Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
possible visions for the community and agreed action to transform civil society.
Engagement through public conversation allows the registration of intensity of
feeling and belief, of public seeing and judgement of right and wrong. Given this,
genuine participation builds those affective links that bind one to another, that
engender social capital and self-respect, that offer avenues for empowerment,
responsible self-governance and civic education. Too great a reliance on representative
mechanisms and procedures, voting for representatives to do our talking and decision-
making, says Barber, deprives individuals of common activities that could turn a
citizenry into a genuine political community. This view is echoed by many other
political theorists who argue that democratic dialogue needs to be accompanied by
the development of green institutions and the nurturing of green values. For Dryzek
(2000), since democracy exists among humans and in human interactions with the
natural world, what is needed for enhanced (ecological democratization is an effective
integration of political and ecological communication. Nature does 'speak' to us; it
does have agency, as is evident with climate change, deforestation, species extinction,
Gaia, and so on. We might not hear the words, but we can certainly feel the effects.
Human beings need to see themselves as ecological beings as much as social or
political ones. Human beings are parts of those ecosystems and ecosystem services
that our economies depend on and exploit. Democracy is therefore more than
representation or the aggregation of particular interests, but to see this requires
enlarged thinking and new forms of interaction and deliberation transcending the
boundary of the human world. We can listen to non-human animals through the
very human (and bureaucratic) practices of sustainability appraisals, human and
environmental impact assessments, and environmental reporting, and our institutions
and institutional responses need to be appropriately calibrated to deal with the size
and scope of the problems. Central and centralized structures may not effectively
hear or engage with the various messages nature is sending us. For Dryzek:
Bioregionalism is not just about a matter of redrawing political boundaries: it
is also a matter of living in place. Redesigned political units should promote,
and in turn be promoted by, awareness on the part of their human inhabitants
of the biological surroundings that sustain them.
(2000: 157)
Discursive public spheres and political institutions will be variable, not limited by
formal geographical boundaries, and debates will continue about the meaning and
practice of green democracy, as without these debates a democratic society is unable
to exist.
Processes and opportunities for participation are important in giving voice to those
whose voices cannot be heard or whose voices are never used. The argument against
the practicality of increased participation is that the socially excluded, the poor and
the victimized are too apathetic, and the rich are simply too busy or too self-
interested to get involved actively in civil society organizations, to join neighbourhood
assemblies, forums, citizen juries, and so on. Barber disagrees:
But of course people refuse to participate only where politics does not count -
or counts less than rival forms of private activity. They are apathetic because
they are powerless, not powerless because they are apathetic. There is no evidence
