The move toward primary health care renewal in Canada and in industrialized nations around the world is resulting in a fundamental change in the way health care is delivered. Citizen participation is one of the five pillars of primary health care-not just participation in decisions related to an individuals health care treatment, but also from the larger perspective of decision-making that affects policy and structure within an organization. Health care organizations want to be responsive to the needs of their communities, and consumer-savvy citizens increasingly expect to play a part in the decision-making process of organizations. <p>The relationship between health care administrators, providers and citizens is sculpted by fundamental philosophies, values and processes. These include organizational culture, change process, social capital, citizen role definition and shared power or citizen empowerment. This research seeks to link the concepts and create an understanding of the dynamic and complex relationships which result in effective or ineffective citizen participation in decision-making within organizations. A theoretical framework was used which addresses these fundamental philosophies.<p> The object of this research is to explore the processes and structures of organizations that facilitate or hinder meaningful citizen participation. Community health centres (CHCs) have long been recognized in Canada and around the world as leaders in the facilitation of citizen participation, and this research reviews pertinent documents from fourteen CHCs across Canada. Some of the data collected from a national research project on community health centres is used. Through secondary analysis, the original results of the document audit are compared to the original results of a quantitative survey administered to volunteers, clients, health care professionals and board members at each site that collected information about community capacity, organizational capacity and outcomes. <p> Results of this thesis research are presented in a framework of community and organizational characteristics influencing the degree of public participation supported in the literature. The research presented in this thesis shows some relationship between supportive factors identified in the organizations documents and the degree of participation and satisfaction identified in the quantitative survey results. Possible reasons for this relationship are explored and recommendations are made based on a hierarchical model of participation, with greater citizen participation as the goal.

Urban planning intended to conserve cities’ valuable past, both areas and structures, is challenging due to the need to find a balance between preserving urban heritage and fulfilling development needs. In China, efforts to preserve cities designated to be Historic Cultural Cities (HCCs) are affected by HCC planning mechanism (HCCPMs), which have been developed to protect the cities’ significant value as a whole. In this study, policies in HCC conservation plans are evaluated on their amount of detail and are compared to stakeholders’ expectations. A case study is carried out for areas in the City of Beijing. Findings of this study include the following: a general level of the detail used in HCC conservation plans; this level of detail ranges distinctively in various policy categories and HCC classes; stakeholders desire a higher level of detail than currently exists in the conservation plans; different expectations exist among stakeholder groups (residents, participants from the central districts, and participant without planning knowledge). Five statements can be reflected from the general level of detail: 1) urban conservation is not a primary concern in HCCs; 2) plan objectives were achieved in HCC plans; 3) the public did not effectively impact planning decisions; 4) little financial and human resources support exists for conservation activities; 5) the written legislative guidance is inaccurate. The differences in stakeholders’ expectation and the current plans reveal the failure to achieve public participation goals such as transparency and democracy. Recommendations are provided on improving plan quality and public participation in Historic Cultural Cities to better serve for urban conservation in Chinese cities.

La presente disertación presentan dos casos de estudio en los cuales se ha llevado a cabo una Evaluación Multi-Criterio Social (SMCE por sus siglas en inglés), además de las lecciones aprendidas a través de estas experiencias.El primer caso presenta el conflicto alrededor de la construcción de un complejo industrial (una planta reductora de aluminio y sus infraestructuras asociadas) en la Patagonia Chilena. Aquí, se analizan las ventajas de una SMCE comparada con los sistemas de Evaluación de Impacto Ambiental (EIA) comúnmente utilizados en el marco de las decisiones públicas. Se propone por tanto, la SMCE con el fin de resolver algunos de los inconvenientes ampliamente reconocidos de los EIAs.Luego, se exploran los problemas y conflictos alrededor de la construcción de parques eólicos, y se analizan los principales mecanismos para su implementación. Cabe destacar que existen diferentes niveles y dimensiones de aceptación social de tales infraestructuras: socio-política, de mercado y comunitaria. En esta disertación se sostiene que los mecanismos de mercado no son suficientes para la implementación de políticas públicas, y que la SMCE provee un marco adecuado para tratar la aceptación (o rechazo) de la comunidad local; es decir, para atender los aspectos relacionados con la justicia en términos distributivos y de proceso, y con la confianza a escala local. Finalmente, se desarrollan algunas ideas y lecciones aprendidas desde la aplicación práctica de metodologías participativas en combinación con la estructura del análisis multi-criterio, y se delinean algunas áreas para la investigación futura. / The following dissertation presents two case studies in which I have applied Social Multi-Criteria Evaluation (SMCE), and also presents some learned lessons from these experiences.The first case presents a conflict around the construction of an industrial complex (an aluminium smelter plant and its associated infrastructures) in the Chilean Patagonia. Here, I analyse the advantages of SMCE compared with the Environmental Impact Assessment systems (EIAS) commonly used in public decision-making. I propose the former in order to overcome some recognized pitfalls of the last.Then, I explore the problems and conflicts around the construction of windfarms, and I analyse the main mechanisms aimed at their implementation. There exist different levels and dimensions of social acceptance of windfarms: socio-political, market and social acceptance. I argue that market-based mechanisms are not enough for public policy implementation, and that SMCE is appropriate so as to deal with community acceptance; that is, to deal with issues related to distributional justice, procedural justice and trust at local level.Finally, I develop some ideas and learned lessons from the practical application of participatory approaches in combination with a multi-criteria analysis structure, and I delineate some areas and issues for further research.

John Stuart Mill’s Representative Government argues that the ideal form of government is representative. In this paper, I interpret Mill’s argument as a utilitarian argument for a political system with the salient feature of authoritative public participation. Mill argues for this feature in the first three chapters of Representative Government. This argument is interpreted in the context of Mill’s utilitarian views as elaborated in Utilitarianism, with emphasis on Mill’s understanding of pleasure formation and high quality utility.

This study develops an interdisciplinary exploratory approach for understanding concepts and tools for local participation that leads towards sustainability. The research goals include : identifying effective public participation criteria and sustainability criteria, identifying lessons that might be learned from Canadian communities that have used, and applied, public participation and sustainability initiatives, exploring how might these lessons be applied to a mid-sized community such as the City of Waterloo, and exploring how might citizen advisory committees be more effectively engaged to foster sustainability. The ultimate objective is to identify effective participation processes in order to foster sustainability using both secondary literature and a case study methodology. Findings were assessed in the analysis of lessons learned of communities located across Canada to be later refined and tested using the case study of the City of Waterloo, Ontario. The thesis contains an analysis of the conceptual literature and case study research to ascertain the factors that determine effective public participation processes towards sustainability and recommendations for citizen advisory groups that can be used by various local governance stakeholders in a Canadian context.

A park management plan is an important tool used in protected areas to successfully develop and achieve goals and objectives. Planning in modern protected area environments is challenging due to the requirement of finding the balance between its primary goal of preserving ecological and cultural features while managing to achieve tourism and visitation objectives. There are different perspectives regarding the purpose of a management plan and the role that the public should play in having an influence over the decision making process, including access to information required. This study evaluated the amount of detail in visitor and tourism policies that was found in park management plans compared to the amount of detail that park stakeholders desired, revealed through a case study of Ontario Provincial Parks. Findings include: a consistently low level of detail provided in park management plans; a large gap between the larger amount degree of detail desired by stakeholders’ compared to the sparse detail contained in plans; and a significant difference in the degree of detail desired by stakeholders affiliated with one park, Algonquin Park, over others. The low level of detail contained in management plans can be a reflection of five elements: 1) a low value of visitation and tourism, 2) a blueprint planning goal of management plans, 3) a weak role of the public in decision making, 4) sparse human resources/finances, and 5) imprecise legislation and guiding provincial policy. The large gap between the detail stakeholders desire compared to the content provided in plans reflect weak public participation and governance principles such as transparency, accountability, and fairness and power sharing. Lastly, differences in the degree of detail desired based on park affiliation suggest that park features, beside park classification and park visitation levels, also have an effect on the degree of detail expected from park stakeholders.

The move toward primary health care renewal in Canada and in industrialized nations around the world is resulting in a fundamental change in the way health care is delivered. Citizen participation is one of the five pillars of primary health care-not just participation in decisions related to an individuals health care treatment, but also from the larger perspective of decision-making that affects policy and structure within an organization. Health care organizations want to be responsive to the needs of their communities, and consumer-savvy citizens increasingly expect to play a part in the decision-making process of organizations. <p>The relationship between health care administrators, providers and citizens is sculpted by fundamental philosophies, values and processes. These include organizational culture, change process, social capital, citizen role definition and shared power or citizen empowerment. This research seeks to link the concepts and create an understanding of the dynamic and complex relationships which result in effective or ineffective citizen participation in decision-making within organizations. A theoretical framework was used which addresses these fundamental philosophies.<p> The object of this research is to explore the processes and structures of organizations that facilitate or hinder meaningful citizen participation. Community health centres (CHCs) have long been recognized in Canada and around the world as leaders in the facilitation of citizen participation, and this research reviews pertinent documents from fourteen CHCs across Canada. Some of the data collected from a national research project on community health centres is used. Through secondary analysis, the original results of the document audit are compared to the original results of a quantitative survey administered to volunteers, clients, health care professionals and board members at each site that collected information about community capacity, organizational capacity and outcomes. <p> Results of this thesis research are presented in a framework of community and organizational characteristics influencing the degree of public participation supported in the literature. The research presented in this thesis shows some relationship between supportive factors identified in the organizations documents and the degree of participation and satisfaction identified in the quantitative survey results. Possible reasons for this relationship are explored and recommendations are made based on a hierarchical model of participation, with greater citizen participation as the goal.

During the last decade, the Internet and Geographic Information System (GIS) have made changes in the relationship between governments and citizens in many developed countries. Citizens, in such countries, have been given more chances to participate in the decision making process of the spatial issues relevant to them. Such participation has helping to make urban planning more democratic and to make planners plan with the public rather than plan for the public. In Saudi Arabia (a developing country), participation of citizens in spatial decision making is very limited. Such limitation is more severe when considering women due to the circumstance of gender segregation in the Saudi society. While males may somehow muddle through ways to express their views about spatial issues to the planning authority, females have no ways unless they behave against the local norms. There is a persistent need for implementing distance participation for women in Saudi Arabia. This research examines whether developing and employing an Internet / GIS participatory approach can facilitate (without conflicting with the local conservative cultural norms) women’s participation in the municipal decision making process of the neighborhood’s outdoor recreational facilities. The goal was primarily to adapt the technology to serve the society instead of necessitating the society to change its inherited norms to be able to advance. The research involved an exploratory ethnographic case study carried out in a selected residential community in the city of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The research was carried out in two phases where the current status of public participation in the Saudi community planning was investigated first, and then a prototype for an Internet/GIS system for female public participation was developed and evaluated. The research found that there is a legitimate enthusiasm amongst the public and officials of the research sample for adopting e-public participation. Such enthusiasm is supported by a number of political, economical, technological and religious reasons. However, the findings showed that adopting e-public participation is more promising in the near future than currently due to different reasons including the current relatively small number of Internet users in Saudi Arabia. Since such research is the first of its type to be conducted in the Saudi context, the findings can serve as a road map indicating that adopting e-public participation in Saudi Arabia is promising and worth researching.

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ABSTRACT Village renewal refers to the process in which the existing living space and environmental conditions that have traditional value and characteristics, under the consideration of natural and humanistic resources, are bonded with social changes. It is a comprehensive, local, and perennial mission that involves both the public and the private sectors. For a long time Taiwan has witnessed an imbalance between cities and rural areas: the development of cities at the cost of villages, from which serious problems have sprouted. It is not justifiable to let cities grow to be more crowded and noisy and, at the same time, let villages become desolate and deserted. For this reason, in 1987 on behalf of the government, the Executive Yuan Council of Agriculture commissioned the Bureau of Land Administration of the Taiwan Provincial Government to implement renewal plan for farming and fishing villages. Some remote, out-of-shape communities were selected as the sites to undergo village renewal programs for almost ten years. This study was aimed to investigate the effectiveness of this overall project exemplary plan, what difficulties were encountered in the implementation. The scope of the study included the 19 areas where the Bureau of Land Administration of the Taiwan Provincial Government completed the implementation of the renewal plan for farming and fishing villages. The subjects of this study primarily consisted of local government officials and village chiefs. The research methods included theoretical investigation, construction of problems, pragmatic research and or ganization and analysis of secondary data. With respect to effectiveness, three aspects regarding farming and fishing communities were studied, namely economic aspect, social aspect and environmental aspect each of which consists of 10 sub-items. The questionnaire survey method was adopted, and the Likert-Type Five-Point scale designed by American scholar Likert was used to enquire the degree of identity for each question, and then discussion was conducted and suggestions were proposed, after considering the execution aspect. The study has resulted in the findings: with respect to the effectiveness of farming and fishing village renewal plan implemented by the Taiwan province, the social aspect has achieved the highest effectiveness, followed by the environmental aspect, with the economic aspect achieving the lowest effectiveness. Furthermore, in the economic aspect, ¡§increasing community employment¡¨ and ¡§increasing the income for villagers¡¨ achieved the lowest effectiveness.