The “Rules of Engagement”: A Socio-legal Framework for Improving Community Engagement in Natural Resource Governance

Authors

  • Tanya Howard Australian Centre for Agriculture and Law, University of New England

Keywords:

Community engagement, public policy, socio-legal frameworks, natural resource governance, Implicación comunitaria, política pública, marco sociojurídico, gobierno de los recursos naturales

Abstract

Increasing community action in natural resource governance is commonly seen as a pathway for improving decision making, enabling increased on-ground activity and facilitating widespread acceptance of government and industry legitimacy in managing natural resources. Other perspectives on community engagement see the promise of enriching existing or emerging democratic values by addressing the limitations of representative governance. While the practice of community engagement has been well described, more work needs to be done to understand the institutional factors that contribute to the expectations attached to these practices, and how the role of community in natural resource governance can be improved.

This article presents findings from a review of academic and practitioner literature on the topics of community engagement and natural resource governance. 127 articles were reviewed and the resulting conceptual framework is described. A thematic analysis of the data-set was then conducted to further clarify and extend the research question. The results reveal a persistent focus on practical aspects of engaging community, without sufficient analysis of how institutional dynamics such as legal requirements, policy drivers and implementation contexts impact on the realities of community environmental governance. The paper concludes with future research directions in the pursuit of improving the role of community in natural resource governance. It is expected that the insights generated through this article will have relevance to other modern democratic societies and be of interest to environmental lawyers, policy makers and community advocates.

El aumento de la acción comunitaria en la gobernanza de los recursos naturales habitualmente se percibe como una vía para mejorar la toma de decisiones ya que permite aumentar la actividad sobre el terreno, y facilita la aceptación generalizada de la legitimidad del gobierno y la industria a la hora de gestionar los recursos naturales. Otras perspectivas de la implicación de la comunidad perciben la promesa de enriquecimiento que existe en los valores democráticos emergentes, abordando las limitaciones del gobierno representativo. Mientras que se ha descrito de forma correcta la práctica de la participación comunitaria, aún queda trabajo por delante para comprender los factures institucionales que contribuyen a las expectativas unidas a estas prácticas, y cómo mejorar el papel de la comunidad en la gestión de los recursos naturales.

Este artículo presenta los resultados de una revisión de la literatura académica y profesional sobre estos temas: participación comunitaria y gobierno de los recursos naturales. Tras revisar 127 artículos, se describió el marco conceptual resultante. A continuación, se realizó un análisis temático del conjunto de datos para aclarar y ampliar el tema de investigación. Los resultados revelan un foco persistente en los aspectos prácticos de la comunidad cooperante, sin ofrecer un análisis suficiente de cómo las dinámicas institucionales, como los requisitos legales, los impulsores de políticas y los contextos de implementación impactan en las realidades del gobierno medioambiental de forma comunitaria.

DOWNLOAD THIS PAPER FROM SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2553768

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Author Biography

Tanya Howard, Australian Centre for Agriculture and Law, University of New England

Tanya Howard is a doctoral candidate at the Australian Centre for Agriculture and Law at the University of New England, Australia. Tanya's research uses socio-legal methods to explore how community voices are brought into decision- making in environmental governance, and is sponsored by the Cotton Research and Development Corporation. Previously Tanya has worked at the interface between governance and community, employed by a range of non-government and government organisations to deliver environmental education, advocacy and community engagement outcomes. Tanya was born in Sydney, Australia and gained a BA at the University of New South Wales and a Masters of Environmental Education at Macquarie University. Centre for Agriculture and Law. University of New England. Armidale, NSW, 2351 Australia. thoward8@myune.edu.au

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Published

09-12-2014

How to Cite

Howard, T. (2014) “The ‘Rules of Engagement’: A Socio-legal Framework for Improving Community Engagement in Natural Resource Governance”, Oñati Socio-Legal Series, 5(5), pp. 1209–1235. Available at: https://opo.iisj.net/index.php/osls/article/view/346 (Accessed: 28 March 2024).