The Ethics of Participatory Processes: Dynamic Flux, Open Questions - Earth Stewardship: Linking Ecology and Ethics in Theory and Practice - page 316

where do my loyalties lie in relation to the purpose of the volume or, more broadly,
of sustaining diverse life on earth? To indicate why these are open questions as well
as to articulate my sense of ethics, participation, and Earth Stewardship, I start by
describing a discussion group on the ethics of collaborative or participatory pro-
cesses that met during the 2011 Cary conference “Linking Ecology and Ethics for a
Changing World.” I then raise the possibility of translating the non-equilibrium or
dynamic fl ux view of ecological complexity (Pickett 2013 ) into a view of ethics and
social action. The fi nal section introduces fi ve ideals for a “dynamic fl ux ethics,”
referring at points to a schema woven out of the discussion group's contributions.
There is advocacy in these three sections but of a form conducive, I hope, of further
inquiry by readers. Indeed, you may seek clarifi cations and understanding of
suggestions made and questions raised in this chapter, but try to balance a desire to
be convinced or to have compelling examples provided with a sense of conversation
with a fellow inquirer into “what exists and what could exist” (Foucault 1996 ).
To enhance the sense of unfolding inquiry, some matters that were settled for me
before starting are placed in appendices.

21.1 The Ethics of Collaborative or Participatory Processes:

From Discussion Group to a Picture

As Taylor et al. ( 2011 ) note, “collaboration has become a dominant concern in
environmental planning and management since the 1990s (Margerum 2008 ) [and]
the need to organize collaborative environmental research can be traced back at
least as far as the tropical rainforest ecosystem projects led by H.T. Odum in the
1950s and'60s.” This emphasis makes sense at two levels (elaborated in Appendix 1 ):
Collaboration produces results that are either a 1. Sum of the Parts (combining
multiple perspectives, extending over time, and spanning distance); or 2. Greater
than the Sum of the Parts (generating new perspectives, ensuring durability of out-
comes, developing capacities).
With a view to combining multiple perspectives, generating new ones, and
developing capacities, it seemed appropriate during a conference aiming to link
“Ecology and Ethics for a Changing World,” to convene a discussion group on the
ethics of collaborative or participatory processes, and, moreover, to run the group
using participatory processes. A record of the group's three sessions, including
some audio fi les, was kept and can be accessed at Taylor ( 2011 ). Table 21.1 provides
an outline of the sessions. Because text cannot capture the experience of engaging
in participatory sessions, the outline is included to intrigue readers enough to
explore for themselves the processes listed and to convey the source of a schema
that is to be built on in Sect. 21.3 .