Suchergebnisse

A close examination of venues for participatory environmental governance reveals highly constrained settings for citizen engagement. This situation is documented within the broader social milieu by Skocpol as a narrowing of public life which is characterized in this paper by professional, stakeholder, and elitist forms of participatory environmental governance. Case-study evidence is presented from three different governance settings in Canada (environmental assessment, land-use planning, and forest management) identifying two distinct types of elitism: elite representation by design and elite representation by procedure. Two options are presented as a response to this analysis. One option involves accepting elitism by strengthening the linkages between stakeholders and constituencies, and the other option involves fighting elitism by drawing on modes of community-based decision, deliberative activism, and promoting research that highlights the consequences of environmental elitism.

The Kullu District in Himachal Pradesh, India, a Himalayan mountain area, has experience rapid development in tourism, agriculture and hydro-electricity with substantial impact on the local society, economy, and environment. The paper describes a project undertaken in the area since 1994 by the Universities of Manitoba and Delhi involving collaborative research and action to promote environmental sustainability. Collaboration, in addition to that between the universities, involved government agencies, non-governmental organizations, unions, educational institutions, and local residents. (InWent/DÜI)