A Combined method to model policy interventions for local communities based on people knowledge

Policy interventions to promote innovative industries in peripheral regions are often hampered by lack of information on the functioning of the local socio-economic systems, due to their complexity. This might result in mismatches between policy objectives and the actual needs and capability of local communities. To overcome this drawback, it is crucial to obtain appropriate knowledge on the local system, which nevertheless is typically embedded in local actors’ minds in uncodified and tacit form. Fuzzy Cognitive Maps (FCMs) have been employed to decode this kind of knowledge in a reproducible manner. However, some problems remain as to how to integrate the necessary vagueness of local actors’ heuristic with experts’ knowledge into a rational framework. The following methodology customization is proposed: • Combine the FCMs with the Discourse Analysis to obtain relevant narratives (i.e. concepts, visions, insights, etc.) needed to define system boundaries and variables. • Employ individual interviews – rather than a participatory approach – to define the causal relations among system variables. • Integrate tacit and uncodified knowledge embedded in local actors within experts’ scientific knowledge.