Thesis (MPA)--University of Limpopo (Turfloop Campus), 2011 / Public participation in South Africa is provided for in various legislative prescripts, not limited to the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996; White Paper on Local Government, 1998; Local Government: Municipal Structures Act, Act 117 of 1998; Local Government: Municipal Systems Act, Act 32 of 2000. Whereas all 283 municipalities in South Africa are required, as per these legislative prescripts, to conduct community participation, and whereas the same municipalities are pursuing the Integrated Development Planning Process (IDPP), community participation is not immune from problems and challenges. Pursuant to this, the research assessed public participation in the municipality under study, and found that these problems and challenges include among others, resource constraints; abuse of participatory structures by community elites and opportunists; marginalization of communities from decision-making; legitimacy of structures, through which the public participates. In addition, the following were identified: lack of creation of democratic culture of rights; lack of induction of the citizenry into democratic discourse and practice; lack of creation of mutual, reciprocal, and political tolerance; and a normative consensus as some key issues that will not auger well for a conducive public participatory environment in developmental planning processes. To be specific, the municipality under study has failed dismally in addressing certain areas of community participation in the municipality’s IDPP, such as, providing transport to members of the public to attend public participatory forums, utilization of ward committees as platforms for community participation, and ensuring representation of previously disadvantaged groups. vi Based on the critical issues raised and conclusions drawn, the study has therefore provided possible recommendations to resolve the problems and challenges of public participation in the municipality under study. Although the problems and challenges may not necessarily be generalized to other municipalities, the recommendations proffered, can also be populated to other municipalities, to add value in enhancing respective public participation, which is believed to consequently influence positively on service delivery

This thesis examines public participation in regional development in Saudi Arabia at the local government level. The main objective of the study examines the current policies and practices of Riyadh Regional Council with regard to regional development, paying particular attention to the issue of public participation. Key decision-makers and decision locations are identified as focal points of policy development and implementation. The work begins from the premise that public participation is one of the key elements of effective regional policy that has so far been under-researched and consequently under-utilised in the Saudi Arabian context. The research opens by examining the national and cultural context of regional development in Saudi Arabia. It identifies and examines the relationship between policy development and the traditions and constitutional arrangements. These considerations are followed by an interrogation of the literature that reveals a range of concepts and perspectives on regional development and public participation. Of particular relevance to this study is the importance of the ‘institutional turn’ in regional development and the role of public participation in enhancing the functioning of those institutions associated with regional development. Saudi Arabia has an economy that is largely dependent on revenues generated from the export of crude and refined petrochemicals. This places Saudi Arabia in a category of nations that are liable to suffer from the ‘resource curse’. The literature suggests that avoiding this particular phenomenon is in part dependent on having robust institutions. This firmly connects the research problem to previous research and provides a sound rationale for the conduct of the study. / Interpretivism is advanced as a suitable philosophical framework for the conduct of the research. It offers a methodological rationale for a case study investigation that draws on a range of qualitative data sources. Such an approach is especially useful for examining situations that are bound in time and space and can provide theoretical and practical insights that are useful in other contexts. This research presents new insights into how local government in Saudi Arabia can develop strategies for enhancing public participation in the creation of regional development policies and practices. There has been recent rapid economic development in Saudi Arabia that has influenced overall planning directions and development achievements and made it possible for the government to achieve systematic progress in long-term economic diversification into industrialisation, education, health, transport, and communication and social services. Even so, the Saudi Arabian government is concerned about increasing public participation in all areas. The formation of the regional councils in 1992 can be considered as a step towards public participation in the socio-economic development of their regions. However, the findings of this research demonstrate that there is a need for creating new policies and techniques to help regional councils in improving their performance to meet the needs of their citizens, and public participation is a key to achieving this end. To do this it is recommended that the councils should be granted executive and legislative authority to enable them to take adequate decisions and work together with citizens in ways that will increase their participation leading to enhanced transparency and accountability and effective regional development policy. / Following the findings, a set of recommendations are provided to improve the role of Riyadh Regional Council in enhancing public participation in regional development. This thesis closes with suggestions and directions for future research with regard to the potential contribution to the public sector management literature. The findings of this research provide benefits for policy makers to correct, maintain, and eliminate any obstacles facing administrative policies and consequently provide a long-term strategy that could incrementally be implemented in stages throughout time. The research methods, ideas and insights developed here could also be adapted and applied to other nations facing similar issues.

This thesis addresses the question “What is the essence of the Murray Darling river system conundrum that is usually posed as an issue of environmental remediation?”- following perceptions of problems in catchment strategy formulation regarding project selection and public consultation. The question is initially seen as having four facets – governance, public, participation and remediation. An initial literature review indicated that previous examination of these topics seemed insufficiently radical or comprehensive for the enquiry’s purposes, seeming not to attribute full humanness to members of the public. A fieldwork program of quasi-anthropological nature was conducted. Interpretation of the fieldwork reports focuses primarily on the lack of attribution of full humanness to members of the public. Interpretive techniques including a phenomenological-style process was applied and found that the district houses a number of unrecognised people “nexors’ occupying linking or nexus roles who exercise personal skills and initiatives to underpin effective remediation outcomes. Towards the end of the fieldwork program, further literature indicated that the initial four-facet nature of the enquiry should be reformulated, to include the overall nature of western society as it appears in the district (in place of participation), to reconstitute the concept of remediation more radically. Governance as a topic is broader than the ways in which it appears in the examined district, and suitable hybridizing of competing world view concepts remains unresolved in this thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

This Report examines the history of the planning of Canberra with emphasis on the systems devised for determining land use, development control and public participation. Part One covers the periods during which various authorities and Departments have been responsible for planning and development. The long term effect of autocratic attitudes of the early planners and the subordinate position of the employee/tenant/lessee on the ordinary rights of the community to participate in planning is considered. The single minded objective of creating a monumental city, the determination to preserve at all costs what each generation of planners regarded as the original plan, the overriding concern with physical planning and construction, and the determination of the bureacracy not to share power or responsibility is noted. Part Two examines those places in Australia and elsewhere which have developed democratically and have devised systems to make planning responsible to the community. A number of common characteristics are noted. The limitations on the extent of public participation is acknowledged. Part Three examines a statutory planning system for the ACT. The conclusion is reached that the existing system, relying as it does on antique NSW laws adapted fifty years ago when the town was in its infancy are totally inadequate for a medium size city. The existing legislation is particularly defective in providing for the town planning process and development control needs of the Territory. The deficiencies of the latest planning review are noted, and although the retention of the existing planning authority is supported, its compulsory democratisation through a Planning Act providing statutory requirments for plan making and public participation, is advocated.

<p>Naturally occurring arsenic in ground water is currently threatening millions of people’s lives in Bangladesh and has emerged as one of the world’s largest water pollution and environmental disasters. Various studies have been conducted in order to find a solution to the problem and several mitigation projects have been conducted with various results. In many cases the mitigation options provided have failed in terms of sustainability, why there is an impatient drive to find the solution that can solve the problem permanently. Since technical solutions appear to be hard to transform into practical implementation many professionals are advocating the use of public participation in sustainable project planning and implementation in order to make the project successful. This Minor Field Study focuses on how an environmental problem can be managed through social processes. The main aim of this study is to investigate peoples’ experiences of public participation and project planning from two rural pipeline water supply projects and discuss how these experiences relate to how ideas about public participation might be used for sustainable project planning. To do this I have studied three key groups of actors: national development professionals, project professionals and local project beneficiaries. The aim is also to get a deeper understanding of how public participation within water supply management can be used and further developed for project sustainability. The results show that the implementing organisation has used a project implementation plan with a vision that public participation motivated by sustainability and cost-efficiency will lead to a process towards collective action. The objective is that the users, through joint ownership, takes full responsibility for the project and its future planning. To enable this, learning is a prerequisite given that without understanding and knowledge of how to operate the water supply system, the project and the system will fall short. A learning platform has also been found as a prerequisite for maintaining of public participation, and for interest and motivation of being involved at all. The theory argues for the importance of involvement of all for a sustainable project process, nevertheless is this not made possible in reality. Due to socio-cultural traditions where women are not accepted to attend public meetings or be involved in decision-making, the empowering process that public participation might facilitate, have been neglected. Further have those who are incapable of paying regularly for access to fresh drinking water been excluded from the projects. To attain the efficient bottom-up action wanted to achieve project sustainability, empowerment in combination with public participation is necessary. An improved methodology of how public participation can be integrated in project planning is compulsory, why more practical experience and continuous project evaluations is needed.</p>

<p>A Road project’s frame is built up of a decision- and consultation process, where the results of the preparatory studies are being discussed. The aim with a consultation process is that all the</p><p>opinions and knowledge from the operators' will be taken into count in the basis of information, that is needed in order to the different involved operators' to take a decision.</p><p>The aim of the essay was to investigate how the decision- and consultation process for a road project, the E4 section between Uppsala Läby, turned out. The aim is also to bring up how the</p><p>process could have been done more correctly. The study was carried out through a qualitative method with an analysis of materials from the National Road Administration's archives, the associated Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and through interviews of the different operators.</p><p>My theoretical basis has been a Stakeholder Analysis and its principles, and theory about different executions of social planning.</p><p>The result showed that the decision- and consultation process has been bursting in democracy and consideration taking of the different operators' opinions, has been poor from the developer’s, in this case the National Road Administration's, side. The National Road Administration has implemented the project on the basis of its own preferences and has not more or less given some compromises to the other operators. The public felt displeased and disappointed, as there were many people affected by the road. The municipalities and the county board got the feeling of that there has been an informal process at the National Road Administration that has been vital important for the final decision about the road's draw.</p> / <p>Ett vägprojekts stomme byggs upp av besluts- och samrådsprocesser, där resultaten av förstudierna diskuteras. Syftet med en samrådsprocess är att alla aktörers åsikter och kunskaper ska tas med i det underlag av information, som behövs för att de olika inblandade</p><p>parterna ska kunna fatta ett beslut.</p><p>Uppsatsens syfte var att undersöka hur besluts- och samrådsprocessen för ett vägprojekt, E4:ans delsträcka mellan Uppsala-Läby, gick till och att föra fram vad som kunde ha gjorts bättre. Studien utfördes genom en kvalitativ metod med en analys av material från Vägverkets</p><p>arkiv, den tillhörande Miljökonsekvensbeskrivningen och genom intervjuer av de olika aktörerna.</p><p>Min teoretiska utgångspunkt har varit aktörsanalyser och dess principer, samt teori om olika utföranden av samhällsplanering.</p><p>Resultatet visade att besluts- och samrådsprocessen har varit bristande i demokrati och hänsynstagande av de olika aktörernas åsikter, har varit dåligt från projektörens, i det här fallet Vägverkets, sida. Vägverket har genomfört projektet utifrån dess egna preferenser och har i stort sett inte givit några kompromisser till de andra aktörerna. Allmänheten känner sig missnöjda och besvikna, det var många som drabbades hårt av vägens sträckning.</p><p>Kommunerna och Länsstyrelsen fick känslan av att det har pågått en informell process hos Vägverket som har varit avgörande för det tagna beslutet om vägens dragning.</p>

According to the Swedish Forestry Act, environmental protection is required within forest operations regardless of forest ownership. This thesis examines the extent to which regulations issued by the National Board of Forestry are implemented in clearcuttings. Different factors contributing to the outcome of environmental protection are analyzed both from a top-down and a bottom-up perspec­tive. Empirically, the study combines field investigation of clearcuts, interviews with implementing actors, and evaluation of written prescriptions and advice on environ­mental protection. The Swedish forest-environmental legislation and implementation process is also compared to that of the U.S. and, especially, to the state of Cali­fornia . Conflicting goals within the Forestry Act and vague environmental guidelines leave the implementing agency officers with great discretion. Steering attempts by the Forestry Agency are in terms of friendly advice and information. No breaches of the regulations were taken to court during 1980-1986 although this is formally possible. There is an average compliance of approximately fifty per cent of the required environmental measures. Aesthetic values are taken into account to a greater extent than pure floristic and faunistic ones. Economic considerations and harvest technology contribute to a low degree of environmental protection. Forest machines are inadequately suited for protecting single, environmentally valuable trees and they frequently cause deep tracks. Inadequate environmental knowledge and insufficient pre-harvest environmental planning also affect environ­mental performance negatively. Generally, economic considerations contribute to the low priority to environ­mental protection given by the implementing actors compared to timber production. Economic inducements counteract environmental protection. It is generally rare that environmentalists and other public interests affected by forest operations are consulted. Environmentalists however influence indirectly through political pressure to legislate, participation in the consultation process before legislation is enacted, and mass-media attention. / digitalisering@umu

A Road project’s frame is built up of a decision- and consultation process, where the results of the preparatory studies are being discussed. The aim with a consultation process is that all the opinions and knowledge from the operators' will be taken into count in the basis of information, that is needed in order to the different involved operators' to take a decision. The aim of the essay was to investigate how the decision- and consultation process for a road project, the E4 section between Uppsala Läby, turned out. The aim is also to bring up how the process could have been done more correctly. The study was carried out through a qualitative method with an analysis of materials from the National Road Administration's archives, the associated Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and through interviews of the different operators. My theoretical basis has been a Stakeholder Analysis and its principles, and theory about different executions of social planning. The result showed that the decision- and consultation process has been bursting in democracy and consideration taking of the different operators' opinions, has been poor from the developer’s, in this case the National Road Administration's, side. The National Road Administration has implemented the project on the basis of its own preferences and has not more or less given some compromises to the other operators. The public felt displeased and disappointed, as there were many people affected by the road. The municipalities and the county board got the feeling of that there has been an informal process at the National Road Administration that has been vital important for the final decision about the road's draw. / Ett vägprojekts stomme byggs upp av besluts- och samrådsprocesser, där resultaten av förstudierna diskuteras. Syftet med en samrådsprocess är att alla aktörers åsikter och kunskaper ska tas med i det underlag av information, som behövs för att de olika inblandade parterna ska kunna fatta ett beslut. Uppsatsens syfte var att undersöka hur besluts- och samrådsprocessen för ett vägprojekt, E4:ans delsträcka mellan Uppsala-Läby, gick till och att föra fram vad som kunde ha gjorts bättre. Studien utfördes genom en kvalitativ metod med en analys av material från Vägverkets arkiv, den tillhörande Miljökonsekvensbeskrivningen och genom intervjuer av de olika aktörerna. Min teoretiska utgångspunkt har varit aktörsanalyser och dess principer, samt teori om olika utföranden av samhällsplanering. Resultatet visade att besluts- och samrådsprocessen har varit bristande i demokrati och hänsynstagande av de olika aktörernas åsikter, har varit dåligt från projektörens, i det här fallet Vägverkets, sida. Vägverket har genomfört projektet utifrån dess egna preferenser och har i stort sett inte givit några kompromisser till de andra aktörerna. Allmänheten känner sig missnöjda och besvikna, det var många som drabbades hårt av vägens sträckning. Kommunerna och Länsstyrelsen fick känslan av att det har pågått en informell process hos Vägverket som har varit avgörande för det tagna beslutet om vägens dragning.

La tesi analizza il quadro normativo relativo alla partecipazione del pubblico nei procedimenti amministrativi applicativi del principio di precauzione. Il lavoro si sviluppa in tre Capitoli: il primo inquadra il tema della partecipazione in materia ambientale nel quadro più generale dei modelli di partecipazione all’attività amministrativa generale presenti in altri settori, come quello dell’urbanistica e della regolazione condizionale dell’attività economica. In questo si precisa, inoltre, la ratio e il contenuto del principio di precauzione e si illustrano i relativi nessi con quello di partecipazione. Il secondo Capitolo affronta l’analisi della disciplina europea ed internazionale in materia di partecipazione ambientale laddove la qualità delle forme partecipative è molto più sofisticata e incisiva rispetto alla disciplina domestica; in esso è analizzato anche il procedimento di autorizzazione per l’immissione in commercio di cibi contenenti OGM. Il terzo ed ultimo Capitolo analizza le procedure di valutazione di impatto ambientale e il ruolo significativo rivestito, in esse, dai modelli di partecipazione. Nella fase conclusiva si mettono in luce gli aspetti critici, sotto il profilo procedurale, dei modelli di partecipazione analizzati e si offrono alcuni suggerimenti diretti al loro superamento. / The thesis analyzes the legal framework provided for the public participation in administrative proceedings connected to environmental matters, especially when the precautionary principle is applied. The work consists of three chapters: the first situates participation in in the Italian general framework for public participation, especially regarding planning and regulatory proceedings. The meaning of precautionary principle and its connections with the public participation are also analyzed. The second chapter analyses the main features of participation in the international and European legal systems and their influence on the national regulations. This chapter deals in particular with the regulation provided by the EU law for the authorization of GM food. The last chapter discuss the role of public participation in the environmental impact assessments. Finally, the thesis highlights the weak points of environmental participation and propose some measures to improve its legal regulation.

<p>This study analyses the relationship between the manner of citizens&rsquo / engagement with the state and the level of service delivery they experience in their everyday lives, as residents of Khayelitsha. The phenomena of so-called &lsquo / service delivery&rsquo / protests across South Africa have now become a fixture of South African politics. Khayelitsha is one of the sites with frequent protests in Cape Town and is inhabited by poor people, 70 percent of whom live in informal settlements. While the lack of municipal services is undoubtedly a major problem for many poor people in South Africa, thus&nbsp / far, few studies have been dedicated to investigate empirically this alleged link between service delivery and protest activity. The study utilizes mostly quantitative analysis techniques such as&nbsp / regression analysis and path analysis to discover the form and strength of linkages between the service delivery and participation forms. While residents of informal settlements and therefore&nbsp / poorer services were more prone to engage in protests and thus reinforcing the service delivery hypothesis, this relationship was relatively weak in regression analysis. What is more important than the service delivery variables such as water services was the level of cognitive awareness exemplified by the level of political engagement and awareness on the one hand and level of community engagement in terms of attendance of community meetings and membership of different organizations. In summary the study found relatively weak evidence to support the service&nbsp / delivery hypothesis and stronger evidence for the importance of cognitive awareness and resource mobilization theories in Khayelitsha as the key determinant of protest activity.</p>