Conversation dynamics and belief change: Adaptive rangeland management by diverse stakeholder groups

Background/Question/Methods

In managing rangelands, one of the biggest problems is that different interest groups vary in their goals and the methods they use to achieve these goals.  This problem is magnified by differences in terminology and preconceived notions about what other stakeholders think.   In this research, we document groups of ranchers, conservation scientists, and rangeland professionals as they discuss how to manage two pastures in Northern California.  We measure the individual beliefs before group discussion, the dynamics of the group discussion, and the individual beliefs post discussion.  Using Butts’ Relational Events model (Sociological Methodology 2008), we examine whether roles in the ensuing conversation are related to the similarity in beliefs prior to discussion, and change in individual beliefs post-discussion

Results/Conclusions

From the preliminary analysis, we see first that ranchers form the most clustered group based on the similarity of their goals.  The conservation scientists and rangeland management professionals groups display a much wider and varied range of goals and methods.  The differences between the respondents’ individual beliefs before and after group discussion show us what kinds of ideas were easily translated in the hour discussion, and what the different stakeholder groups understood and adopted.