Eliciting plural nature's values and social networks of grassland restoration actors

This data set contains all the data to reproduce the analyses of the dissertation “Interlinking value-articulating institutions for plural values in restoration”. All data is based on interviews with 39 actors related with extensive grassland management and restoration in the district of Gifhorn, Lower Saxony. Actors were affiliated with various actor groups (i.e., conservation and environmental agencies and non-governmental organization, farmers, ecologists, agricultural consultants, political offices, and land holdings). Interviews served to (i) elicit the plural values that diverse actors associate with grasslands and (ii) to uncover social network structures and dynamics. (i) The elicitation of values was based individual-based elicitation using three commonly used types of methods (i.e., open-ended questions, agreement-based elicitation, and preference-based testing). Four exercises were used (i.e., open-ended questions, list of proposed value statements with a 4-point Likert-Scale, ranking of top 5 statements, and rating top 5 statements by attributing 10 points across them). (ii) Identification of social network structures and dynamics was achieved by snowball sampling on the basis of three different social interactions (i.e., sharing information, co-decision making, and sharing visions and goals). Interviewees were asked to refer to approximately three individuals with whom they engage in each one of the social interactions. These identifications served as candidates for further interviews.