Participation and context

As the name participatory backcasting indicates, a key feature of this planning approach is that the future scenarios are developed in collaboration with concerned stakeholders/actors. The involvement of others than researchers or the core project management team is what gives the approach some of its strength, but it also brings challenges.

Actors, stakeholders and experts

First, a note on the words ‘actor’ vs. ‘stakeholder’. ‘Actor’ is a social science concept whereas ‘stakeholder’ is mainly used within strategic management field. In this manual, we use both terms to refer to individuals, groups or organisations who can influence or be influenced by an issue under study/problem under study.  

On a related note, although the term “expert” is often used to refer to researchers or someone who is working in-depth with a certain issue, within participatory approaches and transdisciplinary research, the term is broader and incorporates companies, knowledge institutions, governments, societal organisations etc. Indeed, these actors are not experts within the research field, but they are likely to be experts in something else that is of relevance to the issue. By not singling out researchers as the only experts, the aim is to highlight the importance of everyone’s perspectives and contributions.

Literature on stakeholder theory

A majority of the literature on stakeholder theory has been created in relation to strategic planning in organisations/companies. However, the approach outlined in this manual has societal problems, as opposed to product development, as its core issue. A critical difference is that no one has an initial preference or a leading role, and even though there might be some dominant influence from certain stakeholders, the stakeholder analysis and participation should not be done for a particular group.