Handbook of Sustainability and Social Science Research by Walter Leal Filho Robert W. Marans & John Callewaert

Author:Walter Leal Filho, Robert W. Marans & John Callewaert
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Springer International Publishing, Cham

5 Different Forms of Participation—Discussion

Different forms of participation require different levels of intrinsic motivation (the different steps in the model). The extent to which the stakeholders affected should be involved depends on the purpose of their participation. When planning a participatory process, the question of objectives must therefore be clarified first. With the application of the SMoP, an analysis can be carried out beforehand in order to derive appropriate measures and to obtain a realistic assessment of their effects.

In the first case study, concernment was given among the employees (solid foundation) and with the conducted interviews, a good starting point for the participation process has been achieved. The positive effect on the respondents—firstly on the planed sustainability measures and secondly the appreciation of being asked at all—is extremely beneficial and can be seen as the starting point for the emergence of a “participatory culture” in this area. If all steps during the participation process can be carried out, this could also lead to long-term behavioral and attitudinal changes.

At higher levels of participation it is difficult to achieve success if no motive has been (sufficiently) addressed and therefore no basic interest is present. This was the case with some of the EnSign student projects (second case study). Even though, with the award of credit points and a grade, there were enough extrinsic motivators and the students have been motivated and committed and the projects have been performed very well. Creating environmental value orientations (Step 3) is not to be expected on this basis. The goal of transferring sustainability related values by integrating corresponding topics into teaching should be the cause of more concern. Furthermore, the projects have to be more closely connected with the students’ motives. For example, students of business psychology are primarily interested in exciting business enterprises. One could initiate attractive student projects in cooperation with corresponding companies involved in the EnSign project and thus create more enthusiasm among the students for similar research questions.

The possibilities to flank participation processes by technical support—such as the application of mobile apps—are promising (third case study). But before launching the ecoGIS app, a lot of effort should be invested in developing a target group-adequate information campaign in order to generate concern (Step 1). In addition to the information about the app itself, one must appropriately convey the environmentally-relevant knowledge (Step 2) and put it in the right context (ideas how this could be done has already been discussed with the description of the case study). According to the SMoP, it is of fundamental interest to establish the first steps before higher levels of participation can be achieved—like in this case with the (regularly) use of the app.

The SMoP includes the most relevant psychological parameters underlying participatory processes. However, there are other effects not included into the model. Apart from the psychological aspects of procedural justice (fair process effect) and intrinsic motivation included in the model, there are other psychological factors which also influence the participation process. This includes, for example, the effect

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