Sterre van der Kaaij

Project title: Exploring the motivations behind choices in the Participatory Value Evaluation of the Dutch Environmental Program. 

In February, I started my graduation project at the Knowledge Hub for Participation at the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management (IenW). The Ministry of IenW is currently developing the Dutch Environmental Program (NMP). The NMP describes the route to a healthy, clean, and safe living environment by 2050 in the Netherlands, which means that health damage from environmental pollution is negligible. An important part of developing the NMP is participation; when working on such a major societal task it is important to involve all stakeholders early in the process. An important part of the NMP participation plan is the execution of a so-called Participatory Value Evaluation (PVE). Through the PVE, citizens can provide advice on policy-making for the NMP. To get a clear overview of population perspectives emerging from the PVE, a Latent Class Cluster Analysis (LCCA) can be used. Through the LCCA individuals can be clustered based on the similarity in choices they made and motivations they provided in the PVE. It is common practice of researchers to include the quantitative data of a PVE  in the LCCA, but no attempt has ever been made to include the qualitative data of a PVE in the LCCA,  while the ideas, concerns, and values of the PVE participants mainly emerge in the written arguments and motivations.  If it is possible to add the qualitative arguments to the LCCA, individuals can be grouped based on the similarity of their arguments and values as well. It is not clear yet whether this gives more direction to policymakers’ decisions and policies, or whether it negatively affects policy-making because there is an abundance of information. My research will investigate how to include the qualitative arguments from a PVE alongside the quantitative data by conducting a case study on the NMP PVE.  
 
What is the contribution to the Energy Transition Lab?
My research contributes in two ways to the Energy Transition Lab. Firstly, my research will hopefully provide insights into why people are for or against certain environmental improvement measures. Secondly, if the developed method turns out to be useful, it can be used to analyse the qualitative data of other PVEs related to the energy transition.