Typology Of Participation Research Articles

Implementing Participatory Decision Making in Forest Planning

Forest policy decisions are often a source of debate, conflict, and tension in many countries. The debate over forest land-use decisions often hinges on disagreements about societal values related to forest resource use. Disagreements on social value positions are fought out repeatedly at local, regional, national, and international levels at an enormous social cost. Forest policy problems have some inherent characteristics that make them more difficult to deal with. On the one hand, forest policy decisions involve uncertainty, long time scales, and complex natural systems and processes. On the other hand, such decisions encompass social, political, and cultural systems that are evolving in response to forces such as globalization. Until recently, forest policy was heavily influenced by the scientific community and various economic models of optimal resource use. However, growing environmental awareness and acceptance of participatory democracy models in policy formulation have forced the public authorities to introduce new participatory mechanisms to manage forest resources. Most often, the efforts to include the public in policy formulation can be described using the lower rungs of Arnstein's public participation typology. This paper presents an approach that incorporates stakeholder preferences into forest land-use policy using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). An illustrative case of regional forest-policy formulation in Australia is used to demonstrate the approach. It is contended that applying the AHP in the policy process could considerably enhance the transparency of participatory process and public acceptance of policy decisions.

A typology of stakeholder participation for company environmental decision‐making

AbstractCompanies now recognise the need to identify and address the concerns of their stakeholders to ensure their decisions and business activities are more socially acceptable. However, despite stakeholder participation being widely accepted in the public sector and used to a limited extent within some business management processes, there is no accepted understanding of what stakeholder participation actually constitutes and certainly no systematic method for its application within companies and company decision‐making. In order to support the development of such a method, stakeholder participation must first be defined in the ‘company’ context. Drawing from previous typologies of participation outlined in the literature, particularly relating to the public sector, this paper proposes a typology of stakeholder participation for companies, with particular relevance to environmental issues. It also outlines the needs and problems associated with developing a method of stakeholder participation for use in company decision‐making. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.

Mapping Public Participation in Policy Choices

In an era of democratic discontent, more and better participation in policy making has become a standard expectation. Yet it is rarely clear what counts as participation, and how the many practices loosely bundled under the label should be understood. This paper has a modest undergrowth‐clearing objective: to examine assumptions behind competing typologies of participation, and to propose a classification framework less laden by idealist notions of democracy.

Family physicians' selection of informal peer consultants: implications for continuing education.

Studies of physicians' preferred sources of clinical information suggest that many rely heavily on advice from colleagues. This study examines the criteria that a sample of physicians used to select informal educational consultants, the characteristics of participants adhering to these criteria and those of the peers they consult, and the participants' approaches toward evaluating information gathered from peers. In-depth interviews were conducted with 45 family physicians from three mid-sized Ontario cities. A typology of participants' approaches for selecting informal peer consultants was developed from participants' selection criteria. Seven themes emerged from analysis across the interviews, and three types of approaches to selecting peer consultants are characterized with respect to these themes. When seeking clinical information, most participants reported that their first resource was informal consultation with peers. Fifty-four percent turned to readily available and approachable peers, and 24% asked only those peers they considered to be experts. The remaining participants (22%) searched the literature before or in conjunction with consulting expert specialists or innovators. Participants who sought advice from their most readily accessible peers asked for advice most frequently, rarely consulted innovators, and were least critical of the advice they received. The profiles of those who sought clinical information from their most accessible peers suggested that the quality of informal peer consultations could be improved through explicit guidelines within formal continuing education programs. Longitudinal studies are needed to examine the effectiveness of this strategy in increasing the translation of research into family physicians' clinical practices and patient outcomes.

Participatory Exclusions, Community Forestry, and Gender: An Analysis for South Asia and a Conceptual Framework

The idea of people's participation has long been part of development thinking. But today the management of local natural resources by village communities is widely accepted as an institutional imperative. It is therefore essential to examine how these institutions perform, especially from the perspective of the more disadvantaged. Based on extensive fieldwork among community forestry groups in India and Nepal, and existing case studies, this paper demonstrates how seemingly participatory institutions can exclude significant sections, such as women. It provides a typology of participation, spells out the gender equity and efficiency implications of such exclusions, and analyzes what underlies them. It also outlines a conceptual framework to help analyze the process of gender exclusion and how it might be alleviated.

Participatory Ergonomics as a Means of Preventing Wmsds

Participatory ergonomics is a flexible means for the achievement of many diverse goals in turbulent technological environments. It is a macroergonomic approach to the implementation of technology in organizational systems which requires that end-users be highly involved in developing and implementing the technology. The notion of participation offers the promise of tremendous potential gains for the organization, the worker, and even the economic well-being of the greater society. Such pervasive and important technological innovations as the use of computers and their concomitant video display terminals can, in spite of their usefulness, lead to many occupational health and safety problems. Cumulative trauma disorders appear to be an associated dysfunction in modern industry, and effective health and safety solutions to many of these problems are highly important, both to the organization and especially to the people in it. It is proposed that the use of participation and worker involvement in the solution of such problems is a powerful and promising tool. There is no one best way to employ worker participation. It is contingent upon the nature of the problem itself, the work system, the job design presently in place, the environment in which the work is done, the training of the worker, and a myriad of other variables. From the available empirical evidence, a participation typology is postulated. The successful implementation of participatory ergonomics and other participatory arrangements requires the empowerment and enablement of people to make decisions concerning their work and to implement and evaluate them. Several participatory approaches to worker involvement are presented which address work system and job design factors, design of the work environment, and training of VDT operators. These approaches are discussed in the context of a systems approach to the prevention of WMSDs. The reduction and/or prevention of cumulative trauma disorders such as work-related musculoskeletal disorders is a matter of great concern in modern organizational life, both from the point of view of productivity concerns and also from that of the humanization of work. The solution of occupational health and safety problems will not only lead to increased organizational effectiveness, but should help provide for a far better realization of human potential.

Voting and Contacting

This study examines voting and contacting public officials as two forms of local political participation in the suburban community of Garland, Texas. Voting and contacting are positively, but not very strongly, related. Two variables associate significantly with voting and contacting: (1) education level, which has a stronger relationship with voting than with contacting, and (2) interest in city government, which has a stronger relationship with contacting than with voting. These two correlates operate almost independently of each other. A typology of participants is presented and examined, and the utility of contacting as a linkage path in democratic societies is discussed.

Correlates of Social Participation: a Comparison of the Ethnic Community and Compensatory Theories

The ethnic community and compensatory theories of Black social participation are compared by analyzing affective correlates (political efficacy and self-esteem) of participation for 712 residents of Nashville, Tennessee in 1969. The instrumental-expressive typology of participation is utilized in addition to total participation. Participation and the affective variables are significantly correlated for Blacks, but only weakly correlated for Anglos, lending support to both theories. The relationship between participation, the affective variables, and the controlled background factors is briefly discussed, and problems and directions for future research are outlined.