The reflective futures practitioner
Balancing salience, credibility and legitimacy in generating foresight knowledge with stakeholders
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 9846404 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Eva-Maria Kunseler (Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, corresponding author), W Tuinstra (0000-0002-3681-743X, Open University of the Netherlands), Eleftheria Vasileiadou (Eindhoven University of Technology), A C Petersen (0000-0003-0706-5635, Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency) |
| Year | 2015 |
| Volume | 66 |
| Pages | 1-12 |
| Publication date | 2015-02-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Futures (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0016-3287 • E-ISSN: 1873-6378 |
| Publisher | Elsevier BV (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1016/j.futures.2014.10.006 |
| OpenAlex | W2077201777 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 47 |
| References cited | 56 |
This paper explores how foresight researchers involved in environmental, nature and planning issues attempt to balance salience, credibility and legitimacy while generating knowledge in interaction with policy-makers and other social actors. Engaging stakeholders in foresight processes can increase the robustness of foresight knowledge, broaden the spectrum of issues addressed, and create ‘ownership’ of the process. While in foresight practices stakeholder participation becomes more and more popular to resort to as enabling factor for generating salient, legitimate and credible foresight knowledge, participation can also compromise these qualities. We analysed two foresight projects conducted at the PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, one that developed future visions for Dutch nature policy and another that focused on future pathways for Dutch urban sustainable development policy. We illustrate that the dynamics of the research setting – changes in the socio-political context and the internal dynamics of the participatory efforts – complicated the balancing process. We conclude that one of the main challenges for futures practitioners is, therefore, to work within the dynamics of the research setting, and to position themselves strategically in this setting; by acting as ‘reflective futures practitioners’
Business · Credibility · Futures contract · Futures studies · Legitimacy · Political science · Politics · Public relations · Salience (neuroscience · Sociology · Stakeholder · Sustainability · Climate change impacts on agriculture · Complex Systems and Decision Making · Computer Science · Psychology · Sustainability and Climate Change Governance
Systematic evaluation of scenario assessments supporting sustainable integrated natural resources management
Beyond the imagination gap
(Re)envisioning inclusive futures
Managing participation across boundaries
Expert biases in technology foresight. Why they are a problem and how to mitigate them
Transformative policy mixes in socio-technical scenarios
Four archetypes of organizing corporate foresight at the intermediate maturity stage
Stakeholder contributions through transitions towards urban sustainability
Climate and Culture
Climate and Culture
Building capacities for transformative change towards sustainability
Linking knowledge to action in ocean ecosystem management
Scenarios for embedding phosphorus recovery into the international regime through EU’s carbon border adjustment mechanism
Sustainability dialogues in Brazil
Managing a special report
Learning facilitating leadership
A new path in foresight validation? Discussing the socio-epistemic underpinning of foresight quality criteria
Design-Driven Conflicts
Can science on transformation transform science? Lessons from co-design
Best practice for the use of scenarios for restoration planning
A call for empirically based guidelines for building trust among stakeholders in environmental sustainability projects
Social capital accumulation and the role of the researcher
The role and effectiveness of climate commissions in engaging the public on climate change in the UK
A framework for implementing evidence in policymaking
Anticipating ecological transformation in the Coorong, Australia
Adding ‘iterativity’ to the credibility, relevance, legitimacy
The authority of science in sustainability governance
Evaluating credibility, legitimacy, and salience in a participatory modeling project in the food, energy, water nexus
Evaluating the relevance, credibility and legitimacy of a novel participatory online tool
Researchers’ approaches to stakeholders
Productive science–policy interactions for sustainable coastal management
Aligning research uptake with context
From consultation to inclusive engagement
Exploring the potential of combining participative backcasting and exploratory scenarios for robust strategies
Effects of sustainable innovation on stakeholder engagement and societal impacts
Designing a monitoring system to detect signals to adapt to uncertain climate change
Shared Socio-economic Pathways for European agriculture and food systems
Diversity in global environmental scenario sets
When GenAI writes public foresight reports
Local actions for the common good
New future perspectives through constructive conflict
Incorporating stakeholder perspectives into model-based scenarios
Dominance, stakeholders’ moves and leadership shifts
The state of foresight in food and agriculture
Exploring visions and vision clusters of sustainable food packaging - The case of Finland
Rethinking health workforce planning
The Driverless Cars Emulsion
Learning From Strangers
Designs on Nature
Balancing credibility, relevance and legitimacy
Learning and stakeholder participation in transition processes towards sustainability
Salience, Credibility, Legitimacy and Boundaries
Research design
Knowledge systems for sustainable development
The reflective practitioner
Reflexive Governance for Sustainable Development
Exploring the quality of evidence for complex and contested policy decisions
Scenarios in society, society in scenarios
Beyond consensus
Participatory methods of integrated assessment—a review
Policy-oriented foresight as evidence for policy making
Science in Wadden Sea policy
Beyond the research–policy interface. Boundary arrangements at research–stakeholder interfaces in the policy debate on biofuel sustainability in Mozambique
Interdisciplinary production of knowledge with participation of stakeholders
Technical knowledge, discursive spaces and politics at the science–policy interface
Seeking policy-relevant knowledge
The State of the Empirical Research Literature on Stakeholder Involvement in Program Evaluation
The Sustainable City
Environmental assessments
Moving boundaries in transboundary air pollution co-production of science and policy under the convention on long range transboundary air pollution
Dependable dynamism
Conceptualizing sustainable development
Technologies of Humility
Diversity and constructive conflict in stakeholder dialogue
Foresight and long-term policy-making
Essence of backcasting
Making territorial scenarios for Europe
Future subjunctive
Large-scale participatory co-shaping of technological developments
On theory building in Foresight and Futures Studies
Strategic foresight in public policy
Barriers and levers to future exploration in practice experiences in policy-making
Stakeholder participation in environmental knowledge production
From precautionary inadequacy to participatory risk management
A rationale for science–policy interfaces
Beyond use
Past and future of backcasting
Science for the post-normal age
Stakeholder consultations
Pluralising progress
Post-Normal Science in Practice at the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency
Opening Up" and "Closing Down
Deliberating Competence
The Politics of Reflexive Governance
The Extended Case Method
| Unique citing works | 47 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 4,27 |
| Citation span | 2015 - 2026 (12) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 46 |