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Postgraduate Student Profile

Clayton White: An operational theory of communicative action for citizen participation in catchment management

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Supervisors

• Professor John Fien Griffith University

CRCCH project links

• Project 8.2 - Public Participation and Community Change

Personal background

• BSc (Environmental Policy Studies; Science, Technology and Society)
• Master of Environmental Education (Hons)
• CRCCH PhD, Griffith University, Brisbane, Qld
• Interest in environmental education, environmental non-government organisations and grassroots community development

Anticipated research outcomes/products

• The improvement of decision-making processes in catchment management through the use of multi-way forms of communication.
• To develop an understanding of the rational for, and theoretical foundations, of citizen participation in democratic decision-making
• The characterisation of an 'ideal type' for citizen participation
• The synthesis of an operational theory for communicative action in citizen participation in catchment management, in light of the theoretical and conceptual frameworks informed and illuminated by practitioner and participant experience in the cases studies.

“Communication is an essential and important component of citizen participation programs, but the top-down approach that is often used does not allow individuals or groups to adequately input into environmental management decisions that directly affect them. My research seeks to understand communication in the participatory processes of catchment management to improve decision-making processes and environmental management outcomes, as well as increasing participants' satisfaction with such processes and outcomes. I aim to address the limitations of commonly-used models of communication in citizen participation programs for catchment management, and to learn from case studies of communication in catchment management so we can build on the strengths.”

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