Political participation and eco-social policies

Public participation – i.e. the involvement of citizens and stakeholders in public decision-making that are usually not part of these processes – is a prominent topic throughout environmental and social policies, and in the nexus between these. While some emphasize the positive potentials of public participation to improve environmental outcomes and foster social justice, others point to the inherent downsides and negative effects. In this line, the eco-social literature recognizes participation as an important means for fostering stakeholders’ capacity building and empowerment, which may lead to the promotion of a more sustainable environment, society and economy, and as crucial factor for the co-production of public services. Yet, despite strong emphasis on the positive potential of public participation, the actual analysis of the mechanisms through which public participation may influence eco-social policy processes and their outcomes remains limited within the emerging eco-social policy scholarship. Drawing on various streams of literature (e.g. collaborative and environmental governance, social policy, transformation studies), this chapter aims to address this research gap by providing an overview of these mechanisms. After defining and conceptualizing public participation according to its three main dimensions (breadth of involvement, modes of intensity of communication and deciding, power delegated to participants), we specify distinct causal pathways through which public participation affects the substance of policy outputs, as well as their implementation and societal implications. While many studies focus on either social or ecological effects, we will pay specific attention to the trade-offs between ecological and social concerns and the ways in which these may be balanced or aggravated by different forms of public participation. In this way, the chapter will offer first comprehensive insight on the potential mechanisms at play and the role of public participation in eco-social policies and will conclude with a research agenda to further expand and deepen these.