Purpose

Social marketing theories have habituated to a theoretical and methodological focus that is criticised for being myopic and stigmatising. Following recommendations to redirect focus theoretically, the purpose of this paper is to apply an observational methodology to understanding how project stakeholders interact to examine whether consideration of stakeholders can identify factors facilitating or impeding farming practice change.

Design/methodology/approach

More than 48 events involving as many as 150 people including project stakeholder meetings, one-on-one consultations and annual events were observed over more than 100 h by between one and five researchers. Field notes were gathered, and thematic coding focussed on understanding how stakeholders facilitated or impeded practice change.

Findings

Observations identified limited provision of information about the project by on ground project stakeholders to targeted individuals (farmers). On the rare occasions where information sharing was observed, communication was delayed making it difficult for individuals to connect actions with outcomes observed. Participating stakeholders did not freely support delivery of activities needed for individual practice change.

Practical implications

This study indicates the value of wider process and outcome assessment encompassing stakeholders to identify factors impeding and facilitating farming practice change.

Social implications

Approaches that centre attention on individuals fail to acknowledge the inputs, activities and outputs delivered by project stakeholders within a system of change. By redirecting evaluation focus, shared responsibility is gained and stigmatisation of one stakeholder group can be avoided.

Originality/value

This study demonstrates how observations can be used to redirect focus to consider actions and interactions occurring between on ground project stakeholders. A stakeholder evaluation approach extends monitoring and evaluation focus beyond individuals targeted for behaviour change. Implications, limitations and future research directions are outlined.

中文翻译：

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将理论重点转移到针对变更的个人之外：观察项目利益相关者的互动

目的

社会营销理论已习惯于理论和方法论上的焦点，人们批评它是近视和污名化的。根据建议从理论上重新关注重点，本文的目的是应用一种观察性方法来理解项目利益相关者之间的互动方式，以检查利益相关者的考虑是否可以识别出促进或阻碍农业实践改变的因素。

设计/方法/方法

1-5个研究人员在100多小时内观察到48多个事件，包括项目利益相关者会议，一对一咨询和年度事件，多达150人。收集了现场笔记，主题编码着重于了解利益相关者如何促进或阻碍实践变革。

发现

观察发现，实地项目利益相关者向目标个人（农民）提供的项目信息有限。在罕见的观察到信息共享的情况下，沟通被延迟，使个人很难将行动与观察到的结果联系起来。参与的利益相关者没有自由地支持开展个人实践变更所需的活动。

实际影响

这项研究表明，包括利益相关者在内的更广泛的过程和结果评估的价值，可以识别出阻碍和促进农业实践改变的因素。

社会影响

将注意力集中在个人上的方法无法确认项目利益相关者在变更系统中提供的输入，活动和输出。通过重定向评估重点，可以获得共同的责任，并且可以避免对一个利益相关者群体的污名化。

创意/价值

这项研究演示了如何使用观察来将重点转移到考虑地面项目利益相关者之间发生的行动和相互作用。利益相关者评估方法将监视和评估重点扩展到针对行为改变的个人之外。概述了含义，局限性和未来的研究方向。