Public Participation in Environmental Assessment
and Risk Decision-Making:
Linking Process Design, Context, and Participants
Seth Tuler and Thomas Webler
Social and Environmental Research Institute
Leverett, MA
Summary: In risk and environmental management decisions that broadly
affect the public interest it is now widely accepted that members of the
public should be involved. What remains controversial, however, is how
best to design and carry out a public participation process that integrates
decision-making based on high quality information and meaningful involvement
of interested and affected parties. In some cases, simply providing opportunities
to comment at public hearings, to vote in referenda, or to participate
as a member of an interest group or a social movement satisfies needs
to participate. In other instances more elaborate forms of involvement
are necessary, including stakeholders' involvement in the design, conduct,
and evaluation of scientific studies. One thing that has become clear
is the need for better conceptual and theoretical understandings of public
participation. In this presentation we will discuss our work toward developing
a theory that accommodates the fact that different people have different
beliefs about what public participation should accomplish. We illustrate
the diversity of opinions about what is an appropriate process and how
they are shaped by a) preferences for outcomes, b) contextual variables,
and c) aspects of the participants in case studies of environmental and
risk management.
Biography: Seth Tuler received a Ph.D. in Risk Studies from Clark
University. Seth has considerable experience working in the areas of public
participation, risk communication, and hazard management. He is a Research
Fellow in the George Perkins Marsh Institute (Clark University, Worcester,
MA) and Education Project Director for the Community-Based Hazard Management
group there. As Education Project Director he is actively involved with
a variety of projects to facilitate environmental health education, training,
and public participation with community residents affected by US nuclear
weapons production and related facilities. He was a co-principal investigator
on a project on risks at National Parks. Seth is also a Principal Researcher
at the Social and Environmental Research Institute (Leverett, MA) where
he has conducted research on public participation in environmental planning
and risk communication for low-dose radiation risks; his presentation
will be based on that work.
The Role of Risk Assessors in Public Participation
Rob Goble
Research Professor
Clark University
Summary: It is a common experience: a risk assessor presents a
carefully prepared analysis that should be reassuring; yet the public
response is more worry and agitation rather than less. Why does this happen
over and over again? Is it useful for any of the parties involved? Can
experts and the public understand each other better? Can there be a lessening
of the tension through altered expectations for the participatory process
or through better understanding? Are there useful adaptations professional
risk assessors should make as they engage in public participatory processes?
We will explore these questions together based on a discussion of how
risk assessment has developed as a profession and on the practical experience
of risk assessors.
Biography: Rob Goble is Research Professor of Environmental Science
and Policy at Clark University and a Principal Researcher at the George
Perkins Marsh Institute of Clark. He has a Ph.D. in Physics, and has worked
and taught in the risk arena for 30 years. His current interests include
collaborative work with Dale Hattis on uncertainty and variability in
human responses to toxins, dose-response relationships at low doses, and
the age dependence of risks. He also studies highly uncertain risks, and
has assisted a number of community-advisory groups at hazardous sites
around the country, including some with environmental justice concerns.
He is currently co-president of the NE SRA.
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