Before the historical democratic elections of 1994, South Africa did not have a culture of actively engaging communities in local government affairs. Democracy brought emphasis to transparency in municipal activities, and greater public accountability. It is legislated in South Africa that local governments should interact with communities in an endeavour to carry out the responsibilities of service delivery to ensure growth and development in a manner that promotes and enhances community participation and accountability. However, integrated municipal development planning, budgeting, local economic development projects, and various forms of municipal partnerships, are all issues which require effective community participation processes. Local government as a sphere government closest to the people is now expected to engage communities through exploring sustainable strategies as mechanisms which, within the context of this study, bring about effective public participation. In this regard, an effective, efficient, vibrant and innovative local government system that is accountable to local communities is of obvious importance. The local government has a key role to play in ensuring that people receive quality leadership and a sound and stable local democracy. Section 153 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996 (Act 108 of 1996) spells out two important developmental duties of a municipality: * To structure and manage its administration and budget planning process so as to give priority to the basic needs of the community and to promote the environmental and socio-economic development of the community: and * To participate in national and provincial development programmes. The purpose of this study was to determine a variety of effective channels or mechanisms and processes for public participation in the integrated development planning (IDP) and budget process in the Tlokwe Local Municipality. It also focuses on the policy and legislative framework underpinning public participation in the IDP and budget processes. The study further considers that legislation requires that the IDP process of Tlokwe Municipality should structurally incorporate the voice of the community which will be affected by planning. The researcher used a qualitative method to determine how Tlokwe Local Municipality addresses the needs of the local community to enhance participatory democracy. The study established that there are a number of challenges facing the municipality which are barriers to effective participation. Several of these challenges relate to the poor and the marginalised groups which still have far too little influence in the affairs of the municipality. / Thesis (MA (Public Management and Governance))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2013

My research considers both the challenges to and opportunities for implementing Smart Growth strategies in the City of Guelph’s urban growth centre, with a particular focus on the St. Patrick’s Ward neighbourhood. I follow the development of the downtown secondary plan-making process, spanning the time period from March 2010 to June 2011, which includes public participation by residents in the St. Patrick’s Ward and the city at large. The plan-making process started prior to, and continues after, my chosen timeframe, but the information collected in my case study brings to light the complexity of drafting a secondary plan for implementing Smart Growth strategies; the plan should ideally establish a framework for local interpretation and implementation of Smart Growth – the widely supported intensification and redevelopment strategy. I take the view that while a plan can be written to code and be argued rationally by experts, its effectiveness and ethical validity is a function of public participation in planning decisions that include values-rational anchoring, i.e. critical and ethical reflection on the value of a goal. Although many guiding principles and recommendations in the draft Plan are based on Smart Growth strategies, the physical scale of urban intensification is today very much focused on density numbers under the Growth Plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe. The City of Guelph’s draft Downtown Secondary Plan primarily seeks to facilitate high-density, mid- to high-rise condominium and/or office developments. This may in turn lead to increased spatial segregation based on socioeconomic differences. Like in Toronto, Guelph’s Downtown Secondary Plan deregulates zoning by-laws and reduces bureaucratic ‘red tape’ for the high-density development industry through more flexible policies. Potential socioeconomic consequences like displacement of entire populations, services, and jobs from the newly re-valued places are, however, not addressed in the Plan; the policy language and conceptual thinking appears primarily geared toward redevelopment and infill. The overall lesson learned from studying the plan-making process leading up to the City of Guelph’s 1st Draft Downtown Secondary Plan concerns the role of planning in implementing Smart Growth; being a specific form of urban planning, Smart Growth implementation requires facilitation and education of stakeholders who are willing to compromise, but not beyond the point where “smart” is removed from “growth”. Given the overarching responsibility of the government to drive home this message, every stakeholder working for the public interest must collaboratively define, steer, and direct the process and private interests at each and every step along the road. The case of Guelph demonstrates the difficulty of prioritizing such a responsibility. Thus, potential future pressures to push and undermine Smart Growth’s synergistic and public participatory core value must be monitored and controlled with long-term objectives in mind.

xii, 167 p. A print copy of this thesis is available through the UO Libraries. Search the library catalog for the location and call number. / Butte, Montana has served as the epicenter of hard rock mining and mineral processing in the Upper Clark Fork River Basin (UCFRB) for nearly 150 years. As a result, the UCFRB contains the largest contiguous complex of major environmental clean-up projects in the United States. Contemporary U.S. environmental problem- solving is characterized by an emphasis on meaningful public participation in environmental decision-making. The U.S. is committed to the realization of environmental justice, which requires that affected publics, especially the working classes who tend to bear a disproportionate share of the environmental burdens, influence environmental clean-up efforts. However, much of the critical literature on the subject suggests that in practice the public is rarely included as a significant force in decision-making. In hard-used places like Butte, Montana, the community's ecological problems are compounded by their democratic problems. This constitutes an integrated crisis in ecology and democracy, the problem at the heart of this inquiry. This dissertation presents a pragmatic interrogation of U.S. environmental problem-solving from an ethical and environmental communication research perspective. It is a work of pragmatic moral philosophy in the tradition of John Dewey. The overarching methodology is Systematic Moral Analysis (SMA), which unfolds in five phases: problem recognition, problem diagnosis, moral analysis, evaluation, and moral action. This research concludes by suggesting philosophically defensible principles to guide future U.S. environmental decision-making based on pragmatic criteria emphasizing the health and well-being of both democratic and environmental systems as the highest good in environmental problem-solving. / Committee in charge: Julianne Newton, Chairperson, Journalism and Communication; Stephen Ponder, Member, Journalism and Communication; Thomas Bivins, Member, Journalism and Communication; John Foster, Outside Member, Sociology

Magister Legum - LLM (Criminal Justice and Procedure) / As states continue to rapidly transition from conflict or autocracy to democracy, there has been need to address past gross human rights violations. To address these past egregious violations, transitioning countries often relied on immunities and prosecutions. However, prosecutions and amnesties presented several challenges that necessitated a recourse to truth and reconciliation commissions (hereafter TRCs). Since then, TRCs have evolved to be an essential accountability mechanism in transitional justice. Given the important role that TRCs play in transitioning countries, the composition of TRCs should be of credible character in the eye of the public. The selected and appointed truth commissioners (hereafter commissioners) play a key role in the truth-finding process and the importance of having a constraint-free and reliable work plan of selecting these commissioners cannot be overestimated. However, in practice the selection and appointment of the commissioners has proven to be a challenging exercise.

Magister Legum - LLM (Criminal Justice and Procedure) / As states continue to rapidly transition from conflict or autocracy to democracy, there has been need to address past gross human rights violations. To address these past egregious violations, transitioning countries often relied on immunities and prosecutions. However, prosecutions and amnesties presented several challenges that necessitated a recourse to truth and reconciliation commissions (hereafter TRCs). Since then, TRCs have evolved to be an essential accountability mechanism in transitional justice.

Doctor of Philosophy / Environmental Design and Planning Program / John W. Keller / Public-private partnerships (PPPs) have become a vehicle to deliver products and services internationally. It is a favored strategy widely adopted for implementing complex urban developments in the United States. However, the complex nature of such partnerships raises serious concerns about meaningful community engagement. Meaningful community engagement is a result of the presence and quality of transparency and public participation elements that are strongly correlated. The following research describes how the community was involved and contributed to an urban development PPP project in Manhattan, Kansas. The research goal is to understand the mechanism of the community engagement in a PPP project and to evaluate the quality of the process at the local level from a planning perspective. With an in-depth case study and an understanding of meaningful community engagement processes, this research will contribute to the body of knowledge in the area of PPPs and meaningful community engagement at the local level and evaluate local PPP policies and practices. The first objective is to evaluate the participation opportunities with a developed Community Engagement Attribute Evaluation System (CEAES) based on the recognized metrics of quality practices. Attributes are drawn from the identified characteristics of quality transparency and quality public participation of meaningful practices. The second goal is to interview the key stakeholders of the project from the public sector, the private sector, and the community and add depth to the findings that complements the overall evaluation. Through both technical evaluation and open-ended personal interview, this study attempts to describe the design and the process of public participation practices. Analysis will show whether or not the community was meaningfully engaged and if the technical aspects of a quality community engagement practice were present. Finally, this study aims to inform future similar planning practices. The result serves two local purposes of planning governance and policy. For the former, it will help those with no record of PPP to better design and implement the engagement process; and for the ones with PPPs’ experience, it will contribute to the quality of the future partnerships. For the latter, it will guide the local governments and policy makers to better address PPPs’ ongoing issue of community engagement.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-17T14:52:53Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 FranciscoMAV.pdf: 1991792 bytes, checksum: 986804b5386d02957517c2f54109ce06 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2006-05-19 / The natural resources degradation and its consequences to the society life have provided several discussions about the evaluation methods and environmental management, and the available means to minimize the effects of man s actions over the environment. Amongst these actions is the encouragement to the community participation in the process of carrying out the environmental programs, considering government and enterprises representatives or residents of certain places as social actors. Within these context, this paper had as a goal the investigation of the public participation in the environmental programs in areas that are susceptible to desertification, specificly in Parelhas/RN. The choice for this town was due to its insertion in an area considered as a desetification nucleous, which is, a region that suffers land degradation as a consequence of climate variations or human activities. Therefore, the research in question, of a descriptive and exploratory type, had as an instrument a structured questionnaire, applied to a sample of 223 people out of an 11,068 over 20 years of age residents population. The data have been tabled from Statistics for Windows Program and later interpreted based on the theoretical reference over the subject. As a result, corroborating to the literature of the area, it was found that the community participation in any type of action or debate about environmental questions is associated to the perception and knowledge about the problems. Although the people who were interviewed believe in the responsibility of the ceramic industry in causing environmental problems, they also believe that the benefits brought by the sector overcome such problems / A degrada??o dos recursos naturais e suas conseq??ncias para a vida da sociedade t?m gerado in?meras discuss?es a respeito dos m?todos de avalia??o e gest?o ambiental e dos meios dispon?veis para amenizar os efeitos das a??es do homem sobre o meio-ambiente. Entre essas a??es est? a de incentivar a participa??o da comunidade no processo de execu??o de programas ambientais, considerando representantes de governo e empresas ou moradores de determinadas localidades como atores sociais. Dentro desse contexto, este trabalho teve como objetivo a investiga??o da participa??o p?blica em programas ambientais voltados para as ?reas suscet?veis ? desertifica??o, especificamente em Parelhas/RN. A escolha deste munic?pio se deu em virtude da sua inser??o em ?rea denominada como n?cleo de desertifica??o, ou seja, regi?o com degrada??o de terras fruto de varia??es clim?ticas ou de atividades humanas. Sendo assim, a pesquisa em quest?o, do tipo descritivo e explorat?rio, teve como instrumento o question?rio do tipo estruturado, aplicado a uma amostra de 223 pessoas de uma popula??o de 11.068 habitantes acima de 20 anos de idade. Os dados foram tabulados a partir do Programa Statistics for Windows e posteriormente interpretados com base no referencial te?rico acerca do tema. Como resultado, corroborando com a literatura da ?rea, tem-se que a participa??o da comunidade em qualquer tipo de a??o ou debate a respeito de quest?es ambientais tem associa??o com percep??o e conhecimento acerca dos problemas. Apesar dos entrevistados acreditarem na responsabilidade das ind?strias de cer?mica em causar problemas ambientais, tamb?m acreditam que os benef?cios trazidos pelo setor superam tais problemas

A partir da Política Nacional de Meio Ambiente que instituiu a Avaliação de Impacto Ambiental e o Licenciamento Ambiental, e posteriormente, com os regulamentos das Resoluções CONAMA, a participação pública torna-se obrigatória na análise e tomada de decisão sobre a viabilidade ambiental de empreendimentos potencialmente poluidores ou de significativo impacto ambiental. O presente estudo problematiza o papel das Audiências Públicas no processo democrático de tomada de decisão, e como instrumento de proteção dos diferentes interesses envolvidos na construção de grandes empreendimentos de infraestrutura. O objetivo foi identificar e analisar os conflitos socioambientais evidenciados nas Audiências Públicas do projeto de ampliação do Porto de São Sebastião, localizado no litoral norte do Estado de São Paulo. Também buscou-se identificar os principais temas discutidos, os atores sociais envolvidos e a formação dos diferentes grupos de interesse. Utilizando o referencial teórico da ecologia política, pode-se definir a hipótese de que as Audiências Públicas não cumprem seu papel de proporcionar aos diversos segmentos sociais que atuam naquele território, com suas diferentes lógicas culturais, o acesso aos recursos naturais para a manutenção de seu modo de vida, e garantindo a sua sustentabilidade. A partir dos dados obtidos foi possível averiguar que embora as Audiências Públicas se configurem instrumentos democráticos, que se propõem ouvir as partes envolvidas, com seus anseios e preocupações, resultam apenas em um protocolo administrativo no processo de licenciamento ambiental, a serviço única e exclusivamente dos programas de desenvolvimento econômico em curso. Nesse sentido, se faz necessário repensar a instituição Audiência Pública, pois da forma como se evidencia, esta apenas legitima uma decisão já tomada a priori. Do contrário, cabe à sociedade civil organizada estar atenta e atuar de forma participativa, trazendo a si o protagonismo da história. Observou-se também que, para o caso do projeto de ampliação do porto de São Sebastião, os grupos em conflito se mostraram organizados, instruídos e capazes de ser articular politicamente para impedir, até o presente momento, que o processo de licenciamento ambiental seja conduzido sem observadas e legitimadas suas demandas. / After the Brazilian´s National Environmental Policy establishing the Environmental Impact Assessment and the Environmental Licensing, and later with the regulations of the CONAMA Resolutions\', public participation becomes mandatory in the analysis and decision-making on environmental viability of potentially polluting or significant environmental impact projects. This study discusses the role of public hearings in the democratic process of decision-making, and as an instrument of protection of the various interests involved in the construction of large infrastructure projects. The objective was to identify and analyze environmental conflicts evidenced in the hearings expansion project of the Public Port of San Sebastian, located on the northern coast of São Paulo. It also sought to identify the main topics discussed, the actors involved and the formation of different groups of interest. Using the theoretical framework of political ecology, one can define the hypothesis that public hearings do not fulfill their role of providing various social groups that operate in that territory with its different cultural logic, access to natural resources to maintain its way of life, and ensuring their sustainability. From the data obtained it was possible to ascertain that although public hearings to configure democratic instruments, that purport hear the parties involved, with their anxieties and concerns, results only in an administrative arrangement in the environmental licensing process, the only service exclusively of ongoing economic development programs. In this sense, it is necessary to rethink the institution Public Hearing because the way is evident, this only legitimizes a decision already taken a priori. Otherwise, it is up to civil society to be attentive and act in a participatory way, bringing them the role of history. It was also observed that, in the case of São Sebastião, the conflicting groups were organized, educated and able to be articulate politically to prevent, so far, that the licensing process is conducted without observed and legitimized their demands.

Abstract This thesis addresses the conceptual and institutional framework of current planning and assessment processes for large-scale energy projects in Finland. In particular, recent proposals for nuclear and hydro power projects are described and theoretically discussed in regard to the procedural capacities that allow for public participation. It is argued that because of ill-defined purposes of public participation and an institutional bias towards conflict-free siting processes, opportunities for participation have little relevance in terms of the overall aim of rendering decisions legitimate. Rather, participatory procedures exhibit a strong ritualistic character within a legalistic atmosphere, thereby excluding political argument whenever citizens are encouraged to engage. A normative account of the welfare society – expressed in Finland through the notion of the overall good in energy decision making – advocates reflection on current practices against the background of conceptualisation of political engagement in planning and decision making. In addition, it is argued that despite efforts to strengthen local government and administration, public institutions appear to refrain from engaging in the planning process. This vacant space is filled by private institutions, though these lack a political mandate for their activities. Thus, this thesis argues that instead of increasing the legitimacy of procedures and decisions, the opposite is taking place through a weakening of public institutions and representative functions. More generally, it is emphasised that the participatory imperative has to be considered a paradigmatic shift that requires reflection. The thesis discusses the influence of academic scholars on the formulation of a “participatory turn” that has produced an understanding of underlying expectations towards participating citizens in planning and assessment processes. Based on a review of theoretical outlines of reasonable and rational discourse, it is stated that these notions neglect important motivational factors and reinforce the exclusion of citizen participation in political struggle. / Tiivistelmä Tämä väitöskirja käsittelee laajojen energiahankkeiden nykyisten suunnittelu- ja arviointiprosessien käsitteellistä ja institutionaalista rakennetta. Erityisesti kuvataan ja tarkastellaan teoreettisesti viimeaikaisia ydin- ja vesivoimahanke-esityksiä suhteessa menettelytapojen kykyyn ottaa huomioon kansalaisten vaikutusmahdollisuudet. Osoitetaan, että epämääräisten julkisen osallistumisen tavoitteiden ja yksipuolisen sijoitusprosessien konfliktittomuutta suosivan institutionaalisen suhtautumisen vuoksi osallistumistilaisuuksilla on vain vähän merkitystä päätösten legitimoinnin tavoitteen kannalta. Legalistisen ilmapiirin vallitessa osallistavat menettelytavat näyttäytyvät pikemminkin luonteeltaan ritualistisina, ja tähän liittyen poliittiset argumentit jätetään huomiotta aina, kun kansalaisia rohkaistaan vaikuttamaan. Normatiivinen kuvaus hyvinvointiyhteiskunnasta – joka Suomessa ilmaistaan energiapäätöksenteossa yleisen hyvän käsityksen kautta – vaatii nykyisten käytäntöjen uudelleenarviointia suunnitteluun ja päätöksentekoon liittyvän poliittisen sitoutumisen käsitteellistämisen taustaa vasten. Lisäksi osoitetaan, että huolimatta yrityksistä vahvistaa paikallista hallintoa, julkiset instituutiot näyttävät olevan haluttomia sitoutumaan suunnitteluprosesseihin. Tämän vapaan tilan täyttävät yksityiset instituutiot, vaikka niiden toiminnalta puuttuu poliittinen mandaatti. Siten tämä väitöskirja esittää, että menettelytapojen ja päätösten legitimiteetin lisäämisen sijaan on julkisten instituutioiden ja edustuksellisten tehtävien heikkenemisen kautta käymässä päinvastoin. Yleisemmällä tasolla painotetaan, että osallistava imperatiivi täytyy ymmärtää paradigmaattiseksi muutokseksi, joka vaatii pohdiskelua. Väitöskirja käsittelee akateemisten tutkijoiden vaikutusta ”osallistavan käänteen” formulointiin, joka on vaikuttanut käsityksiin suunnittelu- ja arviointiprosesseihin osallistuvista kansalaisista. Järkevän ja rationaalisen diskurssin teoreettisten yhteenvetojen uudelleen tarkastelun perusteella todetaan, että nämä käsitykset jättävät huomiotta tärkeitä motivaatioon liittyviä tekijöitä ja vahvistavat kansalaisten osallistumisen sulkemista poliittisen taistelun ulkopuolelle.

Social networking sites (SNSs) nowadays serve as important platforms for users to engage in public affairs. This study applied the O-S-O-R model to examine the relationship between Facebook and public participation in science and the mediating role of users’ scientific knowledge and self-efficacy. Besides, this study examined the relationship mentioned above by utilizing data collected from two different populations - the general public and the users of the Facebook fan page “Pansci.com,” the biggest scientific online group in Taiwan. Based on a total sample size of 1,960, the result showed that scientific use of Facebook increased scientific knowledge only for “Pansci.com” users. Besides, scientific use of Facebook is positively associated with self-efficacy and public participation in science in both samples. It is noteworthy that the effect of scientific use of Facebook on self-efficacy is stronger for “Pansci.com” users but the effect of self-efficacy on public participation in science is stronger for general users. In addition, self-efficacy serves as a significant mediator in the relationship between scientific use of Facebook and public participation in science in both samples.