Improving the depth and complexity of stakeholder deliberation using images: Experimental evidence from Indonesia

In this study, we tested interventions to improve the depth and complexity of deliberation processes with rural aquaculture farmers in Indonesia facing collective action problems in governing water distribution. The field experiment was conducted in four aquaculture villages in Lombok, Indonesia, where farmers were actively involved in the co-management PITAP program to maintain irrigation canals. The intervention was a version of the Social-Ecological Systems Framework (SESF) translated into images that depicted the variables of the framework in the context of the case study. We hypothesized that the connected image-based SESF deliberation tool could facilitate more in-depth discussions on the complexities of social and ecological issues compared to baseline (no images) and control groups (images with no framework relationships). To gauge the farmers' intent to care for irrigation canals post-PITAP collectively, we employed the Reasoned Action Approach (RAA) from environmental psychology. Our experimental study revealed that employing the SESF as an image-based deliberation tool did not measurably improve the depth and complexity of the discussions within the context of the traditional aquaculture communities in Indonesia. Nevertheless, the data derived from the content of discussions indicates that employing the image-based tool results in different but important outcomes among the experimental groups with implications for a better understanding of context and culture where deliberation processes occur. We further reflected on our findings on the hierarchical societal relationships in the context of rural communities in Indonesia that influence the deliberation style and reception.