LIST OF PANELS

The pursuit of sustainability has thus been largely dominated by demands for scientific expertise and economic-oriented policy solutions. As a result, this global challenge is framed and interpreted mainly as a technical problem to be addressed through elite discourses, neoliberal market instruments, and professional expertise.

This has largely taken place at the expense of democratic environmental policymaking and citizen involvement, despite the fact that from early on the sustainability literature and key documents have presented broad citizens participation as an essential component for achieving sustainable goals. Underlying this reluctance to involve ordinary citizens, however, is the belief, often more latent than manifest, that the citizenry is not up to the task (Shearman and Smith 2007). Citizens are not intelligent and rational enough to be trusted with the challenge. But there is good evidence that citizens can help to put us on a path to sustainability. Indeed, the goal of this volume is to present a representation of deliberative participatory projects, both inside and outside governance processes that serve to demonstrate this point. Most are not well known, but they are impressive models for helping to bring about an environmentally sustainable societal system. The objective of this panel is to not only make them known, but to draw out the lessons they offer for governing a democratically just sustainable future.

We ask here why there been such limited citizen participation in environmental policy politics given its importance? Among a myriad of explanations, one is the failure to actively engage the general citizenry. This represents a retreat form the earlier environment movement, which started as a citizens movement (Dobson, 2003). Although the modern environmentalism started in the 1960s with street protests by concerned citizens, and the formation of grass-roots environmental organizations, the focus in the subsequent decades saw a shift from citizens to an emphasis on science and technical information, giving rise to a more technocratic approach to policymaking (Baker, 2022). Despite the fact that the landmark documents spelling out sustainability called for citizen engagement, environmental governance moved from public arenas for political protest to the administrative technical realm of science and policy expertise (Luke, 1999).

Nonetheless, numerous environmental academics and activists still maintain that democracy has to be an important part of environmental policy and governance (Fischer 2000). More than a few even see participatory democracy involving an active citizenry as an essential part of the challenge. Some even formulate this in terms of the concept of “environmental” or ecological democracy,” referring to the idea or principle that citizens should have equal rights to meaningfully participate in environmental decisions that affect their lives (Mason, 1999; Morrison, 1995).

Against this backdrop, we seek a new interpretation of sustainability. Rather than treating it as a purely technical issue, sustainability can be understood as part of a broader civic struggle to shape and influence environmental policymaking. From civic environmentalism to social movements and beyond, empowered citizens are capable of engaging meaningfully in democratic policy deliberation in pursuit of sustainable futures.

Fung, A. and Wright, E.O., (2003). Deep democracy: Institutional innovations in empowered participatory governance. New York: Verso Publisher.

Klein, N. (2014). This changes everything: Capitalism vs. the climate. New York: Simon and Schuster.

Luke, T. W. (1999). “Eco-Managerialism: Environmental Studies as a Power/Knowledge Formation,” in F. Fischer and M. Hajer (eds.), Living with Nature: Environmental Politics as Cultural Discourse. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 103–20.

Morrison, R. (1995). Ecological Democracy. Boston, MA: South End Press. Mason, M. (1999). Environmental Democracy. London: Earthscan.

Rist, S., Chidambaranathan, M., Escobar, C., Wiesmann, U., Zimmermann, N. (2007). “Moving from sustainable management to sustainable governance of natural resources: The role of social learning processes in rural India, Bolivia and Mali.” Journal of Rural Studies 23 (1): 23-37.

Shearman, D. and Smith, J. W. (2007). The Climate Change Challenge and the Failure of Democracy. Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing

United Nation. (2021). The 5Ps of the Sustainable Development Goals. Retrieved from: https:// www. unescwa. org /sites/ default/ files/inline-files/ the_ 5 ps_of_the_sustainable_ development_goals.pdf

World Commission on Environment and Development (1987). Our Common Future. Retrieved from: http://www.un-documents.net/wced ocf.htm

This panel will explore real-world practices that illustrate how citizens can help to put society on a path toward sustainability. We invite papers that draw lessons from a wide range of deliberative and participatory initiatives, both within and beyond formal governance processes, demonstrating the central role of empowered citizens in advancing sustainable transformation. We welcome contributions from across the globe, vital challenge. These could focus on climate assemblies, consensus conferences, participatory budgeting, citizens park conservancies, biodiversity protection projects, public transformation planning, community-based research, citizen science, local knowledge, peoples’ planning, participatory governance practices, ecovillages, environmental movements, as well as other possibilities.