Contesting and Integrating Multiple Ways of Knowing in Collaborative Natural Resource Governance
Collaborative governance is increasingly used to address complex natural resource issues, yet integrating diverse ways of knowing remains a persistent challenge. This study investigates how stakeholders engage with scientific, experiential, and administrative ways of knowing (WoKs) in a collaborative effort to manage public rangelands in the Thunder Basin ecoregion of Wyoming, USA. Drawing on qualitative data from interviews, a focus group, and participant observation, we examine how participants articulate and engage with different WoKs to inform land management goals, shape perceptions of knowledge legitimacy, and influence attitudes toward collaboration. Findings suggest that knowledge is strategically interpreted and relationally constructed through participants’ institutional roles, values, and social positions. While collaboration created opportunities for mutual learning, it also surfaced tensions around credibility, authority, and representation. Participants who were open to epistemic humility and treated knowledge as a tool for governance were better positioned to foster integration. These findings contribute to our understanding of collaborative governance by illustrating how epistemic dynamics shape interaction, learning, and decision-making within a multi-stakeholder process. More broadly, this case contributes to a growing recognition that meaningful collaboration requires moving beyond stakeholder diversity to critical engagement with how knowledge is produced, negotiated, and used in decision-making.