Sustaining scenarios: researcher-practitioner reflections on extending research beyond project boundaries

We evaluate the results of a food system scenarios workshop in Flint, Michigan designed to co-create actionable pathways toward desirable futures in the medium-term (20 years), alongside analysis from practitioners one year post workshop. The goal of the scenario planning process is to support the translation and usability of research findings beyond project boundaries through the engagement of diverse voices and perspectives, combining research with lived experience to outline steps towards preferred futures. However, for research to create meaningful change, community partners need the ability to revisit data to adapt to community needs, and researchers need to understand the effects of scenario planning. Bridging research and action is essential to sustainable solutions, yet few examples exist documenting research effects beyond the duration of the project or with analysis from community partners. Our research results—the initial scenarios and qualitative data on how community leaders engage with the scenarios one year later—illustrate how scenario workshops facilitate the broader structural changes required for partnership support. We identify two direct effects (outcomes) of our scenarios workshops: enhanced capacity and expanded networks. Cascading effects (impacts) occur beyond the project boundaries, yet are essential to document and evaluate. For researchers working with futures-oriented, community-engaged research, we call for pluralizing how impacts and outcomes are understood and emphasize that they need to be evaluated from the perspective of community partners and in local context. While we illustrate results from food systems research, the long-term evaluation of scenarios workshops can be applied to a range of sustainability topics.