Rethinking participation in environmental governance

In the face of more and more conflicting demands for the management of the environment, deliberative governance approaches are failing to build the institutions that scholars and leaders advocate as solutions to the complex pressures. While the practice of participation has become a mandatory principle in the conduct of environmental governance, little attention has been paid to the lack of participation in conceiving deliberative processes. This work argues that neither the creation of deliberative environmental governance processes, nor deliberative processes for the reform of environmental governance have been achieved. This book explores alternative perspectives of participative processes, as seen both from theory and practice, to construct a situated approach. A multi-layered research methodology is used to reveal the juxtaposed dimensions where circumstances and possibilities shift participative practices into unforeseen dilemmas and contradictions.