Premium
Legitimate planning processes or informed decisions? Exploring public officials' rationales for participation in regional green infrastructure planning in Estonia
Author(s) -
Suškevičs Monika
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
environmental policy and governance
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.987
H-Index - 48
eISSN - 1756-9338
pISSN - 1756-932X
DOI - 10.1002/eet.1836
Subject(s) - legitimacy , normative , public participation , citizen journalism , inclusion (mineral) , participatory planning , sociology , public relations , democracy , political science , public administration , economics , politics , economic growth , law , social science
Participation can be grounded in democratic ideals (normative rationale), reasons for producing new knowledge (substantive rationale), and arguments for increasing the legitimacy of decision making (instrumental rationale). In practice, rationales for participation often determine the goal of involvement (“why?”), the subjects (“who?”) and objects of inclusion (“what?”), and whole design of decision making (“how?”). This study explores rationales prevalent within the planning of the Estonian ecological network concept—green network. This research relies on a qualitative synthesis of 10 cases of participatory processes at the regional level. A struggle for balance between the substantive and instrumental rationales is documented. This study finds that participatory processes often stalled due to a mismatch between the rationale endorsed by public officials and the expectation towards participation held by the stakeholders. Such contradictions could be addressed if ecological network planning practices would have considered not only “whom” to invite and involve but also “what” to include.