Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
to resolve environmental problems by providing a process for integrating a
variety of perspectives on complex human/nature relations. Dryzek writes,
“Discursive democracy is better-placed than any alternative political model
to enter into fruitful engagement with natural systems and so able to cope
more effectively with the challenge presented by ecological crisis.”
67
In
other words, deliberative forms of politics at the local level have the most
promise for recognizing and reworking complex human/nonhuman rela-
tions and for securing legitimacy of decisions by involving the broader
public. The governance of human/nature relations is not dominated by a
unitary state administration composed of experts but rather a multiplicity
of active citizens who are deeply engaged in decision-making processes.
With civic politics, “
Homo civicus
fi gures large,
homo bureaucratis
hardly
at all.”
68
There is an insistence on urban residents to treat citizenship as
a serious vocation and to engage in political debate and decision mak-
ing based not on a founding environmental ethic or a commitment to
the state but rather a responsibility stemming from their embeddedness
in place.
69
However, civic politics diverges from deliberative and discursive de-
mocracy because of its emphasis on materiality. Deliberation is not only
comprised of social interaction but must account for and engage with the
physicality of place. Further, democratic deliberation is not only a means
of fl eshing out the commonalities and differences between urban residents
but is also intended to catalyze constructive action. The activity of demo-
cratic deliberation is not intended as idle talk or just another planning
exercise, nor is it intended to reform rational political activity. Rather, it
is a means to develop and fundamentally change existing forms of local
politics as well as urban governance. Civic politics is aimed at “tapping
into the public's pent-up demand for effective, hands-on community-
building strategies” and “intentionally incorporates the notion of praxis:
the conjoining of social and political ideas with new social practices and
technologies.”
70
Civic politics starts with a local or regional problem, similar to populist
politics, and then develops a comprehensive, far-reaching solution, similar
to rational politics. However, the emphasis is not on the problem defi ni-
tion or on the ultimate solution but rather on the process of
developing
the problem defi nition and solution. As such, it involves a pragmatist
emphasis on problem solving rather than developing ultimate regulations
or an idealized community as an end product.
71
These activities foster
what philosopher Andrew Light calls “urban ecological citizenship,” the
engagement of the individual in the maintenance of natural processes in
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