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Lookup NU author(s): Dr Paola Gazzola, Alessandro Bonifazi
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND).
Since its very inception in the late decades of the twentieth century, environmental assessment (EA) has been imbued with a complex interplay of power, knowledge and values. Despite instrumental rationality seemingly dominating current practices, actors are faced with growing relational complexity and seem to be slowly becoming increasingly mindful of political, social and cultural implications of EA. Within this context, this paper explores the role of statutory environmental consultees in strategic environmental assessment (SEA), by reflecting on issues of power among the different actors involved, the handling of values and the generation, use and exchange of knowledge in SEA processes. The authors adopted a framework for contemporary environmental governance to map actors’ strategies onto a conceptual space stretching along two directions: the polarization between confrontational and collaborative attitudes, and the tendency to underpin knowledge claims with factual evidence or subjective considerations. By dwelling on a case study concerning the SEA of a national programme to promote sustainable urban development in metropolitan areas in Italy, the use of objectivity to support either neutrality- or advocacy-oriented approaches is contrasted with the use of strategies where statutory consultees have shown more adaptive and confrontational behaviours – that hinge upon both political and scientific legitimacy – to pursue their particular organizational strategies agendas.Since its very inception in the late decades of the twentieth century, environmental assessment (EA) has been imbued with a complex interplay of power, knowledge and values. Despite instrumental rationality seemingly dominating current practices, actors are faced with growing relational complexity and seem to be slowly becoming increasingly mindful of political, social and cultural implications of EA. Within this context, this paper explores the role of statutory environmental consultees in strategic environmental assessment (SEA), by reflecting on issues of power among the different actors involved, the handling of values and the generation, use and exchange of knowledge in SEA processes. The authors adopted a framework for contemporary environmental governance to map actors’ strategies onto a conceptual space stretching along two directions: the polarization between confrontational and collaborative attitudes, and the tendency to underpin knowledge claims with factual evidence or subjective considerations. By dwelling on a case study concerning the SEA of a national programme to promote sustainable urban development in metropolitan areas in Italy, the use of objectivity to support either neutrality- or advocacy-oriented approaches is contrasted with the use of strategies where statutory consultees have shown more adaptive and confrontational behaviours – that hinge upon both political and scientific legitimacy – to pursue their particular organizational strategies agendas.
Author(s): Gazzola P, Bonifazi A, Rinaldi A
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Environmental Impact Assessment Review
Year: 2020
Volume: 83
Print publication date: 01/07/2020
Online publication date: 30/04/2020
Acceptance date: 15/04/2020
Date deposited: 15/04/2020
ISSN (print): 0195-9255
ISSN (electronic): 1873-6432
Publisher: Elsevier
URL: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eiar.2020.106405
DOI: 10.1016/j.eiar.2020.106405
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