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Guides to help initiate and manage social processes

This page provides access to a range of guides that support multi-stakeholder processes (MSPs). These guides provide information, tools and techniques for those wishing to manage these processes for community and regional development. The basic principles are universal and there are a wide range of guides developed in many different contexts that can help us. However, to achieve change policy makers and others need to be aware of the characteristics of complex social systems, and what these mean for the design of constructive interventions. It is also important to clearly set out a theory of change and logic models that build interventions that link operations with the required organizational and social activities.



  • Understanding and influencing behaviours: a review of social research, economics and policy making in Defra PDF icon This discussion paper draws on experience within Defra using a range of case studies to highlight how policy development is taking practical steps to deliver 'change'. The premise for this paper is that the heart of the issue is not about „behaviour change? but rather how translating a better understanding of behaviours (gained via economic and social research) directly into policy can influence change through the provision of evidence based, highly effective instruments. Whilst not an exhaustive review, the paper demonstrates how research and analysis is helping to understand behaviour, how this shapes our thinking about policy development and informs the choice of interventions adopted. Another useful Defra report is A framework for pro-environmental behavioursPDF icon


  • Social marketing is a closely related topic.