This article examines some key similarities and differences between two leading perspectives on public participation: the natural resource management literature and deliberative democratic theory. We assert that contemporary deliberative democratic theory, as proposed by Habermas and others, provides important theoretical and applied insights that are often unexamined in the natural resource literature. Specifically, deliberative democratic theory maintains a focus on the value of public deliberation (dialogue and debate), attention to internal as well as external forms of exclusion, and constructive forms of distrust. The article demonstrates that a deliberative democratic perspective on public participation may serve to challenge some established traditions within the natural resource literature and lead to new ways of conducting and evaluating public participation.Scholarly and applied interest in public participation and natural resource management has proliferated in recent years. This has paralleled a broader wave of interest in situations where citizens come together and communicate with each other about matters of public concern. Fueled by increasing scientific complexity and uncertainty, along with a lack of social consensus about how natural resources should be managed, demand for and academic interest in public participation appear to be relentless. Writers have theorized and studied how ''deliberative spaces'' (defined as virtual and real sites where meaningful public dialogue and debate can occur) have emerged and how they play a crucial role in generating ideas and information that can improve knowledge, improve understanding, and enhance the quality of decisions.
The well-being of residents of resource dependent communities is a question of traditional interest to rural sociologists. The label ''resource dependent'' obscures how this relationship may vary between particular resource industries, regions, or indicators of well-being. Few analyses have compared the relationship between well-being and resource dependence across different industries, nor tested competing theories about the relationship between resource dependence and well-being. Our paper presents an overview of the relationship between resource dependenceagriculture, fisheries, mining, energy, forestry-and human well-being in Canada. Analysis of 1996 Statistics Canada data revealed a great deal of variation in the effect of ''resource'' dependence on indicators of well-being (e.g., human capital, unemployment, income): some industries exhibit fairly positive outcomes (e.g., agriculture), others more negative outcomes (e.g., fishing). Consistent with analyses conducted in the United States, these relationships vary by region, suggesting the need for models that incorporate the particulars of place and industry.
Much research attention regarding climate change has been focused on the macrophysical and, to a lesser extent, the macrosocial features of this phenomenon. An important step in mitigation and adaptation will be to examine the ways that climate change risks manifest themselves in particular social localities. Certain social groups may be at greater risk, not solely because of their geographic location in a region of high climate sensitivity but also because of economic, political, and cultural characteristics. Combining the insights of economics and sociology, we provide an ideal-type model of northern forest-based communities that suggests that these communities may represent a particularized social context in regard to climate change. Although scientific research indicates that northern forest ecosystems are among those regions at greatest risk to the impacts of climate change, the social dimensions of these communities indicate both a limited community capacity and a limited potential to perceive climate change as a salient risk issue that warrants action. Five features of forest-based communities describe this context in further detail: (i) the constraints on adaptability in rural, resource-dependent communities to respond to risk in a proactive manner, (ii) the national and international identification of deforestation as a central causal mechanism in the political arena, (iii) the nature of commercial forestry investment planning and management decision-making, (iv) the potential by members of these communities to underestimate the risk associated with climate change, and (v) the multiplicity of climate change risk factors in forest-based communities.
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