Public participation in an environmental dispute: implications for science education

The paper, which reports the findings of a case study of an environmental dispute, focuses on the role of the key players and the way in which they interacted with the underlying science. A model is proposed that lays out some of the dimensions of the complexity of public involvement, of the understandings of the science pertinent to such socio-scientific issues, and of the way knowledge of science is represented and disseminated in such issues. The analysis focuses on the value of local knowledge in framing and engaging with the issue, on the distinction between generative and evaluative engagement, and on the type of knowledge that proved central for engagement. The implications for science education and notions of scientific literacy are discussed.

What can Australia learn from the Europeans about public participation? Article 6 of the Aarhus Convention and environmental impact statements

The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-Making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters (Aarhus Convention) is the only international convention that is exclusively devoted to public participation in environmental matters. Although it is European in origin, much of the detail of the Convention draws upon national environmental legislation, including aspects of the Australian environmental legal system. This article compares the public review provisions relating to environmental impact statements in Australia with Art 6 of the Convention governing "Public Participation in Decisions on Specific Activities". The article finds that much of the Australian laws with some exceptions satisfy the minimum requirements of public participation in Art 6.

Book review : Citizen voices: performing public participation in science and environment communication

In Citizen Voices Phillips, Carvalho and Doyle present a collection of articles exploring the meaning of “citizens” and their role as initiators of communication on science and as actors in formal public engagement exercises involved in science governance. Focusing on the dialogic process, the articles provide empirical insight into the effect of citizen voices on participatory decision-making and a range of related theories and methodologies.

Community participation in HIA: discords in teleology and terminology

Core HIA documents, researchers and practitioners assert the significance of community participation in health impact assessment. Despite the rhetoric, there has been little critical examination of the role of community participation in HIA. Knowledge and debate regarding what constitutes community participation and how it may best be achieved is often confused and opinion is divided as to its usefulness and appropriateness for HIA. This paper does not seek to argue the merits or drawbacks of community participation; rather, the authors explore the origins and character of the current discord around public participation in HIA and provide a lexicon for moving practice and discussion forward. The authors argue that the origins of the participation problem stem from: (1) unexplored tensions within the Gothenburg consensus paper and other formative documents in the development of HIA; (2) inherent tensions arising from the dual origins of HIA, specifically Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and Healthy Public Policy (HPP); and (3) a lack of rigour and clarity relating to the terminology of community participation where community participation is used as a 'catch all' phrase for every situation without critical examination. In order to move debate forward, the authors advance a model, the Typology of Public Involvement in HIA, for guiding discussion of community participation. This model comprises a set of context-specific HIA approaches with varying degrees of public involvement. The model also presents a suite of defined terms for understanding and discussing participation.

Understanding public involvement with Australian heritage : a qualitative study using repertory grid analysis

Attempts to increase public participation in heritage related activities have had mixed success. Tourism to heritage sites remains an overt activity that many engage in, but other heritage related activities, such as nominating objects for formal heritage listing, are much rarer. Through a series of qualitative research activities, we examine the public perceptions of what constitutes "heritage" and "heritage - related" behaviours, in order to examine barriers to greater involvement. The findings are that heritage is important to many people, particularly on a personal level. Although initially uncertain about the validity of their views, our respondents defined heritage broadly, believing it to encompass a wide range of objects, places and experiences. Most respondents were undertaking the type of heritage-related behaviours that heritage managers would encourage, however the respondents did not recognise them as being heritage-related. Barriers to greater involvement include this uncertainty over the definition of heritage and a lack of confidence in their ability to effectively recognise and protect heritage. In addition to feeling uncertain about the heritage significance of their own actions and beliefs, the respondents felt even more uncertain about prescribing things of "national heritage value". This uncertainty stifles discussion and action. The solution appears to lay in celebrations of both individual and national heritage, to foster discussions and understanding of communalities across different cultural groups within the nation.

Australia`s box - ironbark forests and woodlands : saving the fragments of a threatened ecosystem

Australia's box-ironbark forests and woodlands once covered about 14 per cent of the State of Victoria on the riverine plains and foothills of the Great Dividing Range. But approximately 83 per cent of the total original habitat has been destroyed and what remains of this significant ecosystem is now highly fragmented and vulnerable to further degradation. Moreover, only 14 per cent of the area remaining is on public land. A 10 year campaign on the part of the environmental movement eventually succeeded in forcing the State government to conduct an independent inquiry into this ecosystem and make recommendations on future management. This paper outlines the innovative public participation process adopted by the Victorian State government and the outcomes of the inquiry. A subsequent compensation package for commercial operations disadvantaged by the proclamation of a series of new national parks is also discussed, as are the shortcomings of a process that can have little or no impact on what happens on private land.

A new relationship between planning and democracy? Urban activism in Melbourne 1965-1975

This paper is a reflective overview of urban social protest in the years 1965-1975 and its influence on post-war planning, especially on models of public participation in planning, and conceptions of effective local democracy. Drawing extensively on a major study of urban activism in Melbourne, Australia, the paper discusses the political and organisational strategies used by activists in Melbourne’s inner city areas to resist the large-scale planning/urban renewal projects especially of the Victorian state government. The paper focuses on Melbourne’s inner city Residents’ Action Groups and examines their motivations, strategies and rationales, placing them within an international context of urban protest movements demanding local democracy and consultation. The paper concludes that the Melbourne urban protest movements of the late 60s and early 70s deserve recognition for their contribution to inclusive, consultative processes in planning decision-making. This is done within a context of questioning contemporary academic discussion around the interpretative concept of gentrification, widely and indiscriminately applied to this and later periods of urban change.

The use of analytic hierarchy process to incorporate stakeholder preferences into regional forest planning

Forest management decisions are often characterised by complexity, irreversibility and uncertainty. Much of the complexity arises from the multiple-use nature of forest goods and services, difficulty in monetary valuation of ecological services and the involvement of numerous stakeholders. Under these circumstances, conventional methods such as cost-benefit analysis are ill-suited to evaluate forest decisions. The Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), can be useful in regional forest planing as it can accommodate conflictual, multidimensional, incommensurable and incomparable set of objectives. The objective of this paper is to examine the scope and feasibility of the AHP in incorporating stakeholder preferences into regional forest planning. The Australian Regional Forest Agreement Programme is taken as an illustrative case for the analysis. The results show that the AHP can formalize public participation in decision making and increase the transparency and the credibility of the process.

Multi-attribute preference modelling and regional land-use planning

Forest management policy decisions are complex due to the multiple-use nature of goods and services from forests, difficulty in monetary valuation of ecological services and the involvement of a large number of stakeholders. Multi-attribute decision techniques can be used to synthesise stakeholder preferences related to regional forest planning because it can accommodate conflicting, multidimensional, incommensurable and incomparable objectives. The objective of this paper is to examine how the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) can be used to incorporate stakeholder preferences in determining optimal forest land-use choices. The Australian Regional Forest Agreement Programme is taken as an illustrative case for the analysis. The results show that the AHP can formalise public participation in decision making and increase the transparency and the credibility of the process.

Over the border and under the radar : can illegal migrants be active citizens?

Active citizens can become a powerful driver of development by holding to popular account those who traditionally wield decision-making power at the local and national levels. Active citizenship draws from a long history of understanding the importance of community participation and ownership of development interventions. However, in spite of its inherent strengths, active citizenship may not be a possible (or optimal) outcome in all circumstances. This article argues for the realistic expectation of active citizenship (and indeed participation) of one specific sub-population in Thailand, where the overwhelming majority of illegal migrants (of an estimated total of 800,000-1.5 million) are Burmese. Their precarious existence as illegal migrants compounds the development needs that confront any poor community. This in turn hinders their ability to engage actively in the development process. This article reviews the lessons learned by a Thai-based NGO that has worked with illegal Burmese migrants for more than 15 years. It discusses the unique strengths and weakness of these illegal communities, whether or not it is appropriate to seek to engage them as active citizens, and the implications for NGOs working with such communities. It suggests that the unique role that NGOs must play, in cases where public participation could endanger the lives of community members, is that of advocate-guardians, whereby they assume the role of active citizen on behalf of the community in question and simultaneously provide development interventions and advocate on its behalf.

Stakeholder involvement and interplay in coastal zone management and marine protected area planning

Most of Australia’s coastline and marine waters are crown ‘land’ and can be accessed by the public. As a result, many different users and stakeholder groups have an interest in coastal and marine planning and management decisions. As a way of analysing stakeholder involvement and interplay in coastal zone management and marine protected area (MPA) development in Australia, three case studies are presented to dissect the issues and explore common themes. The three themes are 1) Stakeholder involvement in implementing the oceans policy, 2) Stakeholder involvement in marine protected area network identification and 3) Stakeholder involvement in coastal land issues.

Workers, a neglected voice in environmental decisions

The European Aarhus Convention is the only public law convention devoted to public participation in environmental matters. The Convention has application broadly to Australia as many of the Convention’s provisions are reflected in Australian environmental law. The Convention has an ambitious aim being, to engage civil society in effective public participation at all levels of environmental decision-making. Trade unions and workers as members of civil society are granted rights under the Aarhus Convention to participate in environmental decisions. However in spite of this, the trade union movement has largely ignored the Convention. This article examines the potential rights which the Convention grants to trade unions and workers and explores the broader debate regarding the involvement of unions in environmental matters.

Integrating biological and social values when prioritizing places for biodiversity conservation

The consideration of information on social values in conjunction with biological data is critical for achieving both socially acceptable and scientifically defensible conservation planning outcomes. However, the influence of social values on spatial conservation priorities has received limited attention and is poorly understood. We present an approach that incorporates quantitative data on social values for conservation and social preferences for development into spatial conservation planning. We undertook a public participation GIS survey to spatially represent social values and development preferences and used species distribution models for 7 threatened fauna species to represent biological values. These spatially explicit data were simultaneously included in the conservation planning software Zonation to examine how conservation priorities changed with the inclusion of social data. Integrating spatially explicit information about social values and development preferences with biological data produced prioritizations that differed spatially from the solution based on only biological data. However, the integrated solutions protected a similar proportion of the species' distributions, indicating that Zonation effectively combined the biological and social data to produce socially feasible conservation solutions of approximately equivalent biological value. We were able to identify areas of the landscape where synergies and conflicts between different value sets are likely to occur. Identification of these synergies and conflicts will allow decision makers to target communication strategies to specific areas and ensure effective community engagement and positive conservation outcomes.

Global democratic theory: a critical introduction

Global Democratic Theory is the first comprehensive introduction to the changing contours of democracy in today’s hyperconnected world. Accessibly written for readers new to the topic, it considers the impact of globalization and global forms of governance and activism on democratic politics and examines how democratic theory has responded to address these challenges, including calls for new forms of democracy to be developed beyond the nation-state and for greater public participation and accountability in existing global institutions. Divided into two parts, the book shows how globalization provides both new obstacles and new opportunities for democracy. Part I explores the shifts underway at the national and international levels that are challenging democracy within nation-states around the world. In response, new proposals for global and transnational democracy have emerged. Part II critically analyses five main approaches of ‘global democratic theory’ Ð liberal internationalism, cosmopolitan democracy, deliberative democracy, social democracy and radical democracy, focusing on their specific interpretation of the problems facing democracy, their normative claims, and the feasibility of their proposed pathways of democratization. The book’s extensive account of the problems and possibilities facing democracy today will be essential reading for students and scholars of politics, political theory and political philosophy.