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Institute for Global Sustainable Development

PSF

Facilitating knowledge exchange between citizens and policy makers through dialogical participatory mapping

This project builds upon previously successful research activities developed and implemented by Dr Pitidis, Dr Lima-Silva and their colleagues across three different grants:

  1. Waterproofing Data: Engaging Stakeholders in Sustainable Flood Risk Governance for Urban Resilience (€1m, Oct/2018-Sep/2021, Belmont Forum/Norface/ESRC GCRF);
  2. RiskPACC: Integrating Risk Perception and Action to enhance Civil protection-Citizen interaction (€5.5m Sept/2021-Aug/2024, EU Horizon 2020);
  3. Accelerating the impact of citizen-generated data for improving the monitoring and management of catastrophic flooding (~£50K, Jan/2022-Jul 2022, ESRC IAA Funding scheme).

Work across these projects has emphasised the need to develop a systematised citizen-science approach to enhance social learning and territorial understanding in different communities across both the Global North and the Global South, with regard to catastrophic flooding and other natural hazards. In the context of these ongoing projects, a specific methodological approach entitled ‘dialogical participatory mapping’ has been developed. This methodology constitutes an innovative systematised approach for engaging with citizens and capturing perceptions of risk from the viewpoint of local community, strengthening situational awareness and enhancing community resilience through the production of geospatial data. Its ultimate goal is the production of an accurate cartographic depiction of existent and emerging themes of interest within communities in relation to the perceived threats and challenges.

The overarching objective of this project is to scale up the outcomes of the implementation of the dialogical participatory mapping methodology from the community to the municipal and state level not only in the three where the methodology has already been implemented (Acre, São Paulo and Minas Gerais), but in other places within Brazil, EU and the UK.

  • Municipal-level policymakers in the case study areas in Brazil become increasingly aware of and engaged in the dialogical participatory mapping methodology and its potential to support policy-making, and specifically urban planning and disaster risk management activities across their terittories.
  • The establishment of a regular process of knowledge exchange between community members, academic institutions and policymakers in Brazil, EU and the UK, focusing on the potential of scaling up citizen science and participatory methods in other communities of policy and practice across and beyond Latin America and Europe.
  • The establishment and strengthening of these knowledge exchange partnerships enable the harnessing of citizen science and other participatory methods in practice, further contributing to evidence-based policy making and policy change.

Project activities include:

  • Organising “civic conferences” in the three marginalised communities that engaged in the development of the dialogical participatory mapping approach:
    • Civic conferences is a method in CEAPG FGV (partner of the project) and aims to promote horizontal dialogue and consensus-building on locally-sensitive issues of public policy. It refers to a structured meeting that gathers community members, experts and governmental authorities to collectively reflect on solutions for locally-relevant problems.
  • Organising two knowledge exchange workshops:
    • The first workshop will take place in Brazil and will aim at disseminating the outcomes of the dialogical participatory mapping method and exploring its potential to support evidence-based policy making and disaster risk management
    • The second workshop will take place at the University of Warwick and its goal will target the scaling-up of the methodology beyond Brazil and Latin America as a means of facilitating an inter-community and cross sectoral dialogue between citizens and policymakers (including those in the Midlands) and promoting policy change.
  • Production of a Policy Brief (in English and Portuguese) based on the outcomes of the two workshops.
  • Dr Vangelis Pitidis, University of Warwick, Institute for Global Sustainable Development (PI)
  • Dr Fernanda Lima-Silva, Getulio Vargas Foundation, Brazil (Co-I)
  • Professor Jon Coaffee, Politics and International Studies (Co-I)
  • Dr Herizo Andrianandrasana, Institute for Global Sustainable Development
  • Professor Maria Alexandra Cunha, Getulio Vargas Foundation, Brazil
  • Professor Peter Spink, Getulio Vargas Foundation, Brazil
  • Dr Mario Martins, Getulio Vargas Foundation
  • Dr José Hercílio Pessoa de Oliveira, Getulio Vargas Foundation, Brazil