Ideals, practices, and future prospects of stakeholder involvement in sustainability science
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Significance: Even though stakeholder involvement (SI) is increasingly relevant in scientific research processes, especially in interdisciplinary fields like sustainability science, there is limited academic literature investigating conceptual or methodological questions. Through a survey among researchers from this field, this paper presents an overview of practices and ideals of SI as well as of their divergence. Furthermore, trade-offs between scientific ideals and SI, as well as necessary improvements concerning, for example, methods or funding, are described. To add to the conceptualization of SI, the survey data were related to a typology that differentiates democratic, technocratic, neoliberal-rational, and functionalist views of SI in science. The findings can form one possible basis for development of SI toward a more standardized research approach in sustainability science.
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Studies have shown the validity of using SurveyMonkey to conduct surveys used in academic research.
“Studies have shown the validity of using this platform to conduct surveys used in academic research, in addition to the numerous studies which use such platforms for conducting surveys globally56–60.”
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- Authors
- Mielke, J., Vermaßen, H., & Ellenbeck, S.
- Affiliations
- University of Potsdam (DE)
- University of Erfurt (DE)
- Corresponding author
- Mielke, Jahel
- Venue
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
- Publisher
- National Academy of Sciences
- Published
- 2017-11-21
- Volume
- 114
- Issue
- 50
- Pages
- E10648-E10657
- ISSN
- 0027-8424 (ISSN-L)
- 1091-6490
- PMC
- PMC5740662
- OpenAlex
- W2769823251
- Cited by
- 56
- References
- 68
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 6 · 2022: 6 · 2021: 14 · 2020: 8 · 2019: 5 · 2018: 7
- FWCI
- 8.79
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- publish.UP (University of Potsdam) (submittedVersion)
- RENATE (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- RENATE
- Funders
- German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (01UN1213B)
- Center for Political Practices and Orders, University of Erfurt (000)
- Heinrich-Böll-Foundation (000)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › Information Systems and Management › Interdisciplinary Research and Collaboration
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › Sustainability and Climate Change Governance
- Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › Information Systems and Management › Research, Science, and Academia
- Keywords
- stakeholder engagement, sustainability science, science-policy interface, democratic science, ideal types, transition studies, science and society
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