In the field of planning, there is widespread consensus that the mechanisms in which most planners use to engage with the public are ineffective and exclusive. Although there has been much work done on the techniques planners can adopt to reach out to underrepresented segments of the community, few municipalities have adopted them. This thesis seeks to advance the conversation on public participation beyond the mechanisms and into a discussion of why only certain communities are implementing these more progressive, efficient, effective, and equitable measures. By depicting how public participation functions as a system of interconnected paths and feedback loops, the author identifies twelve places in the system (i.e. leverage points) that could make participation more inclusive. The author tested the applicability of the leverage points by applying this Systems Theory framework to two inclusive participation initiatives in Amherst, Massachusetts and Vallejo, California. Through interviews and documentary research, the author found the framework to be effective in conceptualizing how communities become more inclusive and how participatory mechanisms can help shift the roles citizens, public managers, and planners have in the planning process.

In this dissertation I explore how the international law principle of free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) can enhance public participation, to promote environmental justice for communities affected by environmental decision-making in the mining sector in South Africa. Public participation required in terms of the mining sector environmental regulatory framework in South Africa is underscored by a requirement to ‘consult’. In chapter one, I describe how the requirement to consult differs from a requirement to secure consent in terms of FPIC. I describe public participation (i.e. consultation) requirements related to applications for rights, permits, licences and authorisations that must be in place prior to commencement of mining operations. I argue that where the level of public participation requires mere consultation, it can easily amount to a regulatory tick-box exercise given that the views of mining-affected communities can be manipulated or overlooked, with mining developments proceeding despite devastating effects on communities. In chapter two I describe how FPIC has become part of the regulatory framework governing mining activities through the court’s purposive interpretation of the Interim Protection of Informal Land Rights Act 31 of 1996 (IPILRA) in Baleni and Others v Minister of Mineral Resources and Others and Maledu and Others v Itereleng Bakgatla Mineral Resources (Pty) Limited and Another. In chapter three, I engage with scholarly literature on FPIC to analyse why and how environmental justice should and can be enhanced by embedding FPIC into legislative public participation requirements. I argue that FPIC, which now forms part of South Africa’s law through the IPILRA, should be a prominent feature in public participation processes for mining-affected communities generally, and not only for informal land right holders. / Mini Dissertation (LLM)--University of Pretoria, 2021. / Public Law / LLM / Unrestricted

The thesis discusses the participatory governance establishment in Georgia and Ukraine with a focus on the elements of deliberative public participation. Through the analysis of the established practices of citizen engagement, the research attempts to find out whether Georgia and Ukraine managed to construct the system of the inclusion of the people in policy-making and set up the opportunities for deliberative public participation. The thesis contains the analysis of the legislative frameworks and the implemented Open Government Partnership initiatives in Georgia and Ukraine to find out which platforms of citizen engagement are set up in both countries and identify their character: do these platforms include the elements of deliberative public participation? If yes, to what extent? Each of the main mechanisms of citizen engagement is analysed according to the four categories defined in the evaluation framework. After identifying the level of deliberative public participation in both countries, the thesis discusses the environments both in Georgia and Ukraine to understand which factors underpinned the process of the development of deliberative public participation, and also, which factors held back the progress.

"While public participation in constitution-making is recognised under international law, its extent is not elaborated. This has resulted in governments pursuing constitution-making processes that, despite involving public participation, do not involve meaningful public participation. As shall be illustrated in this study, this is the dilemma faced in Zambia. Zambia has experienced constitutional instability since independence. It has had four constitutions since then, and is currently in the process of making its fifth. This will represent an average of a new constitution every eight years: one of the highest rates of constitutional change in Commonwealth Africa. This is an unimpressive record in so far as it is generally accepted that a constitution defines and limits the exercise of governmental power, and regulates major political activities in a country. It cannot, therefore, be frequently subjected to change like any other ordinary piece of legislation. ... This study constitutes five chapters. Chapter one introduces the study. Chapter two analyses the origins and nature of government and constitution. Chapter three examines and analyses the constitutional development process in Zambia from the pre-colonial period to the current time. In chapter four, the making of the current constitution of South Africa is duscussed and analysed. Chapter five provides the conclusion and recommendations." -- Introduction. / Thesis (LLM (Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa)) -- University of Pretoria, 2006. / Prepared under the supervision of Prof. Edward Kofi Quashigah at the Faculty of Law, University of Ghana, Legon / http://www.chr.up.ac.za/academic_pro/llm1/dissertations.html / Centre for Human Rights / LLM

Within the Integrated Environmental Management (IEM) process, Environmental Assessment Practitioners are expected to gather information or evidence in order to formulate decisions on the suitability of development projects as it relates to the environment which takes the form of an Environmental Impact Assessment. The EIA decision-making framework relies mainly on a technocratic-, rationalist or technical-rational approach, which is based largely on cognitive or scientific knowledge. This over-reliance on scientific evidence (evidence-based knowledge) limits the level to which non-scientific evidence (value-based knowledge) is incorporated into the EIA decision-making framework. There is a concern that an over-reliance on evidence-based decision-making will lead to valuable information being overlooked or ignored, resulting in a skewed and fragmented process which could fail in ensuring environmental justice for the citizens of South Africa. The overall methodological approach that was used to achieve the aim and objectives of this study was of a qualitative nature, relying on three main methods, including document analysis, expert interviews and focus group meetings. The literature review provided six thematic areas of interest which was further elaborated during the thematic analysis of the data. One of the key findings of this research was that although the South African legislative framework makes provision for value-based decision-making processes, the EIA decision-making framework in particular is too rigid to incorporate non-scientific knowledge or value-based evidence. The need to shorten the EIA decision-making timeframes to allow for social and economic development in addition other challenges facing the IEM field can also attributed to an over-reliance on a formulaic tick-box approach which limits the incorporation of value-based decision-making in the EIA decision-making process. / Mini Dissertation (MA) University of Pretoria, 2018. / Geography, Geoinformatics and Meteorology / MA / Unrestricted

1 Abstract This thesis analyzes and describes legal possibilities, which are given to the public for participation in land-use planning. The aim of this thesis is to reach to conclusion, if the public can, as one of the subjects of land-use planning, play a crucial role in this matter or if her role is rather marginal. The author firstly defines the basic terms as "public" and "land-use planning". Besides, he outlines the issue of the status of environmental associations, which is one of the main topics of this thesis. Subsequently, he categorizes land-use planning tools into conceptional and implementation tools. Further, he continues with basic characteristic of individual tools and their mutual relations. For each tool, he describes its function, content and typical features. In following chapters, author detailly describes and analyzes concrete public possibilities, means and tools for participation in land-use planning. He always doing so in the relation to specific land-use planning tools. The analysis is not limited only to the current state of legislation, but also examines its development since the adoption of the Building Act in 2007. The crucial object of the analysis is the relevant court case law, which is in this thesis detailly described and discussed and which in last few years has undergone...

1 The role of NGOs in the protection of environment Abstract The topic of this thesis is the role of civil societies in the protection of environment. The civil societies, the most common type of NGOs in the Czech Republic, are legal persons of the private law that, unlike public administration bodies, contribute to the protection of environment voluntarily. This fact however does not undermine the significance of their involvement. In fact, in order to achieve the highest level of the protection of environment, it is necessary that the state treats the civil societies and other subjects of the non-profit sector as its partners. This thesis is divided into two parts that are consequently divided into chapters, subchapters and sub-subchapters. In the first part, the general starting points, in particular legal aspects of the non-profit area and the law of civil societies, including their assessment, are dealt with. Subsequently, the attention is moved to the position of civil societies in the area of environmental law, and to general starting points concerning the public participation in the environmental matters and its division. The second part looks into the roles of the civil societies in the protection of environment itself. Two types of these roles are distinguished: the conflict roles and the...

The economic capital, cultural capital especially social capital have significant effect on forming the small-sized Chinese city. This article argues for understandings of the spatial form of capital based on the special context in China and mainly focuses on social network in the scale of neighborhood. Reviews of documentation in the city discussed are exemplified as firsthand data for case study. Furthermore, the qualitative narration concerning five elements of social capital- “social network, trust, security, sense of belonging and participation”-is adopted as useful lens for evaluating the existing situation and better involvement of social capital in space is prompted as an effective solution. An overall assessment of the performance of social capital in the case is concluded and recommendations are presented for future improvement of enhancing social capital onsite.

Water is essential element for human survival but unstainable development practices and short term economic benefits are responsible for water scarcity in many areas around the world. Climate change is aggravating the risk with distribution and water availability. Agriculture is a sector highly dependent on water. The livelihood of a vast population in the world depends on not only agriculture, but also forestry, wetlands and fisheries and land use which, in turn, are strongly influenced by water based ecosystems that depend on monsoon rains. India is a global agricultural powerhouse. It is the world’s largest producer of milk, pulses, and spices as well as the largest area under wheat, rice and cotton. But increasing water scarcity in India is affecting agricultural sector, hence affecting socio- economic conditions of poor Indian farmers. In some pockets of the country, attempts have been made during the last few decades to manage the scarce water resources more efficiently and govern them more wisely, so that agriculture as the main economic backbone of the local communities can be sustainably supported. Ralegan Siddhi is one such outstanding case where the rainwater harvested through local interventions has enabled sustainable development of the entire community. The village stands out as an oasis in the desert. The aim of the study is to understand how water has been governed in Ralegan Siddhi to enable sustainable agriculture and hence sustainable development of the community. Ultimately, the study is foreseen to help improve the farmers’ situation in water scarce areas in India and elsewhere by sharing this study report based on Ralegan Siddhi’s water governance practices with other researchers as well as concerned agencies and actors.

Att skapa en god relation till medborgaren är en utmaning för de flesta kommuner. Botkyrka kommun har länge arbetat med medborgardialoger och demokrati men ändå har medborgarnas förtroende minskat. För att vända trenden genomförde Botkyrka kommun 2013 ett perspektivskifte till Medborgarens fokus, att arbeta med istället för åt medborgarna, och införde en processorienterad organisationsförändring vid årsskiftet 2015-2016. Syftet med detta arbete är att undersöka vad begreppet Medborgarens fokus innebär och hur det kan påverka planeringspraktiken. För att svara på syftet har intervju genomförts med Botkyrkas kommundirektör. En dokumentstudie har även gjorts samt jämförelse mellan Botkyrka kommuns tankar om Medborgarens fokus med managementkoncept från vården, Patientens väg, och forskningsprojektet Mellanplats.   Studien visar att ett ökat samarbete mellan kommun och medborgare önskas uppnås med Medborgarens fokus, för att tillsammans tillgodose medborgarens behov och där planeraren kan assistera och guida medborgaren genom smidigare kommunala flöden. Analysen visar att olika planeringsideal och underliggande motiv har stor påverkan på resultatet och att Botkyrka kommun därför bör skapa en tydlig formulering och arbeta för en gemensam syn på mål och syfte med konceptet Medborgarens fokus. En slutsats är att Botkyrka kommun genom Medborgarens fokus kan skapa en starkare relation med medborgarna och vinna deras förtroende om konceptet lyckas vid implementeringen. Medborgarens fokus kan leda vägen in i framtidens sätt att se på kommuners roll gentemot medborgaren. / Creating a good relation towards the citizens is a major challenge for most municipalities. The citizens' trust towards Botkyrka municipality has decreased, despite large efforts for increased democracy and public participation. In order to reverse this trend, Botkyrka municipality 2013 changed their perspective to the Citizens' focus, to work with instead of for the citizens, and made a process oriented organizational change at the shift of 2015-2016.  The purpose of this report is to examine the meaning of the concept Citizens' focus and how it can influence the planning practice. To answer this, an interview was conducted with Botkyrka's Municipal Director. A document study was also made together with a comparison between the Municipality of Botkyrka's thoughts on Citizens' focus and management concept of the healthcare sector, the Patient path, and the research project Mellanplats. The study shows that an increased cooperation between the municipality and the citizens are a desired outcome of the implementation of Citizens' focus, a cooperation to meet the needs of the citizens together and where the planners can assist and guide the citizen through smoother municipal flows.   The analysis shows tendencies of different planning ideals and underlying motives, which can greatly influence the outcome. Therefore, Botkyrka municipality should clearly formulate the concept of Citizens' focus and work towards a common view of its goal and purpose.   A conclusion is that Botkyrka municipality can, by implementing the concept of Citizens' focus, create a stronger relationship with the citizens and gain their trust if the concept has a successful implementation.  Citizens' focus  can lead the way into the future way of looking at the municipal role towards the citizens.