Citizen participation for integrated assessment: new pathways in complex systems

Citizen or community participation is a guiding principle for environmental decision-making, but in practice it is often compromised and contradictory . Two themes in participation can be defined. One is in the 'product' or ou tcome of decision-making, and aims for more effective and appropriate evalu ations and decisions. The other is participation in the 'process', where de volved decision-making itself can serve wider social and economic goals. Al though both strands are crucial for the practice of 'integrated assessment' in environmental governance, a clearer view is needed of the scope and lim its of such participation. This paper explores such scope and limits by app lying a conceptual 'integrated assessment' framework. This is drawn from a major case study on sustainable development for a city-region in the north of the UK. Such a framework helps to identify the many roles of citizen par ticipation from a complex systems perspective. Selected examples of current practice highlight the problems and opportunities for citizen participatio n in environmental governance.