Ensuring public participation in environmental decision making is advantageous to government officials and the general public. Technical assistance can make participation more effective by enabling citizens to understand complex technologies. This paper examines whether providing technical assistance has made a difference in New York City, where officials have funded consultants so that citizens can more effectively monitor the city's waste management and sludge disposal programs. While city-financed consultants have enabled citizen advisory groups to monitor environmental review and project design and to secure environmental improvements to proposed facilities, they have not helped to promote citizen acceptance of the technologies or their locations. The paper concludes with a brief discussion of alternative methods of providing technical assistance and suggests areas for further research.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Anderson, R. F.
(1986). Public participation in hazardous waste facility location decisions. Journal of Planning Literature, 1(2), 145-161.
2.
Arnstein, S. R.
(1969). A ladder of citizen participation. Journal of the American Institute of Planners, 35, 221-224.
3.
Aron, J. B.
(1979). Citizen participation at government expense. Public Administration Review (Sept./Oct.), 477-485.
4.
Benveniste, G.
(1972). The politics of expertise. San Francisco: Boyd and Fraser/Glendessary Publishing Company.
5.
Checkoway, B.
, & Van Til, J. (1978). What do we know about citizen participation? A selective review of the literature. In S. Langton (Ed.), Citizen participation in America. Lexington, MA: Lexington Books.
6.
Checkoway, B.
(1981). The politics of public hearings. The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 17(4), 566-582.
7.
Chess, C.
, Long, S. K., & Sandman, P. M. (1990). Making technical assistance grants work. New Jersey: Rutgers University.
8.
Citizens Advisory Committee for Resource Recovery in Brooklyn
. (1985). Statement of concerns and recommendations regarding the proposed Brooklyn Navy Yard resource recovery facility (mimeograph).
9.
Creighton, J. L.
(1981). The public involvement manual. Cambridge, MA.: Abt Books.
10.
Davidoff, P.
(1965). Advocacy and pluralism in planning. The Journal of the American Institute of Planners, 31(4), 544-555.
11.
Davis, C.
(1986). Public involvement in hazardous waste siting decisions. Polity, 19(2), 296-304.
12.
Department of Sanitation, City of New York
. (1985). Summary of Department of Sanitation responses to the "statement of concerns and recommendations regarding the proposed Brooklyn Navy Yard resource recovery facility... (mimeograph).
13.
Desai, U.
(1989). Public participation in environmental policy implementation: Case of the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act. The American Review of Public Administration, 19, 49-65.
14.
DeSario, J.
, & Langton, S. (Eds.). (1987). Citizen participation in public decision making. Contributions in Political Science No. 158. Greenwood Press.
15.
Ethridge, M. E.
(1980). Agency responses to citizen participation requirements: An analysis of the Tennessee experience. Midwest Review of Public Administration, 14(2), 95-104.
16.
Ethridge, M. E.
(1982). The policy impact of citizen participation procedures: A comparative state study. American Politics Quarterly, 10(4), 489-509.
17.
Fainstein, S. S.
, & Fainstein, N. I., (1985). Citizen participation in local government. In D. R. Judd (Ed.), Public policy across states and communities (pp. 223-238).
18.
Fiorino, D. J.
(1989). Environmental risk and democratic process: A critical review. Columbia Journal of Environmental Law, 14, 500-547.
19.
Goldstein, E.
, & Izeman, M. (1989). The New York environment book. Washington, DC: Island Press.
20.
Gormley, W. T.
(1983). The politics of public utility regulation. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press.
21.
Hadden, S. G.
(1981). Technical information for citizen participation. The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 17(4), 537-549.
22.
Hance, B. J.
, Chess, C., & Sandman, R. M. (1988). Improving dialogues with communities: A risk communication manual for government. New Brunswick: Rutgers University.
23.
Heiman, M.
(1990). From "not in my backyard" to "not in anybody's backyard!": Grassroots challenge to hazardous waste facility siting. Journal of the American Planning Association (summer), 359-361.
24.
Krimsky, S.
(1985). Beyond technocracy: New routes for citizen involvement in social risk assessment. In J. C. Petersen, Citizen participation in science policy. Amherst: The University of Massachusetts Press.
25.
Kweit, M. G.
, & Kweit, R. W. (1987). The politics of policy analysis: The role of citizen participation in analytic decision making. In J. DeSario & S. Langton, Citizen participation in public decision making. New York: Greenwood Press.
26.
Kweit, R. W.
, & Kweit, M. G. (1980). Bureaucratic decision-making: Impediments to citizen participation. Polity, 12, 647-666.
27.
Lake, R. W.
(1987). Resolving locational conflict. New Brunswick: Center for Urban Policy Research.
28.
Langton, S.
(1978). Current reflections on the state of the art.. In S. Langton (Ed.), Citizen participation in America. Lexington, MA: D.C. Heath and Company.
29.
Marris, R.
, & Rein, M. (1967). Dilemma of social reform. London: Atherton.
30.
Mazmanian, D.
, & Morell, D. (1989). The "NIMBY" syndrome: Facility siting and the failure of democratic discourse. In N. J. Vig & M.E. Kraft (Eds.), Environmental Policy in the 1990s: Toward a new agenda, Congressional Quarterly Press: Washington, DC.
31.
Mazmanian, D.
, & Neinaber, J. (1979). Can organizations change? Environmental protection, citizen participation and the Corps of Engineers. Washington, DC: The Brookings Institution.
32.
Morell, D.
, & Marjorian, C. (1982). Siting hazardous waste facilities: Local opposition and the myth of preemption. Cambridge: Ballinger.
33.
Nelkin, D.
(1975). The political impact of technical expertise. Social Studies of Science, 5, 189-205.
34.
Nelkin, D.
(1985). Science and technology policy and the democratic process. In J. C. Petersen, Citizen participation in science policy. Amherst: The University of Massachusetts Press.
35.
Nelkin, D.
, & Pollack, M. (1979). Public participation in technological decisions: Reality or grand illusion?Technology Review, 81, 55-64.
36.
Petersen, J. C.
(1985). Citizen participation in science policy. Amherst: The University of Massachusetts Press.
37.
Plumlee, J. P.
, Starling, J. D. & Kramer, K. W. (1985). Citizen participation in water quality planning: A case study of perceived failure. Administration and Society, 16(4), 455-473.
38.
Priscoli, J. D.
(1983). The citizen advisory group as an integrative tool in regional water resources planning. In G. A. Daneke, M. W. Garcia, & J. D. Priscoli (Eds.), Public involvement and social impact assessment. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
39.
Rosenbaum, W. A.
(1978). Public involvement as reform and ritual: The development of federal participation programs. In S. Langton (Ed.), Citizen participation in America. Lexington, MA: Lexington Books.
40.
Schultz, H. W.
(1989). Letter from Harvey W Schultz, commissioner of the NYC Department of Environmental Protection, to the Board of Estimate. May 3.
41.
Zander, A.
(1990). Effective social action by community groups. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
