Evaluating stakeholder participation in the transition to sustainable development: methodology, case studies, policy implications

Based on a PhD thesis submitted to the University of East Anglia in 2000, this book addresses issues relating to stakeholder participation. It asks and attempts to answer critical questions such as does stakeholder participation live up to the high expectations raised about it in the literature? How can success be measured, and what are suitable criteria and indicators? Other key issues include the roles played by the primary stakeholders themselves and the structural factors that can support or impede stakeholder participation. The author presents an analysis of the intended and unintended outcomes of two community-based Future Search Conferences> These conferences were used to Launch the local 21 Agenda process, which is based on the sustainable development manifesto from the UN Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Jainero 1992. The book is structured around nine key headings: introduction; the future search conference as symptom and catalyst of the global transition to networks of governance; local stakeholder participation in theory and practice; origins and workings of the future search conference; methodology; evaluation of the future search conference in Rushmoor Borough CouncilÆs local agenda 21 process; Evaluation of the future search conference in Gemeinde OlchingÆs Local Agenda 21 process; discussion and conclusions.