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This paper takes a new look at the importance of context - institutional and political - in effective public engagement processes. It does so through a rare comparative opportunity to examine the effectiveness of processes of public engagement in two UK waste authorities, where the same waste company was involved as both the primary contractor for the delivery of the waste management service (including new energy-from-waste facilities) and, furthermore, the same staff delivered the public engagement. Interrogating these cases affords the opportunity to place flesh on the bones of the sometimes 'abstract' skeleton of context. While engagement processes support effective local governance in an era of partnerships and deliberative democracy, the paper identifies that the methods adopted cannot be played out devoid of detailed understanding and response to local context, including the strength of partnership working between the public and private sector, the degree of political support for engagement, and the extent to which a traditional institutional paternalism still dominates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Learning that transcends participation processes is critical if public engagement is to translate into a legacy of enhanced environmental citizenship. However, a lack of empirical evidence has limited discussion to date to largely 'aspirational' claims. This paper offers the first rigorous examination of whether public participation does generate beyond-process social learning. Initially we review the literature on public participation and environmental citizenship to identify the key dimensions of social learning. We then re-visit a well-worked case study of an innovative public engagement process on the Hampshire waste strategy from the 1990s. Approximately one third of the original participants have been interviewed to identify whether and how the experience had a lasting effect on them. Key methodological difficulties are discussed, not least the analytical difficulties of attributing learning to a process that happened ten years previously. However, we argue that there is evidence that both instrumental and communicative learning have taken place, and conclude by identifying key areas that require further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental justice arguments focused on improving the quality of life of the poor contend that environmental ‘bads’ are more often located in areas of social disadvantage. In relation to waste facilities such claims of distributional outcomes have been enhanced by epidemiological analyses of apparent disease clusters in the vicinity. While politically engaging these arguments have been supported rarely by robust evidence. However, if repositioned in more structural issues related to the unequal societal distribution of power, resources and environmental burdens, they do prompt questions about the processes by which equitable decisions are made in a sustainable waste management context. The paper discusses the scientific and institutional barriers affecting the effective balancing of equity issues, arguing that while deliberative processes potentially challenge ‘expert black-boxing’ they also challenge current political and regulatory structures for waste management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite increased support for extended public engagement in risk decision-making, significant questions remain over the best means to integrated deliberative processes with conventional 'scientific' or technical elements. This paper analyses the barriers to analytic-deliberative processes as a means by which the public can influence risk decisions, including the generation of data and the derivation of acceptable policy options. Using evidence from waste management decision processes in Britain, the discussion identifies technical, institutional and cultural barriers to effective process. The barriers are seen to limit systematic analysis appropriate to the problems as framed by the public. The principle that the nature of the risks and the assessment required needs to be determined through discussion with the public not in advance of discussion with them is challenged by proceduralization cultures within decision authorities and ingrained technical cultural perspectives. It is evident also that fundamental barriers lie in fragmentary decision processes and weak regulation. The paper discusses the requirements for a decision-support framework for multicriteria decision-making with full public participation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public participation in decision making through the use of deliberative processes is now widely promoted as the means of enhancing institutional legitimacy, citizen influence and social responsibility and learning. Different methods are being tried but key questions remain about what works best and how practice could be improved. This paper discusses four examples of the application of community advisory committees and citizens' juries to waste strategy development by English local authorities. It evaluates the processes using criteria based on the concept of the fair and competent process, and identifies lessons for the optimum process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is recognition that trust is a significant basis for effective risk communication. However, there is still a need to understand not only the relative importance of different trust dimensions but also their basis and the components which are affecting the persuasiveness of messages in different decision contexts. This paper includes the results of a small survey of people in interest groups in the United Kingdom (UK) in terms of their views of different waste management information sources. It identifies that the extent to which expectations of the performance of different institutions are supported by observation appears to have a significant impact on trust. In this regard waste management regulators in the UK appear to have the potential to engender particularly low levels of trust. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses the findings of a study into the effectiveness of a more proactive community involvement program in the siting of waste facilities in Hampshire, England. Opportunities and barriers to public involvement in waste management strategy development; Consensus-building approaches.