The paper seeks to engage with the interrelationships between the newly established Greater London Authority (GLA) as a form of devolved but diffuse city governance and new procedures for encouraging active public engagement in policy-making processes. The scope and conduct of new discursive spaces for engaging Londoners in the early stages of policy-making concerned with sustainable development are the focus of enquiry. The paper draws on published sources and a series of in-depth interviews conducted with officers, advisers and elected members of the GLA. Theories and practices of deliberative democracy provide the basis for assessing to what extent these experimental discursive spaces supported the pursuit of a collaborative approach to decision-making.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Alg (Association Of London Government) (1998 ) A Local Agenda 21 for London. London: ALG.
2.
Bedford, T., Clark, J. and Harrison, C. (2002) Limits to new public participation practices in local land use planning, Town Planning Review, 73, pp. 311-331.
3.
Bloomfield, D., COLLINS, K., FRY, C. and MUNTON, R. (2001) Deliberation and inclusion: vehicles for increasing trust in UK public governance?, Environment and PlanningC, 19, pp.501-513.
4.
Blowers, A. (2000) Ecological and political modernization: a challenge for planning, Town Planning Review, 7, pp. 371-393.
5.
Bogdanor, V. (1999) Devolution in the United Kingdom. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
6.
Clark, J., Stirling, A., Studd, K. and Burgess, J. (2001) Local Outreach. Technical Report SWCON 201, Environment Agency, Bristol.
7.
Davies, A. (2001) Hidden or hiding? Public perceptions of participation in the planning system, Town Planning Review, 72, pp. 193-216.
8.
Detr (Department Of The Environment, Transport And The Regions) (1998a) Modern Government: In Touch with the People. London: The Stationery Office.
9.
Detr (1998b) Guidance on Enhancing Public Participation in Local Government. London: The Stationery Office.
10.
Detr (1999a) A Better Quality of Life. A Strategy for Sustainable Development in the UK. Cm 4345. London: The Stationery Office.
11.
Detr (1999b) Modernizing Planning: A Progress Report. London: The Stationery Office:.
12.
Detr (1999c) Greater London Authority Act. London: The Stationery Office .
13.
Flyvbjerg, B. (1998) Rationality and Power. Chicago, IL: Chicago University Press.
14.
Garfunkel, A. (2000) NGOs, sustainable development and the Greater London Authority: an assessment of new Labour's new governance. MSc thesis, University College London.
15.
Giddens, A. (1998) The Third Way. Cambridge: Polity Press.
16.
Gla (Greater London Authority) (2002a) Connecting with London's Nature: The Mayor's Biodiversity Strategy . London: GLA.
17.
GLA (2002b) Listening to London: GLA Group Best Value Review. London : GLA.
18.
Healey, P. (1997) Collaborative Planning. Basingstoke : Macmillan Press.
19.
Healey, P. (2002) On creating the 'City' as a collective resource, UrbanStudies, 39, pp. 1777-1792.
20.
Jacobs, M. (Ed.) (1997) Greening the Millennium: The New Politics of the Environment. Oxford : Blackwell.
21.
Lda (London Development Agency) (2000) Draft Economic Development Strategy: A Draft Strategy Produced by the London Development Agency on behalf of the Mayor of London. London : London Development Agency.
22.
Leu (London Ecology Unit) (2000) Towards a Framework for Delivering Sustainable Development in London. London: GLA.
23.
London Assembly (2001) Review of Transport Strategy: Draft for Public Consultation. London: GLA.
24.
London Assembly (2002) Is the Mayor Listening ? Report of the London Assembly's Reaching Out Investigative Committee on the Mayor's Consultation with Londoners. London: GLA.
25.
Lowndes, V., Pratchett, L. and Stoker, G. (2001) Trends in public participation: Part 2: citizens' perspectives, Public Administration, 79, pp. 445-455.
26.
Maguire, S. (2000) The Greater London Authority and the London Boroughs: institutional arrangements for sustainable development. MSc thesis, University College London.
27.
Maloney, W., Jordan, G. and McLaughlin, A. (1994) Interest groups and public policy: the insider/outsider model revisited, Journal of Public Policy, 14(1), pp. 17-38.
28.
Munton, R. (2003 ) Deliberative democracy and environmental decision making, in: F. Berkout, M. Leach and I. Scoones (Eds) Negotiating Change: Advances in Environmental Social Science , pp. 109-136. Camberley: Edward Elgar.
29.
Odpm (Office Of The Deputy Prime Minister) ( 2002) Public Participation in Local Government. A Survey of Local Authorities. London: ODPM .
30.
O'Neill, J. (2001) Representing people, representing nature, representing the world, Environment and PlanningC, 19, pp. 483-500.
31.
Owens, S. and Cowell, R. (2002) Land and Limits. London: Routledge.
32.
Pimlott, B. and Rao, N. (2002) Governing London. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
33.
Ploger, J. (2001) Public participation and the art of governance , Environment and Planning B, 28, pp. 219-241.
34.
Rhodes, R. (2000) New Labour's Civil Service: summing up joining up, The Political Quarterly, 114, pp. 150-165.
35.
Rowe, G. and Frewer, L. (2000) Public participation methods: a framework for valuation , Science, Technology and Human Values, 25, pp. 3-29.
36.
Rydin, Y. and Pennington, M. (2000) Public participation and local environmental planning: the collective action problem and the potential of social capital, Local Environment, 5, pp. 153-169.
37.
Sanderson, I. (1999) Participation and democratic renewal: from 'instrumental' to 'communicative rationality', Policy and Politics, 27, pp. 325-341.
38.
Tewdwr-Jones, M. and Thomas, H. (1998) Collaborative action in local plan-making: planners' perceptions of "planning through debate", Environment and Planning B, 25, pp. 127-144.
