Envisioning sustainable water futures in a transdisciplinary learning process: combining normative, explorative, and participatory scenario approaches

Schneider, Flurina; Rist, Stephan (2014). Envisioning sustainable water futures in a transdisciplinary learning process: combining normative, explorative, and participatory scenario approaches. Sustainability science, 9(4), pp. 463-481. Springer 10.1007/s11625-013-0232-6

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Competing water demands for household consumption as well as the production of food, energy, and other uses pose challenges for water supply and sustainable development in many parts of the world. Designing creative strategies and learning processes for sustainable water governance is thus of prime importance. While this need is uncontested, suitable approaches still have to be found. In this article we present and evaluate a conceptual approach to scenario building aimed at transdisciplinary learning for sustainable water governance. The approach combines normative, explorative, and participatory scenario elements. This combination allows for adequate consideration of stakeholders’ and scientists’ systems, target, and transformation knowledge. Application of the approach in the MontanAqua project in the Swiss Alps confirmed its high potential for co-producing new knowledge and establishing a meaningful and deliberative dialogue between all actors involved. The iterative and combined approach ensured that stakeholders’ knowledge was adequately captured, fed into scientific analysis, and brought back to stakeholders in several cycles, thereby facilitating learning and co-production of new knowledge relevant for both stakeholders and scientists. However, the approach also revealed a number of constraints, including the enormous flexibility required of stakeholders and scientists in order for them to truly engage in the co-production of new knowledge. Overall, the study showed that shifts from strategic to communicative action are possible in an environment of mutual trust. This ultimately depends on creating conditions of interaction that place scientists’ and stakeholders’ knowledge on an equal footing.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

08 Faculty of Science > Institute of Geography > Geographies of Sustainability > Unit Critical Sustainability Studies (CSS)
08 Faculty of Science > Institute of Geography
08 Faculty of Science > Institute of Geography > NCCR North-South Management Centre [discontinued]
10 Strategic Research Centers > Centre for Development and Environment (CDE)

UniBE Contributor:

Schneider, Flurina, Rist, Stephan

Subjects:

300 Social sciences, sociology & anthropology > 330 Economics
900 History > 910 Geography & travel

ISSN:

1862-4065

Publisher:

Springer

Projects:

[444] Approaching water stress in the Alps

Language:

English

Submitter:

Users 124 not found.

Date Deposited:

04 Jul 2014 13:23

Last Modified:

05 Dec 2022 14:32

Publisher DOI:

10.1007/s11625-013-0232-6

Uncontrolled Keywords:

Socio-economic scenarios, Visions of the future, Water use, Water governance, Participatory, Transdisciplinary

BORIS DOI:

10.7892/boris.49819

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/49819

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