Stakeholder Mapping
Context mapping and stakeholder mapping has been tailored and adapted to Citizen Observatories, given that Citizen Observatory characteristics add layers of complexity, for example by cutting across di erent environmental, political and administrative boundaries. The Ground Truth 2.0 context and stakeholder mapping approach captures relevant information for Citizen Observatories through team discussions or interview questions and combines this in a consolidated context and stakeholder map.
CoP: The WeObserve Co-design & Engage Community of Practice brings together
ractitioners of Citizen
Observatories and citizen science to share and learn di erent ways of engaging stakeholders in
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Citizen Observatories.
Stakeholder analysis for Citizen Observatories – Example from the Ground Truth 2.0 project
The Ground Truth 2.0 project developed a generic stakeholder analysis for Citizen Observatories. This was applied in six countries (four in Europe, two in Africa), and the results identified ten main stakeholder categories. Stakeholders are deliberately listed as having more than one role (i.e., are placed in several categories), indicating potential role conflicts or the need to engage the same stakeholder for multiple reasons. Core stakeholders in any Citizen Observatory are citizens, scientists, (commercial) data aggregators, decision-makers and policy-makers. The ‘enabling environment’ category consists of stakeholders who either have a legal mandate or live in the project area. They influence how the activities of the Citizen Observatory are received, thereby enabling or limiting the impacts that the observatory can achieve. In contrast to the core stakeholders, the enabling environment can influence but cannot be chosen by the Citizen Observatory.
Source: Pfeiffer et al., 2016
Political, Environmental, Social, Economic and Legal Context Analysis
‘Market forces’ consist of those stakeholder groups that engage in direct economic (financial) transactions with the Citizen Observatory. Internal stakeholders (i.e. often partner organisations in a funded project, see inner circle) are important functional entities in the project or organisation.
Typically, these are staff and managers of organisations, not all of whom are necessarily in favour of the observatory. This approach to stakeholder analysis can be applied in various geographical contexts and social settings and can be used with different types of issues.
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Political and legal boundaries: What is the political structure in the observatory area – how many levels of government are there, and how do the various levels affect the CO’s issue? What are defining features, drivers and conflicts of the local political culture? How open is the system to participation?
What legislation and regulation at what levels govern the issue addressed by the Citizen Observatory? What laws establish the rights and limits to citizen participation?
Environmental boundaries: In what landscape does the Citizen Observatory exist: are there defining features in the geography, climate, ecosystems or seasons? What are the ‘natural boundaries’ of the issues investigated by the Citizen Observatory: is it linked to larger-scale phenomena such as river catchments, ecosystems or habitats, weather zones, or migratory species?
• Social/Cultural boundaries: What factors inform the identity of the local population? Is the population homogenous, or are there major ethnic or tribal groups, different languages, or religious, social or cultural sub-groups? Is local culture highly autonomous, or do other cities or countries serve as role models and trend setters?
• Technical boundaries: Are there any specific aspects in the technical infrastructure, such as access to and use of technology, that need to be considered when designing the Citizen Observatory? Are there any particular local preferences for social media networks or popular local online communities?
• Economic boundaries: What is the structure of the local economy, and how is economic power distributed in the project region? Are there major employers or concentrated industrial clusters, ports or special economic zones inside or outside the project area?
when some but not all core stakeholder types were already identi ed or engaged during your prior community building process.
Collaborative mapping can be a fruitful way to build on existing networks and the local knowledge held within core stakeholder groups. To tackle this, you will rst need to identify which stakeholder types you already have on board. It is useful to de ne who you will be working with if you have not already done so and ask: Who will the nal community be? Who are the other stakeholders we still need to involve?
Typically your start point will include a majority from one or more of the following groups:
Citizens, grassroots, bottom up and community groups, and NGO’s,
Scientists, academics, professionals across disciplines, technologists, or representation from key scienti c organisations, or
Policy– and decision-makers, including local or regional authorities and representatives from municipalities
As you expand your stakeholder groups, there are a number of tools you can use in workshops – or equivalent online environments such as Miro and Mural – to identify stakeholders that are relevant to the context and focus of your observatory. These include Geographic Mapping and Commons Mapping (more on those here).
Collaborative stakeholder mapping
Depending on the local context, the Citizen Observatory’s issue and how the Citizen Observatory is set up, you may need to identify and engage stakeholders through a collaborative process. This step is particularly important
You may also be interested in:
I want to engage stakeholders…
…by learning how to work with various types of stakeholders
…in ways that keep them motivated over time
Working with a growing group of diverse stakeholders (citizens, scientists, policy-makers, practitioners, etc.) is at the heart of a Citizen Observatory. Yet it can be a real challenge to coordinate communication and activities among all the di erent groups. This is especially true when the Citizen Observatory is still fairly new and its members do not yet have an established way of working together.
How can this be done?
Finding ways in which to work with all stakeholders within a Citizen Observatory is often challenging. However, there are several methods and tools which can help you to engage with this variety of stakeholders from the start and throughout the lifetime of your observatory.
Choose and implement a suitable co-design process
A Citizen Observatory brings together (groups of) citizens (often from di erent age groups, socio-economic backgrounds or political orientations), scientists (including from di erent scienti c disciplines) and decision-makers (civil servants as well as elected o cials). A key aspect of working with these various stakeholders means turning separate individuals into a uni ed group with a shared interest. Choosing and implementing a suitable co-design process can help stakeholders to identify and agree on the common theme they feel passionate about (more on how to suitable co-design approaches here).
Useful Resources
PROJECT REPORT: This
Ground Truth 2.0 report presents the generic elements of a
stakeholder engagement for Citizen Observatories (i.e., to sustainably engage active participants and in uential supporters) and shows the tailored strategies of for six Citizen Observatories.
VIDEO: The GROW Insights Workshop held a meeting and panel with local and national authorities, policy-makers and decision-makers to explore Citizen Observatories’
contributions to the SDGs in Athens.