Critical theory and the role of citizen involvement in environmental decision making: A re-examination

Much of the administrative literature on public participation in environmental decision making assumes that citizen involvement contributes to reflexive deliberations, communication, effective representation, and consensus building in the public sphere. We will argue that for all the intuitive appeal of public participation, it may ironically limit the boundaries of possible change all under the normative guise of democracy and fair and open deliberations concerning environmental issues. In particular, we critically examine the citizen as a stakeholder as one mechanism that obscures as much as it reveals about public participation. To explore some of the implications of this critical approach, Jurgen Habermas and David Harvey’s ideas will be examined, who, from their own differing perspectives, contend that the forces of social conflict and change cannot be so easily contained under a public participative approach to environmental decision making.