stakeholder involvement
KW  -  Participatory approaches
KW  -  Research project design
KW  -  Sustainable land management
Y1  - 2020/06//
SP  - 1
ID  - icrisat11649
EP  - 9
VL  - 176
IS  - 106751
ER  -