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| 1 |
ID:
149927
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| Summary/Abstract |
Following the earthquake of 2001 in the Kutch district of Gujarat (India), the state government and corporate investors have focussed on the coastal areas of Kutch, India's largest district, for economic and infrastructure development. Within a decade of industrialisation of this landscape, these projects have had profound impacts on the environment, livelihoods and futures of its Kutchi inhabitants. Today, the coastline between the old Kandla and Mundra ports is drawn into a three-way battle between International Financial Institutions (IFIs) investing in coal projects, technical experts of sustainable development and international anti-coal campaigners. These three groups have selectively engaged the project affected Kutchis on the importance of economic development, environmental management and climate change. But the affected local people comprising artisanal fisherfolk who belong to a minority community, economically powerful salt and agricultural farmers and a traditional pastoral community of camel herders, frame, debate and act upon the impacts of the project in pragmatic ways. The range of remedies sought by them can be located between the practical expediency of everyday life and ethical questions about correct action. These remedies offer a glimpse of what regulatory bodies should be paying attention to rather than abstract or procedural justice.
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| 2 |
ID:
149992
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| Summary/Abstract |
This article adds to the growing insight into public acceptance by presenting a novel approach to how citizens make sense of new energy infrastructure. We claim that to understand public acceptance, we need to go beyond the current thinking of citizens framed as passive respondents to proposed projects, and instead view infrastructure projects as enacted by citizens in their local settings. We propose a combination of sensemaking theory and actor–network theory that allows insight into how citizens enact entities from experiences and surroundings in order to create meaning and form a reaction to new infrastructure projects. Empirically, we analyze how four citizens make sense of an electricity cable project through a conversation process with a representative from the infrastructure developer. Interestingly, the formal participation process and the materiality of the cable play minor roles in citizens' sensemaking process. We conclude that insight into the way citizens are making sense of energy infrastructure processes can improve and help to overcome shortcomings in the current thinking about public acceptance and public participation.
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| 3 |
ID:
108222
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2011.
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| Summary/Abstract |
This article considers the ways in which sub-councils 'bring government closer to the people' by creating an intermediary level between local wards and the metropolitan council in Cape Town. Daily encounters between administrative staff, elected representatives and local communities within an impoverished formerly 'black' area demonstrate the intricacy of interactions and relationships between governing strategies from above and the tactics of the governed from below. Beyond conflicting objectives and rationalities, I argue that citizenship may be defined as a constant negotiation of legitimacy between stakeholders, never definitely trapped 'below' or 'above' the actual challenges of the city.
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| 4 |
ID:
146887
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| Summary/Abstract |
For more than two decades, under the imperative of ‘developing the country at all costs’, local governments in China have allowed developers and industrialists to set up polluting industries which have had deleterious effects on citizens’ health and the natural environment. However, China appears to have entered a new phase of determined and concerted efforts on the part of both the authorities and the public to tackle environmental problems. The articles in this special issue of China Information examine the main strengths and weaknesses of China’s current system of environmental governance. The central questions linking the case studies reported here are concerned with whether and how environmental policies formulated at the central level are implemented at the local level and how different agents and interests, making use of the available legislative means, influence this implementation process. Engaging a range of political, economic, social and cultural perspectives, the five contributions in this collection concentrate on two broad issues: resolution mechanisms for public participation in environmental governance and the actual enforcement of environmental regulations.
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| 5 |
ID:
181905
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| Summary/Abstract |
Xinfang, as a major participation channel in China, sets social stability as its most important objective. The way it seeks to balance the participation-institutionalisation dynamic is thus key to understanding its function. Drawing on detailed interviews and archival sources, this study clarifies the practice and rationale of the new and important online xinfang channel which has not, to date, been amply examined. By integrating offline communication methods with the new online format, it achieves a subtler form of participation through field diversion, standardised settlement, and balanced evaluation, and thus partly corrects the offline xinfang channel’s heavy reliance on non-institutionalised tactics to maintain stability. However, as long as xinfang still operates at the intersection of law and politics, the question of how to balance citizens’ desire for participation and an appropriate level of institutionalisation remains a noteworthy issue, since stability is only achieved when these two elements are in equilibrium.
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| 6 |
ID:
115498
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| Publication |
Cambridge, Polity Press, 2012.
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| Description |
xxii,205p.
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| Standard Number |
9780754660905
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Copies: C:1/I:0,R:0,Q:0
Circulation
| Accession# | Call# | Current Location | Status | Policy | Location |
| 056864 | 363.700951/SHA 056864 | Main | On Shelf | General | |
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| 7 |
ID:
168347
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| Summary/Abstract |
The industrial pollution caused by China's unprecedent economic expansion seriously imperils public health, giving rise to public's high demand for better environmental quality. The paper employs the difference-in-differences (DID) methodology to conduct a quasi-natural experiment based on the Pollution Information Transparency Index (PITI) to evaluate the public participation impact on pollution emissions reduction and environment technology efficiency. The results show that PITI information disclosure has a positive influence on pollution emissions reduction, however, some existing literatures may overstate the effect of public participation on environment improvement in China, the empirical results show that government administrative measures still play essential role at current stage. The paper also finds that the influence of public participation exists in eastern China rather than in central and western China. In addition, the results of using environment technology efficiency as outcome variable show insignificant effect, but eastern China has positive environment technology efficiency, suggesting that economic development may increase enterprise technological input, hence achieving mutually beneficial achievements of economy and ecological efficiency.
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| 8 |
ID:
091432
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2009.
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| Summary/Abstract |
In recent years, the government of the Philippines has engaged in efforts to encourage nonferrous metals mining as a means of accelerating economic development. Mining is an activity with a substantial potential for environmental degradation. Mining projects in the Philippines are subjected to an environmental impact assessment process that is designed to operate in the minimum amount of time and with the minimum amount of inconvenience to the project proponent. This process does not properly consider biodiversity, ethnodiversity, alternatives to the project, and the cumulative effects of the project. This process also avails a minimal amount of opportunities for members of the public to participate. This environmental impact assessment process is a tokenism designed to make it appear that mining projects are being assessed for their environmental effects while they receive their inevitable predetermined approval.
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| 9 |
ID:
178446
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From a survey of public participation in a sharing economy, the authors extracted from the factor analysis on a questionnaire three factors: particularised trust, generalised trust and institutional trust. The authors also classified three categories of sharing economy and utilised a structural equation model to study the impact of trust on public participation in the different types. The general observation made is that trust helps to increase public desire to participate in a sharing economy. Compared with participants in a narrow sharing economy, particularised trust and generalised trust increased the public desire to participate in a generalised sharing economy. In contrast to participating in the low trust-based demand-side (LTBD) sharing economy, particularised trust and generalised trust promote greater public participation in the high trust-based demand-side (HTBD) sharing economy. It is also noteworthy that institutional trust has a positive impact on a low trust-based demand-side sharing economy. Based on the findings, two policy recommendations are offered.
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| 10 |
ID:
170225
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| Summary/Abstract |
In the Indian Ocean region fish and other marine living resources are vital for food security, local livelihoods, national economies, and future development opportunities. Of particular importance is the small-scale fishing sector, which supplies food and employment for many local people and coastal communities. To ensure the longevity of artisanal and subsistence fisheries, and healthy oceans and marine living resources, improved legal governance is critical. Most Indian Ocean States have adopted fisheries laws to achieve this goal, yet successfully balancing conservation and sustainable use of marine resources remains a challenge. To enhance fisheries laws in efficient, effective and equitable ways, inclusive governance approaches are needed. This article analyses fisheries laws in six Indian Ocean States, and critically assesses the incorporation of participatory approaches that support small-scale fisheries. The comparative analysis provides a resource that will assist States in identifying legal options to enhance public participation and inclusive fisheries governance.
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| 11 |
ID:
173817
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| Summary/Abstract |
In the Indian Ocean region fish and other marine living resources are vital for food security, local livelihoods, national economies, and future development opportunities. Of particular importance is the small-scale fishing sector, which supplies food and employment for many local people and coastal communities. To ensure the longevity of artisanal and subsistence fisheries, and healthy oceans and marine living resources, improved legal governance is critical. Most Indian Ocean States have adopted fisheries laws to achieve this goal, yet successfully balancing conservation and sustainable use of marine resources remains a challenge. To enhance fisheries laws in efficient, effective and equitable ways, inclusive governance approaches are needed. This article analyses fisheries laws in six Indian Ocean States, and critically assesses the incorporation of participatory approaches that support small-scale fisheries. The comparative analysis provides a resource that will assist States in identifying legal options to enhance public participation and inclusive fisheries governance.
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| 12 |
ID:
108225
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| Publication |
2011.
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| Summary/Abstract |
This paper unpacks the tension between social movement claims to basic services and local authority efforts to deliver within a progressive legislative context. It does this by exploring the challenges of public accountability in urban water service delivery through drawing on the lessons learnt from the implementation of the 'Raising Citizens' Voice in the Regulation of Water Services' methodology in two South African cities over a four-year period. This paper argues that citizens' ability to access the state is restricted by internal fragmentation across spheres of government and between politicians and officials. Compounded by a lack of recourse in the service delivery landscape, fragmentation significantly restrains the ability of citizens to access the state.
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| 13 |
ID:
122719
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2013.
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| Summary/Abstract |
This paper aims to explain through a qualitative case study how a small protest group prevailed during a local windfarm conflict in south-eastern Australia. A social capital analytical framework was developed to analyse the data. The analysis found that two communities inhabited the area for which the windfarm development was proposed. The public participation process failed to address the concerns of both communities and led to the emergence of a social network of resistance. The network had high stocks of bridging social capital, which enabled an effective protest that led to the abandonment of the development. Their effectiveness was inadvertently aided by the windfarm supporters who were unable to act collectively to defend their interests because socio-economic changes in the community among other factors had led to a depletion of their social capital. In this context, different democratic participatory processes were needed to address the concerns of the two communities. Guidance and tools for researching and developing the types of participatory processes needed for vulnerable communities with low social capital and those similar to the social network with high social capital are provided. These will inform community-appropriate public participation processes and participatory planning policy.
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| 14 |
ID:
124247
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| Publication |
2013.
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| Summary/Abstract |
In recent years, the Chinese government has increasingly utilized online consultation as a means of providing citizens with opportunities to offer feedback on draft laws and regulations. As little is known about the operation of online consultation, this article analyses the content of citizen feedback submitted on a revision to China's health system proposed by the National Development and Reform Commission. Citizen engagement with the political and substantive issues under consideration is crucial if online consultation is to impact government decision-making and enhance the performance of laws and regulations. This paper's main findings are that it was common for comments to address substantive issues in great depth, as well as express negative assessments of government decisions. This suggests that online consultation holds promise as an instrument of governance reform, which the Chinese Communist Party has embraced as a means of cultivating popular support.
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| 15 |
ID:
179289
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| Summary/Abstract |
This article examines the institutionalization of online consultation, a prominent instrument of governance reform in contemporary China in which government organizations make public draft laws and regulations and solicit input from interested parties prior to finalizing decisions. The article specifically analyses the extent to which online consultation is a durable governance reform that enhances transparency and participation in policymaking. The analysis focuses on the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) and Guangzhou Municipal Government (GMG), leading organizations in the implementation of online consultation. Through the analysis of original datasets consisting of hundreds of policies proposed by the MOC and GMG and thousands of comments submitted in response to these drafts, the article demonstrates that online consultation has institutionalized government transparency but has not consistently enhanced public participation. Although online consultation has the potential to transform policymaking, the evidence suggests that strong confidence in this possibility is not warranted.
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| 16 |
ID:
174977
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| Summary/Abstract |
Public participation is often part of planning and decision-making processes relating to the German energy transformation (Energiewende). Factors influencing the active involvement of individuals have not been fully investigated, although these factors may impact the outcome of participatory decision making. However, a few concepts are discussed relating to what kind of people participate in governance processes: political efficacy, place attachment, value orientation, and sociodemographic characteristics. We further assumed that the aspects of attitudes toward renewable energy technologies, general knowledge about environment and energy, specific knowledge about electricity-generating technologies, personality strength, and living situation might influence people's participation in planning and decision making related to energy issues. In this study, we examine the relevance of these concepts based on a survey for which (n=) 2400 respondents were recruited from an access panel to build up a quota sample on the three crossed characteristics: gender, age, and school education. Many of the respondents are aware of participation options but very few become actively engaged in participation processes. The multivariate analyses conducted showed that attitudes towards renewable energy technologies, value orientation towards nature, political efficacy, personality strength, and individuals' specific knowledge have a strong influence on whether someone becomes actively involved or not.
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| 17 |
ID:
138879
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| Summary/Abstract |
Referendums are often criticised for being elite-controlled and undeliberative. This article argues that the detailed, multiactor regulation of the Scottish referendum resulted in an elaborate legal regime which helped to overcome these potential pathologies, diluting executive control and facilitating an exercise in national public engagement. It addresses the troubled history of referendum use in the UK and contends that the Scottish process may well transform how referendums are now viewed. Indeed, one outcome of the Scottish process is likely to be a greater demand at UK level for the use of direct democracy in processes of significant constitutional change. It is by no means certain, however, that these demands for greater popular engagement in the process of constitutional change will be met, particularly when we consider the Smith Commission process, which marks a return to elite interparty bargaining.
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| 18 |
ID:
152789
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| Summary/Abstract |
Large-scale mineral extraction is often accompanied by local conflicts, reflecting the fact that affected communities feel the costs of development but enjoy few of its benefits. Much of this conflict could be mitigated if communities could influence the design of projects and of management systems intended to minimise their impacts. This paper examines the potential role of community-controlled impact assessment, combined with negotiation of binding agreements between communities and developers, to allow affected communities to shape the impacts of extractive projects. It considers the wider political factors that must be addressed if these mechanisms are to be effective.
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| 19 |
ID:
130291
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2014.
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Climate protection issues are receiving more attention in China. Responding to this survey, 133 environmental and climate protection experts indicated that the government is a key factor in raising awareness of climate protection in China. Experts participating in the survey also referred to the role of the media - in particular social media - NGOs and educational institutions in spreading climate protection awareness. Additionally, interviews were carried out with 40 of the experts, who were grouped into different categories to discover whether there were any striking differences of opinion between experts of different backgrounds. Their assessments revealed few statistically relevant differences, though some are worth noting: Chinese researchers, project managers and representatives of NGOs were more positive than international experts regarding the impact of the Rio+20 conference on climate change discourse in China. Also, the youngest experts with the least international experience evaluated the potential of green volunteer work highest.
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| 20 |
ID:
114296
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| Publication |
2012.
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| Summary/Abstract |
Gaining public acceptance is one of the main issues with large-scale low-carbon projects such as hydropower development. It has been recommended by the World Commission on Dams that to gain public acceptance, public involvement is necessary in the decision-making process (WCD, 2000). As financially-significant actors in the planning and implementation of large-scale hydropower projects in developing country contexts, the paper examines the ways in which public involvement may be influenced by international financial institutions. Using the case study of the Nam Theun 2 Hydropower Project in Laos, the paper analyses how public involvement facilitated by the Asian Development Bank had a bearing on procedural and distributional justice. The paper analyses the extent of public participation and the assessment of full social and environmental costs of the project in the Cost-Benefit Analysis conducted during the project appraisal stage. It is argued that while efforts were made to involve the public, there were several factors that influenced procedural and distributional justice: the late contribution of the Asian Development Bank in the project appraisal stage; and the issue of non-market values and discount rate to calculate the full social and environmental costs.
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