Understanding Structural Factors and Actor Attributes That Impact the Development of Cohesion within a Participatory Modeling Process

Abstract Many “wicked” natural resources management problems today are utilizing more collaborative methods of decision making. Through involving stakeholders in decision-making, resource managers can induce engagement and support for final decisions and prevent future conflict. Additionally, participation is thought to yield increased group cohesion, where stakeholders better understand each other’s perspectives. Cohesion is essential for collaborative processes to develop a collective vision for management of the resource. While development of cohesion within collaborative decision-making processes has been discussed, changes in cohesion have not been quantitatively demonstrated or described during these processes. Using longitudinal social network analysis models, we illustrate changes in cohesion during OysterFutures, a participatory modeling process in the Chesapeake Bay. Results showed cohesion development was not homogeneous; structural network factors and stakeholder group co-membership impacted the overall group cohesion. This article concludes with a discussion on the value of temporal social network analysis and areas for future research.