Governance can be defined simply as the way in which society behaves or put another way is the principal mechanism for managing human behaviour through government policies, regulations, incentives, and informal community-based activities. It is increasingly recognized that governance systems that underpin effective management strategies can only be developed in a close dialogue between stakeholders and science, where the role of science will be both to evaluate proposed strategies, but also to advise on which kinds of strategies will make an impact.
The interaction between science and management, governance structures, or policy decisions requires explicit consideration of the perception of science by users. We are interested in designing participatory governance frameworks that can be used by practitioners to define future challenges for marine resources management. Thus we use social science methods like focus groups to evaluate likely future scenarios for sustainable coastal development so that practitioners can identify the likely environmental, economic and social issues associated with these future scenarios and determine the governance reform needed to meet such challenges in future.
