TY - JOUR

T1 - The environmental performance of participatory and collaborative governance

T2 - A framework of causal mechanisms

AU - Newig, Jens

AU - Challies, Edward

AU - Jager, Nicolas Wilhelm

AU - Kochskämper, Elisa

AU - Adzersen, Ana

N1 - Funding Information: We acknowledge funding through grant NE 1207/2–1 “ECOPAG” by the German Research Foundation (DFG) and through Starting Grant 263859 “EDGE” by the European Research Council (ERC). Publisher Copyright: © 2017 The Authors. Policy Studies Journal published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of Policy Studies Organization.

PY - 2018/5

Y1 - 2018/5

N2 - Many have advocated for collaborative governance and the participation of citizens and stakeholders on the basis that it can improve the environmental outcomes of public decision making, as compared to traditional, top-down decision making. Others, however, point to the potential negative effects of participation and collaboration on environmental outcomes. This article draws on several literatures to identify five clusters of causal mechanisms describing the relationship between participation and environmental outcomes. We distinguish (i) mechanisms that describe how participation impacts on the environmental standard of outputs, from (ii) mechanisms relating to the implementation of outputs. Three mechanism clusters focus on the role of representation of environmental concerns, participants' environmental knowledge, and dialogical interaction in decision making. Two further clusters elaborate on the role of acceptance, conflict resolution, and collaborative networks for the implementation of decisions. In addition to the mechanisms, linking independent with dependent variables, we identify the conditions under which participation may lead to better (or worse) environmental outcomes. This helps to resolve apparent contradictions in the literature. We conclude by outlining avenues for research that builds on this framework for analysis.

AB - Many have advocated for collaborative governance and the participation of citizens and stakeholders on the basis that it can improve the environmental outcomes of public decision making, as compared to traditional, top-down decision making. Others, however, point to the potential negative effects of participation and collaboration on environmental outcomes. This article draws on several literatures to identify five clusters of causal mechanisms describing the relationship between participation and environmental outcomes. We distinguish (i) mechanisms that describe how participation impacts on the environmental standard of outputs, from (ii) mechanisms relating to the implementation of outputs. Three mechanism clusters focus on the role of representation of environmental concerns, participants' environmental knowledge, and dialogical interaction in decision making. Two further clusters elaborate on the role of acceptance, conflict resolution, and collaborative networks for the implementation of decisions. In addition to the mechanisms, linking independent with dependent variables, we identify the conditions under which participation may lead to better (or worse) environmental outcomes. This helps to resolve apparent contradictions in the literature. We conclude by outlining avenues for research that builds on this framework for analysis.

KW - Politics

KW - effectiveness

KW - modes of governance

KW - stakeholder involvement

KW - deliberation

KW - causal hypotheses

KW - collective learning

KW - public policy

KW - Sustainability Science

KW - Environmental Governance

KW - environmental governance

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85047666199&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1111/psj.12209

DO - 10.1111/psj.12209

M3 - Journal articles

C2 - 30034065

VL - 46

SP - 269

EP - 297

JO - Policy Studies Journal

JF - Policy Studies Journal

SN - 0190-292X

IS - 2

ER -