What participants do. A practice based approach to public participation in two policy fields

Abstract

The rise of public participation in policy is an integral part of the shift from government to governance, and is presented as the best and most appropriate answer to requests for democratic policymaking. Both in official accounts and in the work of scholars, participation is situated in a discourse that combines a deliberative ethics with a managerialist pathos. This discourse has two important omissions: the neglect of the role of power in participation, and the poor coverage of the activities of participants. To remedy these omissions, this paper proposes a practice based approach to the study of participation. Two case studies of participants' practices are presented: one dealing with spatial planning, the other with qualitative water policies. The case studies show similarities and differences in practices of participation. These are related to the values that participants hold, the roles they adopt, and the context in which they are situated. The paper concludes that power relations in participation are only fully understood in the light of a complex field of practice that stretches beyond formal venues and official accounts of participation.

Keywords:

• practice approach
• power
• democratic policymaking
• spatial planning
• water policy
• Water Framework Directive

Notes

1. Interestingly, also in the field of business administration, this last omission is recognized recently: ‘few stakeholder theorists have analyzed the motives, identities, ideologies, and tactical choices of stakeholders and their consequences for firms’ (De Bakker and Den Hond 2008, p. 9).

2. As in the unaccredited quote: ‘In theory, theory and practice are the same. In practice, they are not.’

3. This case study is published in Dutch as a chapter of a dissertation on the rise of participatory planning in the Netherlands (Van der Arend 2007).

4. Also see Wolfram (2003), Priemus (2007).

5. There are four river basins in the Netherlands, which all cross international borders: the Rhine, the Meuse, the Scheldt, and the Ems. By subdividing the Rhine in four, the Dutch authorities demarcated seven sub-river basins in total.

6. However, only about half of the official board members are elected by the general public. The remaining board members represent land users and land owners, resulting in a large section of farmers in most boards.