Building consensus through place: Place-making as a driver for place-based collaboration

Abstract

Place-based collaboration is of increasing interest as a means to involve scientists, managers and local stakeholders in resource management. Although place attachment, place identity and place meanings often have been used to investigate place-based collaboration, the processes facilitating cooperation are not yet clearly defined. Through a case study of a long-term voluntary collaboration, the Beaver Hills Initiative, we investigated the role of these factors in initiating and sustaining cooperation through interviews with members of the collaboration, photo-elicitation, and content analysis of past presentations about the collaboration. We found the collaboration was supported by place-based mechanisms operating at both the group and individual level. Place-making by the leaders of the collaboration in motivational, diagnostic and collective action frames led to development of shared place identity and personal place meanings, which merged with social norms for conservation of “special places”. The resulting motivations, at the group and personal level, explained the long-term, voluntary cooperation by study participants. Findings suggest socially-mediated and experiential aspects of place attachment and place-making can influence place-based collaborative action.

Keywords

• effective collaboration
• place-based collaboration
• place-based management