Development of Participatory Institutions for Reindeer Management in Finland: A Diagnosis of Deliberation, Knowledge Integration and Sustainability

The objective of this chapter is to diagnose the mechanisms by which a focused effort to integrate knowledge based on various professional and disciplinary backgrounds can result in emergent participatory institutions for resource management – in this case reindeer herding management in northern Finland. Considering knowledge integration as a process of institutionbuilding makes sense, since in environmental governance literature institutions are widely understood as working rules that are common knowledge to resource users (Ostrom 1990). In this context, the crucial point is the process of knowledge transfer through networking and communication. Three stages of knowledge integration characterize the entire research effort, which the authors conducted as Workpackage 1 (WP1) under the RENMAN project: (1) pioneer networking, (2) translational networking, and (3) modular networking (Bruun et al. 2002; Hukkinen et al. 2003b; Forbes et al. 2004). Our typology of knowledge integration draws from recent literature on organizational learning in innovation (Bruun et al. 2002; Langlais et al. 2004). The project became a prime example of a focused effort of knowledge integration, because every stage of it was based on participatory processes. We go on to show that the processes of knowledge integration hold the characteristics of emerging institutions for resource management: formal and informal rules were developed for the participatory process of the RENMAN project and proposed for future reindeer management; the rules were geographically specified; legitimate participants in the process were clearly defined; and conflict resolution and sanctioning mechanisms were proposed during the project (Hukkinen et al. 2002, 2003a; Heikkinen et al. 2003a).