No description available.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2009. / Title from first page of PDF file. Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 122-134).

Deliberative democracy and conflict management models have been given increasing attention for their potential consistency and similarities, which is useful knowledge given the opened possibilities of interdisciplinary work. I argue that this debate ought to be broadened to include how conflict transformation and a pragmatic strand of deliberative democracy are aligned with regard to orientation to conflict. First, I offer an account of why conflict transformation’s key values should be seen as valuable for democratic theory to emulate. Second, I show how a pragmatic strand of deliberative democracy is consistent and similar with respect to those key values. Together, these build a framework which offers the ability for practitioners and theorists to pursue interdisciplinary work between two particular strands of deliberative democracy and conflict management which to date have not been given adequate attention.

The focus of this thesis is mainly to investigate the external political process from consensus conference and the correlation between consensus conference and political policy aimed at understanding the external effect of the conference. This thesis also studies the influence of public conference on both the administrative body and city council and the operations of public policy. A case study putting its emphasis on the public conference in installing a harbor cable car system bears a sense of unique significance in the very first consensus conference on municipal agenda in Taiwan. It is found that a consensus conference is perhaps more suitable for local administration to solve municipal issues than for the central government to solve national agenda. Thus, local government should step up its efforts to promote the valuable channel of citizen participation via public conference in an attempt to raise the consciousness of citizenship. The purpose of this article is also to get in-depth knowledge of the correlation between the consensus conference and public policy via comparison and analyses of social theories and publications and to interview dedicated personnel with both the administrative agency and city council for further discussions, which could, in the end, serve as a probable option to solve controversial issues once the deliberative democracy is chosen. The opinions collected via on-site interviews with dedicated administrative agencies (e.g. Bureau of Urban development & Bureau of Human Resources Development) and Kaohsiung city council have been used to analyze and verify the political clout of the consensus onference outside the regular decision-making process, which might become a valuable lesson learned for both the central and local authorities in the future.

Research Project (M.A.) - Simon Fraser University, 2005. / Research Project (Dept. of Political Science) / Simon Fraser University. Also issued in digital format and available on the World Wide Web.

This dissertation looks at the challenges that deliberative democratic theory encounters when it tries to offer a rich account of inclusion yet refuses to acknowledge the legitimacy of external protest. While sympathetic to deliberative democracy’s goals, I challenge this focus upon the deliberative group as the theory tries to satisfy requirements of inclusion and legitimacy. In response I offer a normative account of protest within a larger deliberative framework – one that offers a more comprehensive account of democratic inclusion. I look at critiques of deliberative democracy, particularly in terms of the theory’s ability to account for pluralism, and I argue that in order to meet this challenge we need to offer a normative justification of protest. Moreover, we need to do this not only to achieve full and effective inclusion but also to deal with the lack of efficacy that marginalized deliberants may encounter even when requirements of formal and effective inclusion are met. As I address these challenges I offer a theory of protest-as-deliberation in which I develop a normative justification of protest and set out the conceptual changes that allow this justification to be normatively and practically viable. My account takes protest, as something outside of and in opposition to the deliberative group, seriously and extends the deliberative framework to include protest; importantly, it does this without co-opting protestors. Drawing from previous critiques, I develop the normative and practical links that are necessary in order to facilitate a deliberative dialogue between protestors and the deliberative group. The conceptual changes that are necessary in order to realize protest-as-deliberation require that we re-evaluate the impact that deliberative criteria of reason-giving has upon effective inclusion and people’s efficacy and that we change these criteria accordingly. Additionally, we need to revisit the democratic capacity of the public sphere, reconceptualized as the deliberative polity in which the process of protest-as-deliberation takes place. When we do this we ought to place a greater emphasis upon available public spaces, both physical and conceptual, that deliberants and protestors need in order for effective deliberation and contestation to occur. / Thesis (Ph.D, Political Studies) -- Queen's University, 2008-12-01 14:58:51.95

The contemporary notion of sustainability is emerging as a political response to ecological and social problems associated with human development. It is a contested concept - eco-modernists interpret it as a call to rethink or adjust industrial production systems while others interpret it as a fundamental challenge to the dominant development paradigm. Corporations are playing a key role in shaping the discourse. Many argue that since corporations have enormous influence in the global political economy, they must take the lead in the search for sustainability. The World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) promotes eco-efficiency - an eco-modernist stance - as the primary business contribution to sustainability. However, the potential of the corporate focus on efficiency to contribute to sustainability is a subject of debate. In this thesis, I use a heterogeneous methodological approach to explore the interaction between corporations (with a focus on multinational corporations) and the discourse of sustainability in order to identify the potential for positive outcomes. I consider the compatibility of aspects of corporate identity and organisational structure to the ethos of sustainability. This leads to an examination of the meeting between corporations and sustainability as a reflexive process, paying particular attention to the ways in which language and mythology serve to uphold or transform existing power relations. I also explore forms of knowledge relevant to sustainability, comparing those that are typically emphasized in corporate enterprise with traditional, Indigenous and local ways of knowing that are essential to sustainability. The knowledge of classical equestrianism is used as an example in this analysis. Practical ways of including all these essential perspectives in the discourse are considered. The thesis concludes that certain aspects of corporate identity, structure and function are incompatible with the ideals of sustainability and that these disparities must be borne in mind as corporations attempt to embrace sustainability. I contend that sustainability requires network approaches that integrate strong and weak relations as well as diverse values and forms of knowledge. Sustainability can only be achieved with broad civic engagement that allows the synergistic combination of all values and knowledges relevant to sustainability. Furthermore, I argue that while corporations’ orientation towards market-based strategies has significant potential to support sustainability, it is limited since the market is fundamentally constituted by a network of weak ties. Therefore the thesis argues that while corporations can provide significant benefits in terms of sustainability, they cannot be expected to lead the sustainability agenda as it requires discursive plurality. The efficacy of the corporate contribution to sustainability will be greatly enhanced if companies are guided by strong democratic processes of deliberation and community engagement.

Thesis (M.A.)--Ohio University, June, 2007. / Title from PDF t.p. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D., Natural Resources)--University of Idaho, May 2006. / Major professor: Charles C. Harris. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 176-180). Also available online (PDF file) by subscription or by purchasing the individual file.

No description available.