PARTCIPATORY THEORIES IN ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT
INTRODUCTION
Changing perceptions of the environment, shifting societal goals, and the emergence of the
concept of sustainability mean that today’s ‘environmental problem’ is a hydra of multiple
dimensions and perspectives. There are few simple problems and even fewer simple solutions.
Natural resource management in the age of sustainability is not characterized so much by
problems for which an answer must be found, but rather issues that need to be resolved, and will
inevitably require one or more of the parties to change their views.
The response to this is an increased interest in the application of ‘collaborative’ or multi-
stakeholder processes that facilitate the wide involvement of individuals, groups and
organizations in problem solving and decision making with respect to issues and plans that
involve or affect them. These processes also provide an acknowledgement that decisions related
to sound land use will be dependent on the coordinated actions of many land managers and
agencies, who in turn must act within the confines of a wider regulatory framework imposed by
the community at large. The key to their success is that the probability of commitment to and
adoption of, changed practices is likely to be higher because all stakeholders have designed the
solutions, and understand how to make them work.
Behaviourism
In behaviourism, learning is seen as the conditioning of human behavior through habit
formation. Behaviorists see people as ‘black boxes’ who act as rational self-maxi misers and can
be conditioned to behave in particular ways with the right use of rewards and/or punishments.
Behaviourism implies the dominance of the teacher, with learners characterized as essentially
passive. Knowledge and social reality are seen as external, value-free and objective.
Much of the work of behaviorists was done on animals, such as the well-known example of
Pavlov who trained dogs to salivate when a bell rang. He did this by ringing a bell every time he
fed them so that the dogs connected the bell with the arrival of food. Similarly, behaviorists
trained rats and pigeons by manipulating rewards (usually food) and punishment (often some
form of electric shock). These kinds of manipulations are useful for changing the behavior of
individuals. They are frequent and important parts of parenting, when adults train children to
behave in particular ways through the consistent use of either punishment or reward. They also
underlie policy mechanisms such as fines and incentives.
Cognitive approaches
Cognitive psychologists, in contrast to behaviorists, are more concerned with the processes and
structures inside people’s brains. They deal with perception, seeing the brain as continuously
categorizing inputs from experience and, in turn, interpreting experience in terms of the
, categories that are developing. This process is an ongoing one in which the patterns in our brains
are constantly affecting what we perceive, and what we perceive is constantly affecting the
patterns in our brains. In contrast to the behavioral perspective, the cognitive school focuses
more on the learner as an active participant in the teaching–learning process. Cognitive-based
teachers instruct students by using teaching strategies that help the learner acquire knowledge
more effectively. In the main, however, knowledge is still seen as external, value-free, and
objective.
An important influence in cognitivism was the work of Jean Piaget who observed that children
go through stages that appear to be linked to the maturity and development of the brain. A related
concept is the idea of styles of learning, in which individuals are seen to have different learning
styles and to be at different stages in a learning continuum.
Constructivism
Constructivism is an approach that has emerged within the cognitive school of thinking and it
underlies much work currently undertaken in the field of education and social psychology.
Constructivism adds the notion of ‘context’ and process to understanding behavior change. The
essence of constructivism is that people are active sense-makers who are continually assessing
their environment and acting according to the ways in which they interpret the situation. This
perspective highlights the fact that people may react to the same information in very different
ways. Importantly, constructivism sees learning as an internal process of interpretation, rather
than a process of knowledge transmission.
An individual’s behavior emerges from the sense that they have made of what is happening, their
ideas about what should happen, and what might happen if they change their behavior .
Individuals use a wide range of information to develop their understanding of a situation.
However, for them to engage with the information in the first place it must be both credible and
relevant. Credibility is not always to do with the scientific quality of the information. It is often
more to do with the qualities and credentials of the person from whom it comes. Thus, farmers
are more likely to listen to other farmers, or to people that they know well and whom they trust.
For people to regard each other as mutually credible, they have to feel some level of
understanding of the other person.
Humanism
This perspective is driven largely by liberal values. It tends to prescribe what should happen
rather than describing what does happen during the learning process. Humanists assert that
everyone has a natural desire to learn and that learners need to be empowered and to have control
over the learning process. This means that in an ideal world the teacher relinquishes a great deal
INTRODUCTION
Changing perceptions of the environment, shifting societal goals, and the emergence of the
concept of sustainability mean that today’s ‘environmental problem’ is a hydra of multiple
dimensions and perspectives. There are few simple problems and even fewer simple solutions.
Natural resource management in the age of sustainability is not characterized so much by
problems for which an answer must be found, but rather issues that need to be resolved, and will
inevitably require one or more of the parties to change their views.
The response to this is an increased interest in the application of ‘collaborative’ or multi-
stakeholder processes that facilitate the wide involvement of individuals, groups and
organizations in problem solving and decision making with respect to issues and plans that
involve or affect them. These processes also provide an acknowledgement that decisions related
to sound land use will be dependent on the coordinated actions of many land managers and
agencies, who in turn must act within the confines of a wider regulatory framework imposed by
the community at large. The key to their success is that the probability of commitment to and
adoption of, changed practices is likely to be higher because all stakeholders have designed the
solutions, and understand how to make them work.
Behaviourism
In behaviourism, learning is seen as the conditioning of human behavior through habit
formation. Behaviorists see people as ‘black boxes’ who act as rational self-maxi misers and can
be conditioned to behave in particular ways with the right use of rewards and/or punishments.
Behaviourism implies the dominance of the teacher, with learners characterized as essentially
passive. Knowledge and social reality are seen as external, value-free and objective.
Much of the work of behaviorists was done on animals, such as the well-known example of
Pavlov who trained dogs to salivate when a bell rang. He did this by ringing a bell every time he
fed them so that the dogs connected the bell with the arrival of food. Similarly, behaviorists
trained rats and pigeons by manipulating rewards (usually food) and punishment (often some
form of electric shock). These kinds of manipulations are useful for changing the behavior of
individuals. They are frequent and important parts of parenting, when adults train children to
behave in particular ways through the consistent use of either punishment or reward. They also
underlie policy mechanisms such as fines and incentives.
Cognitive approaches
Cognitive psychologists, in contrast to behaviorists, are more concerned with the processes and
structures inside people’s brains. They deal with perception, seeing the brain as continuously
categorizing inputs from experience and, in turn, interpreting experience in terms of the
, categories that are developing. This process is an ongoing one in which the patterns in our brains
are constantly affecting what we perceive, and what we perceive is constantly affecting the
patterns in our brains. In contrast to the behavioral perspective, the cognitive school focuses
more on the learner as an active participant in the teaching–learning process. Cognitive-based
teachers instruct students by using teaching strategies that help the learner acquire knowledge
more effectively. In the main, however, knowledge is still seen as external, value-free, and
objective.
An important influence in cognitivism was the work of Jean Piaget who observed that children
go through stages that appear to be linked to the maturity and development of the brain. A related
concept is the idea of styles of learning, in which individuals are seen to have different learning
styles and to be at different stages in a learning continuum.
Constructivism
Constructivism is an approach that has emerged within the cognitive school of thinking and it
underlies much work currently undertaken in the field of education and social psychology.
Constructivism adds the notion of ‘context’ and process to understanding behavior change. The
essence of constructivism is that people are active sense-makers who are continually assessing
their environment and acting according to the ways in which they interpret the situation. This
perspective highlights the fact that people may react to the same information in very different
ways. Importantly, constructivism sees learning as an internal process of interpretation, rather
than a process of knowledge transmission.
An individual’s behavior emerges from the sense that they have made of what is happening, their
ideas about what should happen, and what might happen if they change their behavior .
Individuals use a wide range of information to develop their understanding of a situation.
However, for them to engage with the information in the first place it must be both credible and
relevant. Credibility is not always to do with the scientific quality of the information. It is often
more to do with the qualities and credentials of the person from whom it comes. Thus, farmers
are more likely to listen to other farmers, or to people that they know well and whom they trust.
For people to regard each other as mutually credible, they have to feel some level of
understanding of the other person.
Humanism
This perspective is driven largely by liberal values. It tends to prescribe what should happen
rather than describing what does happen during the learning process. Humanists assert that
everyone has a natural desire to learn and that learners need to be empowered and to have control
over the learning process. This means that in an ideal world the teacher relinquishes a great deal
