Collaboration for Change
Root Causes of Biodiversity Loss in the Context of Forest Use in Finland
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Sari Puustinen
Finland is not only a country of thousands of lakes, but also one of the most heavily forested countries in Europe. Recently, forest policy and management and biodiversity loss are the most strongly politicized themes in Finland. According to the Finnish Endangered Species Assessment 2019, 76% of forest habitats are endangered. Of the more than 22,000 species, 12% are endangered. The majority of endangered species live primarily in forests. Public debate is ideologically divided and not always based on scientific facts. This paper describes the deep values, ideologies and myths influencing in the background of Finnish forest policy and discussion. I call these background assumptions root causes. The paper is theoretically based on Sohail Inyatullah's Causal Layered Analysis (CLA), the basic idea of which is that behind visible phenomena there are deeper social, cultural and worldview assumptions that should be made visible in order to change problematic thought and action patterns. Based on an extensive literature review, I have identified seven root causes for the biodiversity loss of forests in Finland. Some of the root causes are related to the prevailing ideal of a (hu)man and human -nature relationship. On the other hand, other root causes are related to our national characteristics and the history of our country. The paper is part of a comprehensive BIODIFUL - Biodiversity Respectful Leadership - research project, funded by the Strategic Research Council of the Academy of Finland.
Social Sustainability and Reciprocity: Co-designing a Social Organizational Life Cycle Assessment Framework for a Food Hub at the Peri-urban Agricultural Interface View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Gary Sands, Rosalind Russell
This research is grounded in sustainability, food, and people. It is a case study exploring how to equitably measure the needs and impacts of people sustaining food systems at the peri-urban agricultural interface. The goal of this research was to develop a framework for measuring the social impact of stakeholders associated with The Good Acre, a food hub in Falcon Heights (suburb of Saint Paul), Minnesota, using a community-design approach. This community-design approach incorporated participatory action research principles, and included interviews, routine meetings, focus groups, surveys, follow-up emails, and compensation for time and knowledge shared. The measuring of social impact involved a social organizational life cycle assessment, which is an emerging methodology used to measure progress in social equity for the United Nations’ sustainable development goals. The methodology and framework that resulted from this study is an exploratory proof of concept for modeling the reciprocal relationships stakeholders have with organizations, communities, and systems in the context of life cycle assessment and sustainability. Ultimately, this research could be used to inform more targeted and equitable service delivery for The Good Acre. Future opportunities for research are numerous and include applying temporal or geographical data to the indicators to measure social impact, scaling up the framework to characterize the system as a whole, or applying the proof of concept to another organization.
Featured Democracy, Demography and Disadvantage: Exploring the Dependency on Citizen Engagement in Structurally Disadvantaged Areas of Germany
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Naomi Alcaide Manthey
After a conflict-ridden decade, political and social tensions seem pose a challenge to social cohesion and participatory democracy in Europe. In order to prevent further political polarization and an intensification of socio-economic segregation within and between regions, disadvantaged areas are particularly challenged to increase the quality of life and well-being of their citizens in lieu of municipal debt and budget restraints. This affects particularly the provision of social infrastructures and (in)formal spaces of encounter. This research focuses on citizen initiatives and their importance for social cohesion in disadvantaged mid-sized cities in Germany using insights from case studies. Findings from interviews and surveys collected in 2022 and 2023 reveal that demographic change is not only an obstacle to the economic welfare of cities, but also impedes the formation of a strong local community. Despite a general awareness of the interdependence of citizen initiatives and local governments, limited human and economic resources impede collaboration and cooperation.
The Data Mosaic : Interweaving Knowledge for Effective, Collective Decision-Making
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Sean Bradley, Sian Whyte
This paper presents learnings from the CLEVER Cities London project which focuses on the evaluation of the changes in social dynamics in relation to the co-creation of NBS. This study builds on earlier research on indicator criteria sets to describe an approach to monitoring, learning and evaluation (MEL) that on the one hand, focuses on the use of a wide range of data types and on the other hand, considers the efficiency and capacity of the decision-makers to deal with data diversity. There is a tendency, when discussing monitoring and evaluation, to almost inevitably to concentrate most effort on KPIs. Though KPIs are critical and are being applied with increasing criteria and effectiveness, there is more to the story. Considering the context of a move towards more systemic use of co-creation and the consolidation of co-governance processes, important data is becoming more diverse in nature. It can range from lived experiences and observations, to heat maps, to urban social design graphics and more as well as multiple categories of KPI data. This case-study based research considers the advances CLEVER Cities London was able to achieve in diversifying its data sets and the challenges and opportunities associated with bringing together diverse knowledge types to improve the effectiveness of decision-making processes in the future.
