Deliberative governance in synergy with government

A case study of credible environmental improvements in the Dairy Gateway, USA

Bibliographic Data

ID9963614
AuthorsTamara Metze (0000-0002-6103-5958, Tilburg University, corresponding author), Tamara A P Metze (University of Tilburg, The Netherlands,)
Year2011
Volume77
Issue1
Pages31-49
Publication date2011-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueInternational Review of Administrative Sciences (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0020-8523 • E-ISSN: 1461-7226
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/0020852310390446
OpenAlexW2141961852
LanguageEN
Citations received5
References cited47

This article examines a case of deliberative governance in the Dairy Gateway Project in the Northeast of Wisconsin, USA. In this project government, academic researchers, farmers and environmental organizations built cooperative voluntary networks to improve the quality of water, air and soil. They introduced dialogue, learning and stewardship as alternatives to governmental ‘command and control’. At three types of meetings a broader group of participants deliberated about the interpretation of these concepts. The study of these interpretative struggles in the form of boundary work demonstrates that participants considered dialogue and learning in networks a credible new way to cooperate, and that in most cases they accepted farmers as stewards of the land. However, they all wanted government to audit this stewardship. Hence, deliberative governance emerged in synergy with government. Point for practitioners Reflective conversations about boundary concepts, for example ‘stewardship’, can help to overcome environmental conflicts. This concept aligns incompatible discourses. When boundary concepts are introduced, participants in networks of, for example, farmers, environmentalists and governmental actors are challenged to think about new solutions. Moreover, they are encouraged to rethink the role of government. Deliberative settings, in which facilitators pay special attention to the quality of the conversations, enable this rethinking. In these conversations adversarial actors can empathically disagree. As a result, participants start negotiating credible solutions and establish what role government has to have

Audit · Business · Corporate governance · Economics · Environmental governance · Environmental resource management · Environmental stewardship · Gateway (web page · Government (linguistics · Interpretation (philosophy · Political science · Public relations · Quality (philosophy · Stewardship (theology · Work (physics · Accounting · Computer Science · Engineering · Finance · Management and Organizational Studies · Organic Food and Agriculture · Public Administration · Public Policy and Administration Research

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