Enrico Celio, Adrienne Grêt-Regamey, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich
Participation is considered a key concept of bridging science and society. Participatory modeling aims at involving stakeholders in the modeling process, from data collection through model construction and the development of solutions that are more useful for local decision-making than those designed by scientists and decision makers alone. In the best case, real partnerships between scientists, policymakers, civil society, and the private sector are established and the knowledge acquired through the modeling activity transforms into collaborative action.
Several conditions influence such a transformation varying from a problem-oriented set-up of the research project taking-up local needs to the duration of projects that allow implementation. To reach intended outcomes is a major challenge. While the modeling community recognizes these challenges, successful transformation of participatory modeling exercises into action and intended outcomes is rarely achieved.
In this session, we welcome contributions responding to the dilemma described above, showing and analyzing their participatory modeling exercise in the light of the established process and the achieved outcomes. In order to create a learning environment, we encourage intentionally also failed trials to be shared within this session.