The COOPLAGE approach - When actors model together their situation, principles or plans to decide and change sustainably, in autonomy

Abstract

COOPLAGE is the acronym for "Coupling open and participatory tools to let actors adapt for environmental management". The objective of the approach is to support the participation of different stakeholders (citizens, elected officials, managers, etc.) in making decisions about their environment. This article presents the fundamental principles of the COOPLAGE approach (empowerment, intervention research, real participation in decision-making, reflexivity on desired changes and a mix of engineering and do-it-yourself). It also reviews the history of the approach, which is in line with the work of modeling complex systems. Finally, the different COOPLAGE tools are introduced here, and then detailed in the different articles of this special issue.