Procedural Justice and Public Involvement in Natural Resource Decision Making

Document Type

Article

Journal/Book Title

Society & Natural Resources

Publication Date

1997

Publisher

Taylor & Francis

Volume

10

Issue

6

First Page

577

Last Page

589

Abstract

The public involvement programs of natural resource agencies have been broadly criticized as unresponsive to public desires. Historically, improving natural resource decisions has been the primary conceptual basis for designing public participation programs. However, the social psychological field of procedural justice suggests a new conceptual basis for public involvement that recognizes the importance of procedures as well as outcomes. This theory is based on a balancing of the self-interest and group-value models of behavior. Issues that arise in the operationalization of this theory for natural resource decision making include (1) the impact on interest group, in addition to individual participants, (2) impacts on nonparticipants, (3) effects of historical mistrust, and (4) measures of procedural fairness.

Comments

Originally published by Taylor & Francis. Publisher's PDF available through remote link.

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