“Collaborative NGO Analysis in NRM: When your collaborator is also your unit of analysis”

Abstract

NGOs (Non-Governmental Organizations) continue to take more responsibility in Natural Resource Management (NRM). This requires in-depth analyses of the roles NGOs play in NRM. Collaborative NGO Analysis (CNGOA), whereby scholars take an expert role and partner with an NGO to study the organization, its impacts/activities, and its partnerships, can provide new insight into NGO roles in NRM. Existing collaborative studies in NRM primarily apply participatory and community-based approaches whereby researchers partner with organizations to study a problem, such as climate change. However, few studies use CNGOA. This research note addresses this gap by presenting three cases that use CNGOA. CNGOA can create new opportunities to apply theoretical constructs and open spaces for NGO reflexivity. Flexible agreements that include conditions for NGO involvement and anonymity support the approach and can protect the NGO and address some equity concerns. Findings lay the groundwork for additional studies that apply CNGOA in NRM.

Keywords:

• Collaborative research
• community-based research
• community-engaged research
• organizational analysis
• organizational ethnography

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank our doctoral advisors and acknowledge the institutions where we conducted this research. In particular, we thank Dr. Zhao Ma and the Purdue University Department of Forestry and Natural Resources, Dr. Kim Niewolny and the Virginia Tech Department of Agriculture, Leadership, and Community Education, and Dr. Max O. Stephenson and the Virginia Tech School of Public and International Affairs for supporting this research. We also wish to express gratitude to our partner organizations for collaborating with us on these research projects.

Additional information

Funding

We would also like to acknowledge the following funders: the Virginia Tech College of Architecture and Urban Studies, the Virginia Tech School of Public and International Affairs, the Virginia Tech Institute for Policy and Governance, and the National Science Foundation’s Geography and Spatial Sciences Program (1660481).