Abstract
Public participation is widely regarded as a vital component for making environmental decisions more democratic, legitimate, and effective. Yet, research on this subject has largely focused on rights and principles instead of context and process, especially in non-Western settings. To address this gap, this article explores how local voices on environmental issues were muted in a Chinese rural context. It describes controversies surrounding a cultural and ecological tourism development in Heyang, a transforming village in the east coastal region of China. Based on semistructured group interviews, the article reveals that although many issues found in the Heyang case resonated with similar cases in Western settings, such as the lack of access to information and the problematic solicitation of public input, fundamentally, the local voices were muted by the village council’s blind adoption of an urban-centric ecological modernization agenda and its neglect of local villagers’ emotional attachment to their land properties. The above findings not only draw our attention to how participatory communication can be compromised by contextual factors but also invite us to reconsider how China’s existing urban–rural division fundamentally influences its ecological civilization.
Highlights
Engaging the public in environmental policy making is crucial for achieving a sustainable future of our society
The complicated situation in Heyang presents a unique case for understanding the dynamics of environmental policy making and public participation in rural China, which, to some extent, has meaningful implications for examining public participation in eco-tourism projects of other developing countries
While the lack of meaningful participatory communications in the Heyang case can be attributed to the favor of one-way information flow and the lack of transparency, other factors unique to China’s political economy were manifested during the policy-making process
Summary
Engaging the public in environmental policy making is crucial for achieving a sustainable future of our society. Public participation is widely regarded as a vital component for making environmental decisions more democratic, legitimate, and effective. Over the past two decades, a growing body of research has examined how this concept is practiced in a variety of contexts. The term public participation describes citizen involvement in what and how public policies are made. As Cox (2013) argues, effective public participation in environmental policy making should ensure the ability of citizens to (a) access relevant information, (b) express their concerns, and (c) hold responsible government agencies and businesses accountable. Walker (2007) calls for institutional mechanisms that enable people to realize their full potential when engaging with environmental issues
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