EA - Growing the Animal Advocacy Community in China - Engaging Stakeholders in Research for Improved Effectiveness by Jack S

Link to original articleWelcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: Growing the Animal Advocacy Community in China - Engaging Stakeholders in Research for Improved Effectiveness, published by Jack S on April 25, 2023 on The Effective Altruism Forum.SummaryThis is the second in a series of blog/ forum posts that looks at the application of stakeholder-engaged research methods in EA-related cause areas. This post looks at how Good Growth has been applying these methods to supporting the community concerned about farmed animal welfare and alternative protein in ChinaImproving research in the Chinese animal advocacy space should be a priority, in order to improve our theories of change and support the Chinese advocacy communityWe think that stakeholder-engaged research using mixed methods is particularly suitable for farmed animal welfare, community building, and alternative protein research in Asia, because there are large gaps in our theories of change, and a range of stakeholders whose input can provide valueWe describe two of our studies where we have used stakeholder-engaged methods to understand advocates and consumers in ChinaThese findings can help to refine the strategies and pathways of organisations focused on these cause areasWe invite EAs to explore these methods. If you're interested in doing so reach out to us at [email protected] or DM us (Jack or Jah Ying) on the EA forumIntroductionIn the last post, we introduced our perspective on stakeholder-engaged research methods we think might be neglected in EA, and we put the spotlight on some of our past research in the community building/ meta-EA area.To recap, too much research is produced without engaging the people who might use or be informed by it, reducing both the quality of the research and limiting the potential for impact on the world. To resolve this issues, we should find creative ways to involve various stakeholders, such as implementing organisations, policymakers, and the general public, throughout the process of producing and disseminating research.This is not a new idea. A variety of terms are used to describe the idea of doing research with stakeholders playing a significant role - some of the more well-known terms include Mode 2 research, research co-creation and community-based participatory research. We use the term stakeholder-engaged research to encompass all of these approaches. Stakeholder-engaged research is often connected with various kinds of qualitative research, such as ethnography, participant observation, in-depth interviews (structured, semi-structured or unstructured), and focus groups, where engagement is “built-in” to the methodology, but it can encompass quantitative methodologies, natural science and engineering.In this post and the next, we’re going to look at Good Growth’s current area of focus - farmed animal welfare - and the related field of alternative protein. Our work is focused on supporting the broader community of people working on animal advocacy in Asia - this post will focus specifically on our China research. We’re using ‘animal advocacy/ animal advocates’ as an umbrella term to refer to all communities trying to help animals, regardless of focus on rights/ welfare or wild/ farmed animals.Why Animals in Asia/ China?Animal welfare in Asia is an important and neglected cause area: Asia is home to over 40% of farmed land animals and produces over 85% of farmed fish, the majority of which are in China. On top of the enormous welfare impacts, the growing animal industry in the region also contributes significantly to the global risks of climate change and zoonotic pandemic risk. Despite this, Asian advocates only receive an estimated 7% of global animal advocacy funding, and Chinese advocates are particularly neglected.As well as addressing welfare directly, developing and promoting alternative protein is an incr...