Document Type
Journal Article
Department/Unit
Department of Geography
Title
Participatory governance for energy policy-making: A case study of the UK nuclear consultation in 2007
Language
English
Abstract
© 2014 Elsevier Ltd. The policy challenges associated with climate impacts, nuclear risks and an emergence of public preferences for fuel mixes have prompted many contemporary societies to adopt participatory approaches for managing energy matters. The extent to which and just how participatory approaches can work has however remained under-researched. This paper develops a normative framework for participatory governance to examine, analyse, and understand nuclear policy making processes and outcomes, with a particular reference to a case study of the UK nuclear consultation exercise in 2007. By comparing the actual consultation practice in the UK and our normative content-process-outcome framework, we found that the government approach paid insufficient attention to trust and some other normative values underpinning participatory governance, contributing to undesirable outcomes relating to policy legitimacy and public distrust. Ourfindings suggest that the UK government needs to pay more attention to the interaction that can occur between different rationales for participation and the processes and consequences of participatory exercises.
Keywords
Nuclear policy-making, Public participation, UK
Publication Date
2014
Source Publication Title
Energy Policy
Volume
74
Start Page
340
End Page
351
Publisher
Elsevier
DOI
10.1016/j.enpol.2014.08.002
Link to Publisher's Edition
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2014.08.002
ISSN (print)
03014215
Recommended Citation
Ngar-Yin Mah, Daphne, and Peter Hills. "Participatory governance for energy policy-making: A case study of the UK nuclear consultation in 2007." Energy Policy 74 (2014): 340-351.