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Abstract Participatory approaches to science and decision making, including stakeholder engagement, are increasingly common for managing complex socio-ecological challenges in working landscapes. However, critical questions about stakeholder engagement in this space remain. These include normative, political, and ethical questions concerning who participates, who benefits and loses, what good can be accomplished, and for what, whom, and by who. First, opportunities for addressing justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion interests through engagement, while implied in key conceptual frameworks, remain underexplored in scholarly work and collaborative practice alike. A second line of inquiry relates to research–practice gaps. While both the practice of doing engagement work and scholarly research on the efficacy of engagement is on the rise, there is little concerted interplay among ‘on-the-ground’ practitioners and scholarly researchers. This means scientific research often misses or ignores insight grounded in practical and experiential knowledge, while practitioners are disconnected from potentially useful scientific research on stakeholder engagement. A third set of questions concerns gaps in empirical understanding of the efficacy of engagement processes and includes inquiry into how different engagement contexts and process features affect a range of behavioral, cognitive, and decision-making outcomes. Because of these gaps, a cohesive and actionable research agenda for stakeholder engagement research and practice in working landscapes remains elusive. In this review article, we present a co-produced research agenda for stakeholder engagement in working landscapes. The co-production process involved professionally facilitated and iterative dialogue among a diverse and international group of over 160 scholars and practitioners through a yearlong virtual workshop series. The resulting research agenda is organized under six cross-cutting themes: (1) Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion; (2) Ethics; (3) Research and Practice; (4) Context; (5) Process; and (6) Outcomes and Measurement. This research agenda identifies critical research needs and opportunities relevant for researchers, practitioners, and policymakers alike. We argue that addressing these research opportunities is necessary to advance knowledge and practice of stakeholder engagement and to support more just and effective engagement processes in working landscapes.
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This content will become publicly available on February 4, 2026
Developing Engagement Principles for Climate and Health Research: An Example from a Community-Informed Research Project
Background: Characterizing principles of co-learning and stakeholder engagement for community-engaged research is becoming increasingly important. As low-income communities, Indigenous communities, and communities of color all over the world disproportionately feel the social, health, and economic impacts of environmental hazards, especially climate change, it is imperative to co-learn with these communities, so their lived experience and knowledge guide the building and sharing of a knowledge base and the development of equitable solutions. Objectives: This paper presents recent theoretical and practical support for the development of co-learning principles to guide climate adaptation and health equity innovations. We describe this development process, which included both a literature review and stakeholder engagement. The process and the resultant set of principles are relevant to community health partnerships. Adopting principles to guide design, development, and implementation prior to commencement of community health projects will help to ensure they are nonextractive and achieve maximum benefits for beneficiaries. Methods: A multiuniversity research team adopted this approach at the outset of a research endeavor in 2022. The team is currently conducting principle-based field research in non-U.S. locations where climate hazards and structural inequities have created health disparities. Conclusions: The team’s advisory board and its funder expressed enthusiasm about the development of these principles and about the prospect of Western researchers conducting a project in a way that values Indigenous and traditional communities as partners and knowledge-holders and has the potential to bring benefits to the communities involved, including increased capacity for activities promoting health, equity, and well-being.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2103754
- PAR ID:
- 10610921
- Publisher / Repository:
- Johns Hopkins University Press
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Progress in Community Health Partnerships: Research, Education, and Action
- Volume:
- 18
- Issue:
- 4
- ISSN:
- 1557-055X
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 551 to 559
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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