Over the past several decades natural resource issues have become highly controversial, even playing out on the national or international stage. While natural resource science has advanced, the controversy has not gone away. If anything, it has gotten worse. The reality is that natural resource managers need to be as skilled at addressing public concerns as they are with resource science. Fortunately, over the same period the social sciences have produced useful tools that can aid natural resource managers. But resource managers need to know about these tools and be trained in their use. The purpose of this article is to provide an introduction to some of the social science tools or approaches that have proven to reduce political conflict over resource issues. When beginning a major project, resource managers can review this list to see which of these approaches might prevent or mitigate controversy. References are provided for each tool as a starting place for further exploration.
References
[1]
Creighton, J.L. (1982) The Use of Values: Public Participation in the Planning Process. In: Public Involvement Techniques: A Reader of Ten Years’ Experience at the Institute for Water Resources, IWR Research Report 82-R-1, 45-60. https://www.iwr.usace.army.mil/Portals/70/docs/iwrreports/82-R-1.pdf
[2]
Insert Science Direct (2003) Environmental Policy in an International Context, Volume 3, 1-6. https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth-and-planetary-sciences/environmental-value
[3]
Fleischmann, K., Cheng, A.-S., Oard, D., et al. (2012) Content Analysis for Values Elicitation. https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Content-Analysis-for-Values-Elicitation-Fleischmann-Cheng/708655a6c68bd617d30170436c648edffcf0e930
[4]
Creighton, J.L. (2005) The Public Participation Handbook. Jossey-Bass Publishing, San Francisco, CA.
[5]
Creighton, J.L., Priscoli, J.D. and Dunning, C.M. (Eds.) (1983) Public Involvement Techniques: A Reader of Ten Years Experience at the Institute of Water Resources. IWR Report 82-R1, U.S. Army Institute for Water Resources, Fort Belvoir, 470 p. https://www.iwr.usace.army.mil>iwrreports>82-R-1
[6]
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Public Participation Guide. Update July 2021. http://www.epa.gov%3einternational-cooperation%3epublic-participation-guide]www.epa.gov>international-cooperation>public-participation-guide
[7]
Slovic, P. (1986) Informing and Educating the Public about Risk. Risk Analysis, 6, No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1539-6924.1986.tb00953.x
[8]
Sandman, P.M. (1986) Explaining Environmental Risk. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Toxic Substances, Washington DC.
[9]
Fischhoff, B. (1989) Risk: A Guide to Controversy. In: Committee on Risk Perception and Communication, National Research Council, Improving Risk Communication, National Academy Press, Washington DC, Appendix C, 211-319.
[10]
National Hazards Center, University of Colorado Boulder (2020) Principles of Risk Communication: A Guide to Communicating with Socially Vulnerable Populations across the Disaster Lifecycle. http://hazards.colorado.edu/uploads/freeform/Risk%20Communication%20Guide_FINAL_508_Ed%20Feb%202021.pdf
[11]
Creighton, J.L. and Priscoli, J.D. (1996) An Overview of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR). U.S. Army Institute for Water Resources, Fort Belvoir, IWR Pamphlet 96-ADR-P-5. https://www.iwr.usace.army.mil/Portals/70/docs/iwrreports/96-ADR-P-5.pdf
[12]
Creighton, J.L., Priscoli, J.D. and Dunning, C.M. (Eds.) (1998) Public Involvement and Dispute Resolution: A Reader Covering the Second Decade of Experience at the Institute for Water Resources. IWR Report 98-R-5, U.S. Army Institute for Water Resources, Alexandria. http://www.iwr.usace.army.mil/Portals/70/docs/cpc/Second_Decade_Reader.pdf
[13]
American Bar Association (2022) Alternative Dispute Resolution. https://www.americanbar.org/groups/litigation/committees/alternative-dispute-resolution/
[14]
Janse, B. (2018) Problem Definition Process. https://www.toolshero.com/problem-solving/problem-definition-process/
[15]
Spradlin, D. (2012) Are You Solving the Right Problem? Harvard Business Review, September. https://hbr.org/2012/09/are-you-solving-the-right-problem
[16]
Aggens, L. Identifying Levels of Public Interest in Participation. In: Public Involvement Techniques: A Reader of Ten Years’ Experience at the Institute for Water Resources, IWR Research Report 82-R-1, 195-201. https://www.iwr.usace.army.mil/Portals/70/docs/iwrreports/82-R-1.pdf
[17]
Creighton, J.L. (1982) Identifying Publics/Staff Identification Techniques. In: Public Involvement Techniques: A Reader of Ten Years’ Experience at the Institute for Water Resources, IWR Research Report 82-R-1, 195-201. https://www.iwr.usace.army.mil/Portals/70/docs/iwrreports/82-R-1.pdf
Creighton, J. (2010) How to Conduct a Shared Vision Planning Process. US Army Institute for Water Resources. https://www.iwr.usace.army.mil/Portals/70/docs/iwrreports/10-R-6.pdf
[23]
Bourget, L. (Ed.) (2011) Converging Waters: Integrating Collaborative Modeling with Participatory Processes to Make Water Resources Decisions. https://www.iwr.usace.army.mil/Portals/70/docs/maasswhite/Converging_Waters.pdf
[24]
Stephenson, K. and Shabmen, L. (2011) Executing Computer Aided Dispute Resolution: Integration of Models with Negotiation Processes. In: Converging Waters: Integrating Collaborative Models with Participatory Processes to Make Water Resource Decisions, US Government Printing Office, Washington DC, 23-34.
[25]
What Is Construction Partnering. https://partneringinstitute.org/about/what-is-construction-partnering
[26]
Creighton, J.L., Priscoli, J.D., Davis, N.D. and Wetherall, T. (1996) Partnering Guide for Environmental Missions of the Air Force, Army, Navy. U.S. Army Institute for Water Resources, Fort Belvoir. https://planning.erdc.dren.mil/toolbox/library/IWRServer/MR-8.pdf
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Klitgaardt, T.J. and Mussman III, W.E. (1992) High Technology Disputes: The Minitrial as the Emerging Solution. Santa Clara High Technology Law Journal, 8, Issue 1. https://digitalcommons.law.scu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1110&context=chtlj
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Edelman, L., Carr, F. and Creighton, J.L. (1989) The Mini-Trial. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Fort Belvoir, Virginia, Alternative Dispute Resolution Series, Pamphlet #1. https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/pdfs/ADA224260.pdf https://doi.org/10.21236/ADA224260
