Working Paper

IDS working papers;113

Participatory Environmental Policy Processes: Experiences from North and South

Published on 1 January 2000

There is a growing recognition across the world that citizens should play a role in informing and shaping environmental policy. But how should this be done?

This paper explores one route, where opportunities ‘from above’ are created often, but not exclusively so, by the state, and often through local government policy and planning processes. A set of approaches, known collectively as Deliberative Inclusionary Processes (DIPs), is explored in different settings through thirty five case studies from both North and South.

Through an examination of lessons emerging from the case studies, both practical issues and methodological questions are considered. The latter questions arise from asking ‘who convenes the process’?, ‘who defines the questions’?, and ‘how are multiple forms of expertise accommodated’?.

The paper shows how power relations and institutional contexts critically affect the outcome of DIPs processes. Without linking such processes to broader processes of policy change – including connections to conventional forms of democratic representation – DIPs may simply be one-off events, and so their considerable potential for transforming environmental policy processes would go unrealised.

Authors

Ian Scoones

Professorial Fellow

Publication details

published by
IDS
authors
Holmes, T. and Scoones, I.
journal
IDS Working Paper, issue 113
isbn
1 85864 309 0
language
English

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