Empowerment through emotional connection and capacity building: Public participation through environmental non-governmental organizations

Abstract

Environmental non-governmental organization (ENGO) plays an important role in promoting public participation in environmental governance. By semi-structural interviews and participant observations, this paper examines a local ENGO in China to explore how the organization can mobilize and organize the local public to participate in environmental governance. The research finds that mobilizing public participation in local environmental governance is a continuous process in which ENGO needs to continuously enable, empower and emotionally invest in the public. Through emotion construction and capacity building, environmental organizations have been empowering the public to participate and play a major role in local environmental governance. Mobilizing public participation in environmental governance can promote the improvement of local environmental problems, but mobilizing and organizing public participation requires sufficient political opportunity space, sufficient funds, and a culture of public participation.