In Activity 2 we will work with the term actor so we will shortly present the perspective who will be called as an actor in the ACTIVE Methodology and the Activities.

Actors We will in the ACTIVE Methodology and Activities as an actor understand any subject (organization or natural person) that is involved in the issue/topic we are exploring. By involved we mean anybody actively or passively influencing the issue (by decision making, action, opinions esc.) and/or is influenced by the issue concerned (target group). In project culture these actors are refered to as “stakeholders”.

The actors can be any subject as organization or natural person like (examples):

·         government and governmental organizations

·         companies

·         NGOs

·         Research and school institutions

·         citizens (natural persons)

·         any organized or not organized groups

o   community

o   interest group

o   military

o   indigenous group

o   etc.

·         and others…

The actors may have different roles in the issue concerned:

·         decision making, seting or binding rules for others (authority)

·         action (execution of activity – doing something)

·         expert/opinion maker

·         influenced by / target group of intervention / users

·         interest seeking - influencing decisions

·         etc.

The actors have different motivations concerning the issue that we are exploring. These motivations might be conscious and unconscious. They can be based on some basic needs or just on some actual opportunity or goal seeking (as is profit, power, control, dominance etc).

Conflict of interest. It is important to be careful not do not become “paranoid” to see “profit gaining motives” everywhere (many people are doing it because they believe in it). AND also we should acknowledge that seeking profit is actually nothing principally wrong (in market economy it actually make quite sense). But what we refer to are “accusations/findings” (supported by evidence or not) that someone (researcher, NGO) is doing something because of the money they are receiving. On one hand we should distinguish conflict of interest (researcher paid by company producing researched product, politician participating in business that is influenced by the politics, NGO actually working in contract for business interests). And on the other hand source of income that should be considered as “normal” as everyone has to live up and cover the expenses somehow. As in many cases the line might be guide thin we should at the end primary look at the evidence that these actor are actually providing. Instead of having (sometimes reasonable sometimes not) debate who is more objective, we should always examine the relevance of the evidence and coherence of the data and information provided (see Module 4).