Page 208 - Sustainability Communication Interdisciplinary Perspectives and Theoritical Foundations

16 Participation: Empowerment for Sustainable Development 191

(Brown 2004). These and other critical voices are without doubt important if we
are to avoid succumbing to naïve participation euphoria. However, in the discus-
sion about participation, what is important throughout is not to lose sight of exist-
ing social inequalities in power and resources, to reflect on the efficiency and
legitimation of participation in a representative democratic system and to make
allowance for the possibility of citizens being confronted with excessive demands
on their ability to contribute to sound decision-making.
In spite of this criticism it seems to be necessary, if we are to effectively deal with
the existing social and technological complexity found in pluralistic knowledge
societies, to institutionalise the expanded possibilities for participation (Heinrichs 2005).
Of particular importance in this discussion are the dialogic-based participation
methods that were conceptually developed, especially in the 1990s, and then put into
practice in a number of different countries.

Participation Methods

The newer participation methods are significantly different from other conven-
tional (elections, hearings) and unconventional (protests) possibilities in that they
aim at being dialogic, discursive and deliberative. This means that, first of all, they
should be structured, two-way communication and, secondly, conflicting argu-
ments and claims should be related to each other in order to achieve consensus
where there is dissensus and, thirdly, heterogeneous actors should develop solu-
tions together in consultative processes. Participation processes thus aim at a
systematic rationalisation of knowledge, value and interest pluralism in order to
enable a cooperative process of understanding. There have been a number of dif-
ferent participation processes used since the 1970s to deal with environmental,
technological and risk problems. According to Grunwald there are six central aspects
(Grunwald 2002: 128f.):
• broadening the basis of knowledge for decision-making (supplementing expert
specialist knowledge with local knowledge, experience and professional
knowledge)
• broadening the basis of common values to increase the social stability of decisions
• making available more information to enable citizens to make informed
judgements
• increasing social acceptance by including, and critically reflecting upon, a vari-
ety of claims and demands
• practicing conflict avoidance and management by using a cooperative search for
objective solutions that can be supported by all
• developing an orientation to the common good by using rational discourse strate-
gies to overcome particular interests of individuals
In contrast to the free political competition of opinions, to neo-corporatist
negotiations and to hierarchical control instruments such as laws, economical and