An analysis of the literature on sustainability reveals that community decision making is an important component in the definition and implementation of sustainability. Although the importance of participation by all members of a community is stressed in the literature, analysis of marginalized groups focuses mainly on class and culture. When gender lines are explored, it is mostly within the context of the developing world. The purpose of this research was to examine the nature of women's participation in defining and implementing sustainability. This exploration had three objectives: to define effective public participation in the context of local level environmental decision making, to identify barriers to women inherent in public participation processes associated with environmental planning decisions and to make recommendations which eliminate barriers to women's participation in planning decisions. Barriers to women's participation were divided into three categories: institutional, community and societal. This research used a case study approach with multiple sources of evidence to examine these barriers. The public participation process involved in developing the Squamish Estuary Management Plan was analyzed to explore the nature and extent of women's participation. Research methods included document and newspaper coverage analysis, interviews and workshops. These revealed that specific barriers exist which discourage and prevent women from participating in planning decisions. At an institutional level, these included lack of trust, centralized decision-making, poor communication structures, an atmosphere that was not childfriendly and the failure to present the Plan in a way which was relevant to women's lives. Community barriers consisted of the fear of retaliation and the large number of community issues. Societal barriers identified were the devaluing of women's voices, level of income and the restrictions caused by women's societal roles. These barriers reduced the effectiveness of the public participation process. Results were used to develop a series of recommendations about how to encourage women's participation in decision-making, ensuring that women in communities are involved in shaping and defining sustainability. / Arts, Faculty of / Geography, Department of / Graduate

This thesis investigates the role and nature of comprehensive community planning (CCP) within B.C. Indian communities, and analyzes the outcomes of a specific CCP experience where an outside consultant and an Indian community concentrated on planning the nature, rather than the product, of the process. The approach used is a literature review of CCP in B.C. Indian communities and theoretical concepts relevant to this type of planning. The thesis develops a normative definition of CCP which proposes use of five process characteristics that should enhance Indian planning capabilities. These are: a comprehensive scope and approach; a formal/systematic method; a developmental approach; a participatory application; and mutuality of insider/outsider relationships. A case study method is applied to the Similkameen Indian Bands' Comprehensive Community Plan. Analysis of the case uses the CCP definition to identify the nature and outcomes of the process. Indian experiences and perspectives of community planning indicate control over the process, learning from the process, and communicating in the process are difficult to achieve when outsiders are involved. This thesis argues this is due to a lack of attention to planning the nature of the process itself. For Indian communities preparing for self-government CCP may be an important developmental tool if it: improves their planning process skills and self-management capabilities; and, uses outsiders to facilitate this capacity-building without loss of control over the process. The Similkameen experience indicates that application of the proposed normative characteristics of CCP is possible. The outcomes of this case suggest that increased attention to the planning process, by insiders and outsiders, improves the nature of the process as well as producing substantive outputs. Improvements to the nature of the process include extensive community participation by involving community members in 'planning for planning'. An intensive effort was made to fully engage community members in the planning process before determining specific directions for substantive planning. Community participation allowed formal/systematic planning methods to be applied with sensitivity to Indian culture. Developmental outcomes of this participatory process include improvements in the community's planning process skills and self-management competency. 'Planning for planning' also resulted in a mutuality of insider/outsider relations to develop. This relationship placed insiders and outsiders on equal terms which contributed to mutual learning and provided opportunities for the community to direct outsiders' work in ways that best served their needs. A community plan was produced in the Similkameen case that addressed a comprehensive scope of substantive planning areas such as: Band organization and administration; social development; recreation and culture; economic development; infrastructure; and, land use. This a significant outcome given the low completion rate among other B.C. Bands for this type of plan, and the importance of CCP's in guiding overall community development. Self-direction in the full range of community functions is at the heart of self-government. Use of a -comprehensive approach enabled the community to consider inter-relations between proposed substantive actions and to consciously develop priorities for implementation. Several instances of implementation of the Similkameen Plan were observed and expressed by community members which indicate it is being used to direct action in substantive areas. Case-specific opportunities and constraints faced in preparing the Similkameen Plan are also identified. Constraints included political and organizational complexity, loss of key participants, cultural differences within the community, potential for dependency on the consultant, and time. Opportunities included ease of communication, the Band's desire to improve self-management capabilities, Indian culture, insider/outsider trust, and access to Band planning funds. Implications of this study for similar communities are identified and areas for future research are suggested. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Community and Regional Planning (SCARP), School of / Graduate

These are challenging times for parks and protected areas in British Columbia as these areas have increased in size and use, while resources for managing them have shrunk considerably. Environmental nongovernment organisations (ENGOs) have recognized these threats and as a result are becoming increasingly involved in the stewardship of parks and protected areas. As the provincial government authority responsible for their management, BC Parks acknowledges that the needs and aspirations of people living in and around these areas must somehow be integrated in their management in order to ensure their long-term viability, and that ENGOs have valuable knowledge and skills to offer in this regard. As a result, cooperative arrangements, or partnerships, are being increasingly explored as a mutually beneficial means of forwarding BC Parks' mandate of conservation and recreation, and the mandate of similarly-minded ENGOs. The central purpose of this thesis is to identify essential criteria that must be met for cooperative arrangements between ENGOs and BC Parks to be successful. The study focusses on four current, successful partnerships. Research methods included a literature review and interviews with representatives from each of the participating BC Parks districts and ENGOs. The thesis presents a number of key findings that have significant import to the successful planning, implementation and management of cooperative arrangements for parks and protected areas. In addition to the criteria identified as central to their success, certain process-based actions have relevance to fulfilling the criteria. The level of trust between partners also has an impact on relations, which is enhanced when the criteria are met and over the course of time. The expectations of parties with regard to the extent of power-sharing and how this is exhibited in the cooperative arrangement also affects the perceived level of success of partners and therefore their commitment to the partnership. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Community and Regional Planning (SCARP), School of / Graduate

No description available.

Diploma thesis "The citizen participation on the decision-making process of Czech health policy" deals with the patients participation in the Czech republic. The thesis is separated into two parts, one is a theoretical background and the second one is analytic. In the first part there you can find definitions of the key words such as health policy, democracy, citizen participation or public policy. It describes the key words and shows the history and their development through the last 20 years. There is also a chapter which deals with methodology. The second part describes situation of citizen participation in the Czech republic, Germany, Italy, Great Britain and Canada. It deals with citizen participation in health policy in these countries and describes their practical life. It compares countries above with the situation in the Czech republic.

Thesis (M. A. (Media Studies)) -- University of Limpopo, 2021 / Citizen journalism has the potential to enhance the state of community newspapers. The emergence of digital media brought about the concept of citizen journalism, allowing ordinary citizens to practice journalism similar to professional journalism. The resultant high volume of news information from ordinary citizens, despite its benefits, leaves editors grappling with what enters the news gate. This study investigated the perceptions and attitudes of editors of community newspapers in Limpopo province of South Africa towards integrating citizen journalism into their daily journalism practices. This qualitative study used interview guide for data collection from a total of six (7) community newspaper editors in the province. The findings of the study indicate that most editors of community newspapers have positive perceptions towards citizen journalism. They are of the view that it could contribute positively towards their organisations particularly in strengthening democratic participation as a corner stone of community media, increasing the circulation of their newspapers, and assisting their communities to strive and strengthen their relationship with the outside world. However, they are not keen to incorporate citizen journalism in their professional practices. Their expressed concerns are lack of ethics and other basic journalistic skills in citizen journalism and the possibility of encumbering the process of news gatekeeping. However, due to many positive impacts of citizen journalism, editors should endeavour to find ways to incorporate citizen journalism into their organisations. Keywords: Gatekeeping, citizen journalism, community newspapers, community participation, news editors

This study arises out of a proposal of the Natal Parks Board (NPB) to develop a 200 bed hutted camp at Cathedral Peak in the Natal Drakensberg. In line with the NPB's stated commitment to the principles of Integrated Environmental Management (IEM), a multidisciplinary group, comprising five students from the Masters programme of the Department of Environmental and Geographical Sciences of the University of Cape Town, was commissioned to conduct a Preliminary Environmental Impact Assessment (PEIA) on the proposed development. The author was one of the members of this study team, hereafter referred to as the Masters Group, which conducted the PEIA at Cathedral Peak under the supervision of the Environmental Evaluation Unit of the University of Cape Town.

According to the United Nations more than half of humanity live today in cities, and by 2050 seventy percent of the world’s population is projected to be urban. This means that there will be a transformative role of cities at all levels in the coming decades. In general, Local governments have the responsibility to provide their people with basic services to improve their living standards because democracy is also measured in terms of quality of life and the common good. Through the case study of Los Cabos Citizen Observatory (ICO) in Los Cabos, Baja California Sur, Mexico, we have analyzed and learned that a conscious, competent, credible, collective, collaborative, continuous and communicative citizen par-ticipation can occur with the use of ISO 18091 international standard. With this tool, not only can citizens evaluate the administration's action in an integral way but also offer pro-posals of value for the improvement of public services and policies which eventually be-come strategic axes of municipal development plan for a good governance. Therefore, ICOs are Building a Reliable Citizen Participation for Local Government which can be pre-sented as 'one valid global way' to improve Democracy and Participation in the 21st cen-tury that are promoted and practiced starting from the cities.

The Constitution, 1996 requires that the public participate in policy making and planning in local government. To ensure compliance, legislation prescribes that local government needs to establish mechanisms, processes and procedures for public participation. However, neither the Constitution, 1996 nor legislation describes what public participation is, and how it should be implemented. Moreover, different people view public participation differently. There is thus a lack of definition and implementation of public participation in the policy making and planning processes of local government. To understand what public participation means, a conceptual analysis was conducted, resulting in the delivery of a working definition of public participation. The definition conveyed indicators of public participation, namely, the public, the levels of participation, the mechanisms for participation, the scope of participation and public influence in decision-making in participation. These indicators were studied qualitatively for description in a metropolitan municipality in South Africa in a single case study using multiple methods. The methods used were a survey questionnaire, a document study and analysis and an interview questionnaire. The findings indicate that the public who participated in the policy making and planning processes in the metropolitan municipality were mainly advantaged instead of disadvantaged people. They participated at the levels of informing, consulting, implementing, and reviewing. Public participation was not attained at the levels of educating, deciding and reporting back. The study established that the municipality employed various public participation mechanisms for informing and consulting the public. The scope of public participation was found to be reasonably broad. Though evidence suggests that the public participated in decisions pertaining to budget ward allocations, no evidence could be found that the public had an influence in decision-making in participation on the whole. It was found that public officials had the influence over public participation decision-making while politicians had the final say. / Public Administration and Management / M. Admin. (Public Administration)

Health impact assessment (HIA) has emerged in the U.S. as one promising process to increase social and environmental justice through addressing health equity issues within planning. HIA practice is guided by values such as democracy and equity and grounded in broad social determinants of health. The most readily applied definition of democracy is problematic because it implies an element of direct, participatory engagement with the public. This is at odds with HIA practice that largely relies on stakeholder engagement strategies. This dissertation critically examines the engagement strategies of three transportation planning HIA cases to more fully understand how the HIA process may or may not promote democratic values and protect community health interests. It employs a multi-case study design that uses qualitative content analysis to trace community health interests through the HIA process, HIA document, and target plan. It finds that while the field is overstating the participatory nature of HIA, commitments to health equity and broad determinants of health protect community health interests with and without robust engagement of community stakeholders.