Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Beyond those specific measures, the government committed itself, first and
foremost, to 'protect human health and the environment through robust regulation
of GM crops on a case-by-case basis, consistent with the precautionary principle'.
(Goodin and Dryzek, 2006: 231)
Participatory processes may also promote empowerment by giving people the
psychological confidence to express their views, learn from others, and challenge
those in political authority or those with expert specialist (but not necessarily local)
knowledge. Additionally, the experience of having participated in a debate, or on a
citizen jury, may provide people with the skills and motivation to go further, mobilizing
actions that apply pressure to the wider political system in other ways. Goodin and
Dryzek (2006) argue that discursive forums are difficult for the established authorities
to neutralize through co-option, because deliberative discussions are frequently very
difficult to control, manage or predict. For instance, the scientific panel established
by the provincial government of British Columbia to investigate clear-cutting in
Clayoquot Sound included both logging experts and local people, including repre-
sentatives from indigenous groups. The result was a report encompassing a variety
of perspectives, including that of the First Nations' traditional ecological knowledge,
which scientific members generally accepted without resistance. The criticism of the
deliberative process has focused not so much on the report but in the failure of the
provincial government of British Columbia to properly implement it. It is also
interesting to recall that Gundersen (1995) conducted a series of 'deliberative
interviews' with forty-six subjects about ecological issues, all of whom had previously
expressed little interest in or concern about the environment. He noted that by the
time the interviews finished, they possessed a stronger commitment to environmental
values than previously, suggesting the persuasive power of reasoned debate and
communicative action.
Civic environmentalism and the politics of place
William Shutkin (2001) takes a systems approach to public policy, local democracy
and what he terms 'civic environmentalism'. He is strongly influenced by the work
of environmental historians William Cronon (1983) and Carolyn Merchant (1989),
who see the instability in human relations and culture as being bound up with changes
in the environment. Cronon views human relations and the environment as mutually,
dialectically, playing off each other, while Merchant argues that environmental change
may be best understood by exploring changes in a given society's ecology, mode of
production, biological reproductive processes, social relationships and forms of
consciousness. Consequently, social structure, the law and demographics help
determine a society's demand for natural resources, and the ways in which societies
and cultures understand the natural world depend on a combination of factors -
religion, myth, thoughts, feelings, ideologies, belief or otherwise in human volition,
and so on. For Shutkin, real democracy is strong democracy. It is citizen participation
in decision-making, co-operation, trust, common purpose, open discussion, networking
and real physical (rather than virtual) places where people can genuinely interact
socially and culturally. In other words, civic democracy is a combination of local
environment, civil society and social capital. A sense of belonging and commitment
to place, to community or localized identity, to where people physically interact with
