Journal article

The persistence of 'normal' catchment management despite the participatory turn: Exploring the power effects of competing frames of reference

Brian R Cook, Mike Kesby, Ioan Fazey, Chris Spray

SOCIAL STUDIES OF SCIENCE | SAGE PUBLICATIONS LTD | Published : 2013

Abstract

Presented as a panacea for the problems of environmental management, 'participation' conceals competing frames of meaning. 'Ladders of participation' explain insufficiently why public engagement is often limited to consultation, even within so-called higher level partnerships. To explain how participation is shaped to produce more or less symmetric exchanges in processes of deliberation, this article distinguishes between (1) discourses/practices, (2) frames and (3) power effects. This article's empirical focus is the experience of participatory catchment organisations and their central but under-researched role in integrated catchment management. In addition to an analysis of policy stateme..

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Grants

Funding Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Scottish Funding Council, which financed Dr Cook's postdoctoral fellowship at UNESCO IHP-HELP Centre for Water Law, Policy, and Science, University of Dundee; by the Scottish Government and by the Scottish Universities Insight Institute, which funded our knowledge-exchange activities.