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Power and Public Participation in a Hazardous Waste Dispute: A Community Case Study
Author(s) -
Culley Marci R.,
Hughey Joseph
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
american journal of community psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.113
H-Index - 112
eISSN - 1573-2770
pISSN - 0091-0562
DOI - 10.1007/s10464-007-9157-5
Subject(s) - hazardous waste , power (physics) , citizen journalism , health psychology , public participation , qualitative research , sociology , public relations , participatory action research , political science , public health , law , engineering , social science , waste management , medicine , physics , nursing , quantum mechanics , anthropology
Qualitative case study findings are presented. We examined whether public participation in a hazardous waste dispute manifested in ways consistent with theories of social power; particularly whether participatory processes or participants’ experiences of them were consistent with the three‐dimensional view of power (Gaventa, Power and powerlessness: quiescence and rebellion in an appalacian valley, 1980; Lukes, Power: A radical view, 1974; Parenti, Power and the powerless, 1978). Findings from four data sources collected over 3 years revealed that participatory processes manifested in ways consistent with theories of power, and participants’ experiences reflected this. Results illustrated how participation was limited and how citizen influence could be manipulated via control of resources, barriers to participation, agenda setting, and shaping conceptions about what participation was possible. Implications for community research and policy related to participation in hazardous waste disputes are discussed.