Abstract
The Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) process is shaped by power dynamics that challenge the balance of good governance and stakeholders’ roles and participation. SEA includes actors from civil society, private and public organizations, from local to national level, that might be classified as decision-makers, practitioners, intermediate decision-makers or specific stakeholders. Each group of actors has a role and responsibility in SEA. The establishment of power relations among different actors hinders decision-making. However, the implications of such power dynamics are unclear, as well as the extent of its impact on SEA outcomes. Moreover, it is known that the different objectives, resources and knowledge of the actors might be an obstacle in pursuing of SEA purposes. In this study, a document analysis of four SEA reports was conducted, to identify the SEA actors, their roles and input to the report. SEA reports were analyzed for the type of information used, sources of information, guidelines used, assessment topics, methods used in the assessment, and public participation outcomes and integration. The results were inconclusive in determining the structures and power relations within the case-studies, mostly due to the lack of information. Among the information lacking in some reports are the sources of data and other relevant metadata that would aid a better understanding of the role of data ownership in the outcome of SEA. More transparency is needed to understand better power relations and their impact on SEA (in)effectiveness. This work is funded by Portuguese national funds through FCT (Ref. 2022.05161.PTDC).
Presenters
Margarida PereiraPostdoctoral fellowship, Research Unit on Governance, Competitiveness and Public Policies (GOVCOPP), University of Aveiro, Portugal Alexandra Polido
Assistant Researcher, Research Unit on Governance, Competitiveness and Public Policies (GOVCOPP), Department of Social, Political and Territorial Sciences (DCSPT), University of Aveiro, University of Aveiro, Portugal
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
Education, Assessment and Policy
KEYWORDS
Power Dynamics, Strategic Environmental Assessment
