Abstract
ContextThe implementation of landscape-management decisions is often blocked because actors disagree in their perception of the problem at hand. These conflicts can be explained with the concept of problem framing, which argues that actors’ problem perspectives are shaped by their interests. Recent literature suggests that social learning through deliberative processes among actors enables shared solutions to complex landscape-management conflicts.MethodsTo examine these assumptions, a participatory process on integrated water-resource-management in a Swiss Alpine region was systematically evaluated using a quasi-experimental intervention-research design. The involved actors’ problem perspectives were elicited before and after the participatory processes using qualitative interviews and standardized questionnaires. Furthermore, a standardized survey was sent to a sample of regional residents (N = 2000) after the participatory process to measure the diffusion of actors’ social learning to the wider public.ResultsThe data analysis provided systematic evidence that a convergence of involved actors’ problem perspectives, which were found to differ considerably before the intervention, had taken place during the participatory process. Furthermore, it determined diffusion effects of actors’ social learning to the wider public in terms of its attitude towards participatory regional planning.ConclusionsThe findings confirm the expected mechanism of social learning through deliberative processes and demonstrate it as a promising approach to implementing landscape-management decisions successfully. The catalyzing role of shared interests among actors suggests that landscape-management decisions should be implemented by participatory integrated planning on the regional level, which would require a new, strategic role of regional institutions.
Highlights
Implementation gap in environmental planningAgainst high expectations, the implementation of environmental policies in Europe such as the Water Framework Directive or the Swiss Water Protection Act have shown limited progress (Voulvoulis et al.2017)
With the study presented in this paper, we evaluated a real participatory decision process in order to evaluate the extent to which social learning through deliberative processes among actors really takes place and enables actors problem frames to be overcome
Recent literature suggests that social learning through deliberative processes provides a promising approach to enable the implementation of societal decisions and sustainable transition (Pahl-Wostl et al 2007; Eriksson et al 2019)
Summary
Implementation gap in environmental planningAgainst high expectations, the implementation of environmental policies in Europe such as the Water Framework Directive or the Swiss Water Protection Act have shown limited progress (Voulvoulis et al.2017). Opposition by local farmers, property owners, or authorities of affected municipalities result in a reduced implementation of the planned ecological enhancements (Menzel and Buchecker 2013; Verbrugge et al 2019). Planners and members of state agencies tend to explain opposition to environmental measures with opponents’ lack of knowledge of the problem they consider to have been objectively given (Demeritt and Nobert 2014). They call for information campaigns or instrumental participation to raise awareness and build acceptance among opponents (Buchecker et al 2013)
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