Partnering for the Environment: Multistakeholder Collaboration in a Changing World

Environmental policy domains are increasingly adopting strategies of cooperation over those of conflict. Decision-making processes founded upon collaboration and public participation are receiving more attention and favor and, in turn, engendering multistakeholder environmental partnerships. In his thoughtful analysis, Eric C. Poncelet seeks to illuminate the mechanics of these partnerships, especially at the level of social interaction. Drawing on ethnographic research performed with four case study partnerships in the European Union and the United States, Poncelet focuses on the diverging ways that stakeholders think, talk, and conventionally act with regard to the environmental issues at stake. Also explored are the roles of environmental partnerships as sites of personal transformation, where participants—and their perspectives, conceptualizations, and expectations—can and do change. Partnering for the Environment concludes by examining the broader implications of multistakeholder partnerships for the future of environmental decision-making and suggests ways by which these partnerships may be more effectively used and managed.