Credibility, salience, and legitimacy of boundary objects: water managers' assessment of a simulation model in an immersive decision theater

The connection between scientific knowledge and environmental policy is enhanced through boundary organizations and objects that are perceived to be credible, salient, and legitimate. In this study, water resource decision-makers evaluated the knowledge embedded in WaterSim, an interactive simulation model of water supply and demand presented in an immersive decision theater. Content analysis of individual responses demonstrated that stakeholders were fairly critical of the model's validity, relevance, and bias. Differing perspectives reveal tradeoffs in achieving credible, salient, and legitimate boundary objects, along with the need for iterative processes that engage them in the co-production of knowledge and action. Copyright , Beech Tree Publishing.

[1]  Kenneth R. Fleischmann,et al.  Boundary Objects with Agency: A Method for Studying the Design–Use Interface , 2006, Inf. Soc..

[2]  J. H. Fujimura.  The Molecular Biological Bandwagon in Cancer Research: Where Social Worlds Meet , 1988 .

[3]  Colin Seymour-Ure,et al.  Content Analysis in Communication Research. , 1972 .

[4]  K. Jacobs,et al.  Managing for sustainability in an arid climate: lessons learned from 20 years of groundwater management in Arizona, USA , 2004 .

[5]  M. Hare,et al.  Exploring the Gap Between Water Managers and Researchers: Difficulties of Model-Based Tools to Support Practical Water Management , 2007 .

[6]  A. Salter,et al.  Postcards from the Edge: Local Communities, Global Programs and Boundary Objects , 2004 .

[7]  R. Pielke,et al.  The neglected heart of science policy: reconciling supply of and demand for science , 2007 .

[8]  T. Keating.  Lessons from the Recent History of the Health Effects Institute , 2001 .

[9]  Susan Leigh Star,et al.  Institutional Ecology, `Translations' and Boundary Objects: Amateurs and Professionals in Berkeley's Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, 1907-39 , 1989 .

[10]  Jacob Cohen.  A Coefficient of Agreement for Nominal Scales , 1960 .

[11]  Richard M. Shane,et al.  RIVERWARE: A GENERALIZED TOOL FOR COMPLEX RESERVOIR SYSTEM MODELING 1 , 2001 .

[12]  David W. Cash,et al.  Knowledge systems for sustainable development , 2003, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[13]  Beth A. Bechky,et al.  Boundary Organizations: Enabling Collaboration among Unexpected Allies , 2008 .

[14]  Elizabeth A. Corley,et al.  Water Managers' Perceptions of the Science–Policy Interface in Phoenix, Arizona: Implications for an Emerging Boundary Organization , 2008 .

[15]  David H. Guston,et al.  Integrating Climate Forecasts and Societal Decision Making: Challenges to an Emergent Boundary Organization , 2001 .

[16]  David H. Guston,et al.  Stabilizing the Boundary between US Politics and Science: , 1999, Social studies of science.

[17]  D. Guston.  Boundary Organizations in Environmental Policy and Science: An Introduction , 2001 .

[18]  Klaus Krippendorff,et al.  Content Analysis: An Introduction to Its Methodology , 1980 .

[19]  John N. Warfield,et al.  Usable Knowledge: Social Science and Social Problem Solving , 1979 .

[20]  David W. Cash,et al.  Linking global and local scales: designing dynamic assessment and management processes , 2000 .

[21]  Paul R. Carlile,et al.  A Pragmatic View of Knowledge and Boundaries: Boundary Objects in New Product Development , 2002, Organ. Sci..

[22]  Arnim Wiek,et al.  The evolution of the IPCC's emissions scenarios , 2009 .

[23]  Francis Harvey,et al.  Boundary Objects and the Social Construction of GIS Technology , 1998 .

[24]  S. Jasanoff,et al.  The Fifth Branch: Science Advisers as Policymakers. , 1991 .

[25]  Sharon A. Jones,et al.  Evaluating the Science-Policy Interface for Climate Change Research , 1999 .

[26]  Clark A. Miller.  Hybrid Management: Boundary Organizations, Science Policy, and Environmental Governance in the Climate Regime , 2001 .

[27]  Elaine K. Yakura,et al.  Charting Time: Timelines as Temporal Boundary Objects , 2002 .

[28]  T. Gieryn.  Boundary-work and the demarcation of science from non-science: Strains and interests in professional , 1983 .

[29]  D. White,et al.  Representing Recovery: Science and Local Control in the Framing of U.S. Pacific Northwest Salmon Policy , 2008 .

[30]  David W. Cash,et al.  “In Order to Aid in Diffusing Useful and Practical Information”: Agricultural Extension and Boundary Organizations , 2001 .

[31]  Maria Carmen Lemos,et al.  The co-production of science and policy in integrated climate assessments , 2003 .

[32]  Roger Wilkinson,et al.  Beyond Participation: Boundary Organizations as a New Space for Farmers and Scientists to Interact , 2005 .