Structure of causation and its influence on cooperation: A comparative study of forest management in Ontario, Canada

The paper uses cause mapping and structural analysis to analyse how key consensus-building criteria influence the development of cooperation among and between stakeholders and a government agency. The analyses are based on a comparative study of two Local Citizens Committees (LCCs) in Ontario, Canada. Given–Means–Ends (GME) analysis is used to identify the informal goals of LCCs, including the development of cooperation, and LCCsʹ influence over consensus-building criteria, and Context, Structure and Performance (CSP) analysis is used to identify the relative influence of key consensus-building criteria on cooperation criteria. The paper concludes with a discussion of the relationship between the structural analysis and content analysis of the same data and four inferences for consensus-building and co-management theories.