Contesting and Integrating Multiple Ways of Knowing in Collaborative Natural Resource Governance

Area of Science:

• Environmental governance
• Social sciences
• Ecology

Background:

• Collaborative governance is vital for complex natural resource management.
• Integrating diverse knowledge systems (ways of knowing) presents significant challenges.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate stakeholder engagement with scientific, experiential, and administrative ways of knowing (WoKs).
• To understand how different WoKs influence land management goals, knowledge legitimacy, and attitudes toward collaboration in public rangeland management.

Main Methods:

• Qualitative research approach.
• Data collection through interviews, focus groups, and participant observation.
• Analysis of how participants articulate and engage with diverse WoKs.

Main Results:

• Knowledge is strategically interpreted and relationally constructed based on institutional roles, values, and social positions.
• Collaboration fostered mutual learning but also revealed tensions regarding credibility, authority, and representation.
• Epistemic humility and viewing knowledge as a governance tool facilitated integration.

Conclusions:

• Epistemic dynamics significantly shape interaction, learning, and decision-making in multi-stakeholder environmental governance.
• Effective collaboration requires critical engagement with knowledge production, negotiation, and utilization, moving beyond mere stakeholder diversity.