Effective Public Participation Research Articles

Participatory budgeting in a South African local municipality

Data for the research was drawn from documentary evidence and primary interviews with municipal officials, elected officials and local citizens. The study concluded that though the municipality is conscious of the need for public participation in budgeting, the involvement of the public in the process needs to be improved. Capacity building is also needed to increase the participation of city officials, elected officials and citizens. This study contributes to citizen-focused service delivery in municipalities. It also contributes to the scholarly understanding of effective public participation in local government.

Environmental Management: Public Participation

The article on the example of Donetsk region shows that the ecological condition does not improve, but, on the contrary, worsens every year. Environmental management is recognized worldwide as a possible way to escape from the environmental crisis, therefore scientists pay sufficient attention to the opportunities and problems of environmental management. Practical experience gained in the last 5-10 years indicates some problems in the implementation of environmental management in Ukrainian enterprises. It is proved that not only the management of enterprises should change their awareness; all members of local communities should do it. Currently, the environmental movement is developing, which is characterized by the transition from traditional forms of environmental events to environmental initiatives. The role and tasks of public ecological institutions in solving social and ecological problems are shown, their main types are determined. An example of a modern version of the community of the past in the English city of Leeds Lilac Grove is given. The name of the community Lilac is an acronym for society that allows for minimal damage to the environment. The conditions for effective public participation in making important decisions are determined. The expediency of developing economic and financial mechanisms of rational environmental resources management is proved. For Donetsk region, where the majority of the population lives in industrial cities with extremely unfavorable environmental conditions, an important aspect of management should be the mechanism for realizing the rights of citizens to compensation for harm to health. The article proposes events for the implementation of this mechanism.

Public Participation and Airport Development: The Case of the Site Selection for Berlin Brandenburg Airport (BER) in Germany

Airport projects can have a significant impact on sustainable development. In Germany, as in many other developed countries, airport development is confronting a dilemma because, on the one hand, airports are important infrastructural components and, on the other hand, airport development faces strong resistance from local populations and interest groups. Thus, uncertainties and long time periods, up to 20 years from the beginning of planning to breaking ground, are quite normal. To ease airport development in Germany, administrative procedures and public participation were enhanced. Nevertheless, even with improved public participation, siting decisions in the case of Berlin Brandenburg Airport (BER) were lengthy as usual and remain controversial today due to the selection of Schönefeld as the site. Against this background, it seems that public participation in the case of the BER site selection did not particularly deliver the hoped-for results, but why? To answer this question, Creighton’s principles of effective public participation are employed as benchmarks. Moreover, the benchmarking indicates that public participation was not effectively applied. Thus, the possible benefits of public participation could not or could only be partly reaped. Furthermore, from a broader politico-economic perspective, the analysis exposes that public participation was just “a small cog in the machine” of the BER site selection process. It seems that other factors had a more substantial influence on the siting decision than public participation and led decision makers, in addition to regular challenges, into a predicament that might have made Schönefeld the only possible siting solution. In this context, different counterfactual scenarios are discussed to show under which circumstances other outcomes might have occurred regarding the BER site selection.

Stakeholders' perspectives of public participation in landuse policy: the Nigeria experience

PurposeIt has long been recognised that the top-down approach is prevailing over bottom-up approach in landuse planning in African countries. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate and identify the facilitators and limitations to have effective public participation (PP), and suggest how the practices can be improved in Nigeria.Design/methodology/approachUsing Nigeria as a case study, this paper involves interviews of various stakeholders, including government staff, representatives of interest groups, general public, members of the planning board and planning commission. Information is analysed by narrative techniques of reporting.FindingsThere is a general judgment that PP is vital to landuse policy. Early public consultation was preferred, as many respondents pointed out that this would help shape the final policy. Yet, their opinion varied on whether relevant information was provided to the public, as well as their level of satisfaction with the whole process. While the process was fairly seen as giving opportunities for the public to make comments on public policy, the approach appeared not to be fruitful in many cases: (a) when the scope was broad; (b) lack of representativeness and abstruse information; (c) insufficient feedback to the participants; and (d) corruption and shortage of resources to complete the process promptly.Practical implicationsUnderstanding the facilitators and limitations that impact the success of PP can help provide guidance to improve the decision-making processes of public policies.Originality/valueThis paper fills the knowledge gap by providing the Nigerian experience on stakeholders' perspectives of PP in developing countries.

Evaluation of mobile-based public participation in China's urban planning: Case study of the PinStreet platform

With the emergence of information technology, mobile-based public participation (MPP) has been introduced into urban planning practices. How to evaluate this new approach of public participation is important for supporting decision-making process and achieving effective public participation. Integrating traditional evaluation criteria and Internet product operation strategies, this study proposes an evaluation framework for MPP, which includes seven indicators from three dimensions: preparation, process and outcome. Taking PinStreet, a widely-used MPP platform in China, as a case, this study evaluates the effectiveness of seven pilot projects with a variety of themes and scales. The evaluation results show that factors lying in the aspects of environment, participant and organizer have a significant impact on the effectiveness of MPP. Finally, policy suggestions are proposed to promote the development of MPP.

Applying mixed methods action research to explore how public participation in an Indian City could better resolve urban sustainability problems

Public participation in governance is regarded as a key element in enhancing urban sustainability. While there is a wealth of participation efforts in Indian cities, there are inadequate processes for regular, inclusive, egalitarian, informed and well-structured democratic participation that provide a real say to citizens in public decision-making. ‘Deliberative democracy’ has emerged as one way to improve effective public participation in decision-making, though it is mostly prevalent in developed countries. An action research initiative was implemented over several years in Pune, India. It used mixed methods to introduce and assess the applicability to the Indian urban context of high-quality public deliberations. This article presents a case study of a deliberative democracy initiative, framing the transformative public involvement needed to address sustainability problems. It also shows how the integration of the mixed methods approach in the action research to design and facilitate deliberative participation processes, helped to broaden and deepen understanding, and enhanced the transformative capacity of the research design.

Evaluating Public Participation in a Project Plan Review: A Nigerian Case Study

Background: Rooted in national and international laws regarding project planning and implementation is public participation. However, it is unclear whether public projects are enabling sufficient public input or are likely to be able to meet future management planning needs; particularly in developing countries.
 Purpose: We assessed people’s experiences when contributing to a public project decision-making in order to understand the strength, weaknesses, opportunities and threat to effective public participation. 
 Setting: We conducted this assessment with a sample of people who contributed to a public project planning and review in a Nigerian city.
 Intervention: Not applicable.
 Research design: Appraisal criteria are based on the principles of public participation as laid down in the law and consists of the following elements: respondents’ profile, their involvement in the project; purpose of participation, availability of information, feedback mechanism and overall view of the participatory planning process. Information collected consists both quantitative and qualitative data and these were analysed using descriptive statistics and narrative techniques of reporting.
 Findings: Findings show that public participation was far below the minimum requirement of the law and not demographically representative. The most important reason respondents participated was to protect an interest in land, although some saw participation as a democratic right. Results show that attending public hearings was the commonest way of participation in a project review. Nevertheless, three-quarters of the respondents thought the final plan did not take their observations and advice into consideration. Respondents confirmed that the process was reasonably notified with opportunities for consultation meetings. Nevertheless, findings suggest some bias actions as significant proportions of respondents held absence of transparency and political interference flawed the project planning and review process.
 Keywords: stakeholder engagement; project evaluation; transparency; universal design; equality

PUBLIC AWARENESS OF CIRCULAR ECONOMY: CASE OF THE SLOVAK REPUBLIC

The paper aimed to identify the awareness and behavior of the population of Slovakia concerning the circular economy. Awareness of the circular economy is a vital factor in effective public participation. The quality of the environment also depends on the level of environmental awareness in society. The circular economy is a very complex issue which requires involvement of all actors in society. The circular economy is currently an actively discussed topic, and therefore we focused on examining the level of awareness of this issue. In general, it is perceived mainly as an economic model that takes the environment into account and prioritizes active waste management. The conducted survey focused on the level of awareness in Slovak respondents. The questionnaire was designed to include all principles of circular economy. We focused on determining the rate of recycling, reusing, reducing, and also the new concept of refusing. Consequently, several hypotheses were analyzed to identify the degree of involvement of the population. At the same time, the survey was intended to introduce the respondents to the idea that they too can participate more actively in the principles of circular economy. In the introduction, we defined the theoretical basis and principles of the circular economy. Subsequently, in the Methodology section, we identified the techniques used to process the questionnaire survey. The Research section describes the outputs and analyzes the established hypotheses. In the discussion, we summarized the results from the Research section and mentioned some of the authors who had handled the same issue in the past. The Conclusion section summarizes the research paper.

Ranking of Stakeholders Expectations from Development Plan Preparation and Implementation Process using Fuzzy Analytical Hierarchy Process

Restructuring of development plan preparation and implementation process with a paradigm shift in planning approach is a pressing need for translating ever-increasing urban pressure and for achieving functional and sustainable planning outputs. The fuzzy analytical hierarchy process (FAHP) method is considered most suitable for prioritizing stakeholders’ expectations from development plans. It deals with incorrectness and subjectiveness in the process of pairwise comparison. The outcome of this study helps the planners and decision-makers in deciding the priority of factors that need to be addressed while restructuring the planning process. As per the outcome of the study, preparation, and implementation, both aspects of the development plan need to be addressed with equal importance. The study also concludes that the priority of criterion to be addressed are, i) to identify alternate implementation mechanisms, ii) considering financial aspects, iii) inclsion of effective public participation, and iv) plan preparation as per local needs.

PUBLIC PARTICIPATION ASSESSMENT FOR ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT IN MALAYSIA, CANADA AND NEW ZEALAND

In 1975, the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) was promulgated in Malaysia after the enactment of Environmental Quality Act (EQA) in 1974. Although the EIA is integrated for nearly five decades, the effective public participation application for EIA remained scant in the Malaysian environment. This paper provides a comparative study on public participation application for EIA in Malaysia, Canada and New Zealand. This study is administered by analysing the current EIA process and EIA legislation pertaining to the public participation for EIA in the three countries via literature review. This paper examines the similarities and differences between the three countries on their application of public participation for EIA. It is paramount to examine the current application of public participation administered for EIA in the Malaysian environment with other developed countries to induce effective public participation for EIA in Malaysia.

Ineffective Public Participation for EIA: The Cause of Environmental Issues in Malaysia?

Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) foster communication between participators to yield a more environmentally sound decision for a proposed development. Public participation is an integral element in EIA to ensure a successful EIA. Effective public participation encourages community empowerment, fair and democratic decisions and reduce thus avoid public confrontation and delay. Effective public participation is one of the key pillars to achieve effective EIA. Environmental issues are known to be the negative outcome of a poorly implemented EIA process. This paper discusses seven environmental cases that were produced from ineffective application of EIA such as Bakun Dam, Murum Dam, Baram Dam, bauxite mining in Kuantan, gold mining in Bukit Koman, sturgeon farming in Kuala Tahan and Lynas plant. The seven cases focused on the lack of public participation in the administration of EIA. Public objections and protests were results of ineffective public participations and ineffective EIAs in the chosen cases. Four out of seven cases have made substantive results where the projects stopped or ceased due to the public objections. Meanwhile, the three cases went on till today. Conclusively, these cases has shown that public participation in EIA is a valuable tool which encourages transparent decision-making process and defies corrupted influences.

Research on the Construction of a Natural Hazard Emergency Relief Alliance Based on the Public Participation Degree

At present, in light of new situations and the new task of natural hazard response, effective public participation in emergency relief has become an urgent task that can reduce economic losses and casualties. The purpose of this paper is to construct a natural hazard emergency relief alliance and analyze the mechanisms and dynamics of public participation. In this study, methods based on a multi-agent system were adopted, and we used different participants as heterogeneous agents with different attitudes and resources. Using four different processes, namely participation proposals, negotiation interval, negotiation decision-making function, and participation strategy, we comprehensively construct an emergency relief alliance for natural hazards. In addition, the dynamic public interaction process is analyzed and a construction algorithm is given. The experimental results show that the proposed method has better performance in alliance formation efficiency, negotiation efficiency, and agent utility. The research results illustrate that the public’s attitudes and resources influence the construction of emergency relief alliances; a greater degree of public participation contributes to a more efficient alliance formation. The findings of this study contribute to the promotion of public cooperation and improvement in the efficiency of natural hazard emergency relief.

New England food policy councils: An assessment of organizational structure, policy priorities and public participation

Food policy councils (FPCs) are an increasingly common mechanism to improve participation in food system decision-making. Including individuals from under-represented groups can foster greater understanding of their needs and experiences with food system barriers and is an important part of food justice. However, engaging under-represented groups in food systems decision-making remains challenging for FPCs. This paper presents the results from a survey of FPCs and networks in New England to: (1) identify FPC policy priorities, (2) characterize FPCs engaged in policy initiatives based on attributes which, based on the literature, may impact effective public participation: geographic scale, organization type, capacity, policy priorities, and membership, and (3) analyze methods for engaging the public in FPC policy initiatives and demographic groups and sectors engaged. Findings indicate only half of New England FPCs work on policy efforts. Many surveyed FPCs engage multiple food system sectors and under-represented groups through a combination of different public participation opportunities. However, results indicate that New England FPCs could benefit from a greater focus on engaging under-represented audiences. FPCs interested in engaging more diverse participants should commit to a focus on food justice, strive for representative membership through intentional recruitment, and offer multiple methods to engage the public throughout policy initiatives.

Barriers to transformation towards participatory adaptation decision-making: Lessons from the Cork flood defences dispute

This paper analyses the causes and consequences of public participation failures in flood hazards management and the important lessons they offer for climate change adaptation. Despite the potential for participatory adaptation decision-making, scholarship on adaptation has remained largely separate from the literature on participatory environmental governance. This paper brings these literatures into conversation by applying the concept of transformation to both adaptation outcomes and adaptation decision-making. Through an examination of a disputed flood relief scheme in Cork, Ireland this paper develops three main arguments. (1) It demonstrates the need for analytical approaches which recognise that what constitutes transformative adaptation will vary depending on the definitions of transformation that are used, the contexts in which these definitions are applied, and the perspectives of local stakeholders. (2) It argues that by producing an intractable conflict and damaging the reputation of the organisations responsible for hazards management, public participation failures create formidable new barriers to transformative adaptation outcomes. (3) It concludes that incremental changes to the decision-making process will prove insufficient to overcome these barriers. In order to facilitate more effective public participation in hazards management and climate change adaptation, much wider change in hazards management policy and resourcing will be required.

The rhetoric and reality of public participation in planning

Abstract While the principle of public participation is an acknowledged requirement of planning in most Western countries there is continuing debate, and insufficient empirical evidence, on the effectiveness of public participation in practice. This research examines the power of public participation in local planning in Scotland. The paper first identifies the principal actors in the development planning process. The institutional framework for planning in Scotland is then explained to establish the legislative and procedural context for a case study analysis of conflict between developers and the local community in a village in the metropolitan green belt. Thirdly, using a combination of analysis of planning documents, interviews with local planners and developers, and a survey of village residents the empirical study provides detailed insight on the principles, practice, and problems for public participation in local planning. This is followed by a critique of recent government initiatives to enhance public engagement in planning. Finally, a number of conclusions are presented on the prospects for more effective public participation in planning. While the empirical focus of the research is on Scotland, the findings are of general relevance for the debate over the rhetoric and reality of public participation in Western society.

The Impact of Participatory Planning Approach on the Quality Urban Design of Former Riverbank Brownfield Sites

Processes of brownfield sites redevelopment are very well known and welcome especially by city councils. The new trend of reurbanization with focus on derelict and brownfield sites has reached the Central-East European space, too. City investors are reacting in prompt manner in order to attract new users of the redeveloped sites by good design of public spaces achieved and communicated by public hearings. The topic of participation processes in any development has solid theoretical framework, but the implementation phase often tends to fail. Successful and effective public participation uses properly chosen and appropriately applied tools and methods of participation at the most suitable time of the development process. The aim of the paper is to present how a good participatory planning can have a direct impact on the urban design quality. This participatory approach is explained on case studies of former brownfield sites situated on riverbanks in the cities of Trenčín and Bratislava. In both former riverbank brownfield sites the approach of public participation has been used in different phases and manners. The outcome varies due to the different stages of projects, but nevertheless both can provide a high quality urban design outcome.

Public participation in urban water supply projects – The case of South-West Guwahati, India

Piped water supply in Guwahati covers less than 30% of the city's population for which the Government of India proposes four new water supply projects, but astonishingly, they faced vehement public protest. The reason for the protest was attributed to lack of trust and need of public representation in the governing body. Besides, public participation is not a mandatory clause in water supply projects and, hence, was not carried out a priori to the project implementation. In an effort to address this, the present study aims to develop a framework incorporating public participation as a mandatory clause in water supply projects. In doing so, secondary data was collected from studies worldwide on public participation in water supply projects and analyzed to identify critical success factors (CSFs). South-West Guwahati water supply project was taken up as a study area, and a semi-structured questionnaire was designed to generate primary data on public participation. Thematic analysis was employed to identify the CSFs from primary data influencing public participation in the project. Finally, a framework was formulated following the identified CSFs from primary and secondary data and the review of various theories on public participation. The framework is developed to achieve effective public participation in six levels viz. inform, educate, consult, involve, collaborate, and capacity building. Each level satisfies a set of CSFs and ultimately all CSFs addresses to deemphasize the effects of disincentives in water supply projects. Further, the framework was validated by 16 experts and received an exceptionally copacetic rating for all six validation aspects. Copacetic expert ratings demonstrated appropriateness, objectivity, replicability, practicality, reliability, and suitability of framework for water supply projects.

The Problems and Conditions of Effective Public Participation in Creating a Smart Sustainable City

The technological arrangement of sustainable development ideas into modern life of cities is represented in the concept of a smart sustainable city. The evolution of smart settlements has convincingly proved that one of the key benefits of a smart city and, accordingly, a criterion for achieving smart sustainability, is the involvement and participation of citizens in public life. At the same time, it is important to understand that public participation is not only a criterion, but also a tool for achieving sustainable local development. Unfortunately, this fact is not adequately recognized by the domestic system of the public and municipal administration. As a result of the existing vision the Russian State strategy and the corresponding Programmes of introducing the concept of a smart sustainable city in municipal management practices appeared. This is happening the way that is traditional for our country: through the “top-down” introduction. Public participation, various institutional and informal forms of it face a number of problems in the current Russian conditions, which do not allow using the potential of social involvement in the formation of sustainable settlements to the fullest extent. The most important problems are the lack of public confidence in the institutions of power and the conviction that it is impossible to influence their actions, as well as the lack of knowledge and experience of self-organization of joint activities, insufficient awareness of their civil rights and forms of their realization, low level of self-awareness. Conclusion: the key condition for using modern organizational and economic tools to ensure the effective operation of communities, including the use of the “Smart city” project, is training, technology transfer, dissemination of knowledge and best practices, not only among inhabitants and activists, but also among officials and other decision-makers with public participation.

Integrating management strategy evaluation into fisheries management: advancing best practices for stakeholder inclusion based on an MSE for Northeast US Atlantic herring,

The New England Fishery Management Council used management strategy evaluation (MSE) to evaluate possible harvest control rules for Atlantic herring (Clupea harengus), the first MSE in the US and perhaps globally to use open-invitation, public workshops for input. Stakeholder inclusion can increase both realism and likelihood of use by managers, but inclusivity is not achieved easily. Here, self-selected participants had diverse backgrounds and differing levels of interest and preparedness. We describe some challenges with directly engaging the public in MSE and offer broader insights for obtaining effective public participation during a decision-making process. Conducting an open MSE aligns well with publicly driven management but requires clear goals and communication. Investment in effective organizers, impartial facilitators, and knowledgeable analysts can improve communication and understanding of MSE to the betterment of fisheries management. We aim to further MSE best practices on integrating stakeholders and hope that our lessons learned on communication, engagement, and integration of MSE into an existing management arena will be useful to other practitioners.

‘Water is life’: developing community participation for clean water in rural South Africa

BackgroundSouth Africa is a semiarid country where 5 million people, mainly in rural areas, lack access to water. Despite legislative and policy commitments to the right to water, cooperative governance...