Journal
WATER RESOURCES MANAGEMENT
Volume 33, Issue 12, Pages 4067-4085Publisher
SPRINGER
DOI: 10.1007/s11269-019-02316-6
Keywords
Values; Deliberation; Stakeholder participation; Water governance; Mutual understanding
Categories
Funding
- research programme Responsible Innovation - Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) [313-99-316]
- NWO [016-144-071]
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Stakeholder participation is a requirement for environmental decision-making in the European Union. Despite this, numerous instances can be seen in water governance in which stakeholders feel undervalued and unheard, thereby creating unfavourable procedural outcomes, resistance and conflict. In this article, we propose that a process of early-stage deliberation constructed around the values of the stakeholders involved can reduce, and even prevent such conflicts. We suggest that if values that stakeholders perceive as relevant can be identified and discussed as part of the deliberation process then (1) stakeholder preferences can change, and (2) participants can develop a mutual understanding of each other's values and perspectives. To explore these propositions, facilitated workshops were conducted at two Dutch water institutes, based around the topics of land subsidence and the pharmaceutical contamination of water systems. Participants deliberated on values that they considered relevant. The results suggest that mutual understanding of stakeholders' perspectives increases as a result of value-based deliberation.
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