Participatory Modelling is about modellers and non-modellers getting together to jointly develop, use, evaluate, and learn from models. This can take many shapes and forms including varying degrees of engagement, the use of different types of models and exercises being embedded in broader studies with sometimes very specific goals and sometimes extremely broad ones.
Participation allows for bridging across a range of perspectives and modelling can produce a shared object: the model. This helps to share knowledge across different disciplines, organisations, and stakeholder groups, even when each of them understands or uses the model slightly differently. By doing so, participatory modelling can support social learning, increase salience and legitimacy of models, facilitate a high degree of buy-in from multiple actors, and foster the link between science, decision and action. In return, modellers can access more data, knowledge, and information about stakeholders’ issues which improves the scientific quality of the model, the consideration of stakeholders’ preferences and issues and, in fine, the ability of the model to support decision and societal concerns.
There are some examples of participatory modelling being successfully applied in the ICES context and a consensus of the added-value of fostering the use of these approaches, but they are currently neither being coordinated nor evaluated. This is a missed opportunity that could result in diminishing returns, e.g., miss-managed expectations, lack of feedback, stakeholder fatigue, etc., as it is a method that not only builds but also relies on trust of voluntary participants.
In this theme session the aim is to look at the current state of Participatory Modelling in marine science, identify pinch points with regards to training, communication, coordination, and infrastructure, and gathering and compiling insights. To this end the session invites contributions on four main topics:
- Examples of Participatory Modelling: what has been tried, how did it work, what were the hurdles and lessons learned?
- Tools to support Participatory Modelling: practical tools, guidance, and frameworks to help natural and social scientists to set, run, and learn from participatory modelling.
- Demonstrators of participatory models and serious games.
- Illustrations of the benefits of participatory modelling for both participatory processes and model development.
