The Dilemmas of Engagement

‘Consultation’ has become something of a mantra in contemporary governance. Governments well understand that policy occurs in a highly contestable environment in which there are multiple, and often competing interests. They well recognise the political imperative to ‘engage’ stakeholders in order to...

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Autor principal: Stewart, Jenny
Format: Online
Idioma:anglès
Publicat: ANU Press 2021
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Accés en línia:459074
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author Stewart, Jenny
author_browse Stewart, Jenny
author_facet Stewart, Jenny
author_sort Stewart, Jenny
collection Directory of Open Access Books
description ‘Consultation’ has become something of a mantra in contemporary governance. Governments well understand that policy occurs in a highly contestable environment in which there are multiple, and often competing interests. They well recognise the political imperative to ‘engage’ stakeholders in order to manage potential conflict and, hopefully, obtain acceptance for their policies and programs. As a result, politicians and public officials frequently emphasise the need for consultation as an essential element of the deliberative processes underpinning the development of policy or the implementation of programs and services. But, moving beyond the rhetoric of consultation and engagement, how well is it done? In this monograph, Professor Jenny Stewart maps out the principal approaches used by governments to consult with and engage affected communities of interest. Stewart critically assesses the available literature and draws directly upon the experiences of political actors, bureaucrats and community sector organisations in order to identify the ‘good, bad, and the ugly’ of engagement. Through a judicious use of selected case studies, Stewart distils the essential dilemmas and contradictions inherent in many consultation strategies and highlights their relative strengths and weaknesses. This monograph is a probing and dispassionate analysis of the rationales, methodologies and outcomes of consultation and engagement. It is not intended to be a ‘cookbook’ or a ‘how to’ manual for those consulting or the consulted. Nevertheless, there is much here for the policy practitioner, the researcher and members of those ‘communities of interest’ who might, one day, find themselves the target of engagement.
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spelling doab-20.500.12854ir-350832025-01-25T16:42:39Z The Dilemmas of Engagement Stewart, Jenny political planning political participation governance australia policy sciences Case study Civil service Decision-making Public administration thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JP Politics and government::JPA Political science and theory ‘Consultation’ has become something of a mantra in contemporary governance. Governments well understand that policy occurs in a highly contestable environment in which there are multiple, and often competing interests. They well recognise the political imperative to ‘engage’ stakeholders in order to manage potential conflict and, hopefully, obtain acceptance for their policies and programs. As a result, politicians and public officials frequently emphasise the need for consultation as an essential element of the deliberative processes underpinning the development of policy or the implementation of programs and services. But, moving beyond the rhetoric of consultation and engagement, how well is it done? In this monograph, Professor Jenny Stewart maps out the principal approaches used by governments to consult with and engage affected communities of interest. Stewart critically assesses the available literature and draws directly upon the experiences of political actors, bureaucrats and community sector organisations in order to identify the ‘good, bad, and the ugly’ of engagement. Through a judicious use of selected case studies, Stewart distils the essential dilemmas and contradictions inherent in many consultation strategies and highlights their relative strengths and weaknesses. This monograph is a probing and dispassionate analysis of the rationales, methodologies and outcomes of consultation and engagement. It is not intended to be a ‘cookbook’ or a ‘how to’ manual for those consulting or the consulted. Nevertheless, there is much here for the policy practitioner, the researcher and members of those ‘communities of interest’ who might, one day, find themselves the target of engagement. 2021-02-10T12:58:18Z 2013-11-07 00:00:00 2020-04-01T14:56:00Z 2009 book 459074 OCN: 351398727 http://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/33773 9781921536830 https://directory.doabooks.org/handle/20.500.12854/35083 eng open access image/jpeg image/jpeg image/jpeg image/jpeg image/jpeg n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/33773/1/459074.pdf https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/33773/1/459074.pdf https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/33773/1/459074.pdf https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/33773/1/459074.pdf https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/33773/1/459074.pdf ANU Press 10.26530/OAPEN_459074 10.26530/OAPEN_459074 975ba519-3ce2-4517-95bf-b847729fbcf1 9781921536830 85 Canberra open access
spellingShingle political planning
political participation
governance
australia
policy sciences
Case study
Civil service
Decision-making
Public administration
thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JP Politics and government::JPA Political science and theory
Stewart, Jenny
The Dilemmas of Engagement
title The Dilemmas of Engagement
title_full The Dilemmas of Engagement
title_fullStr The Dilemmas of Engagement
title_full_unstemmed The Dilemmas of Engagement
title_short The Dilemmas of Engagement
title_sort dilemmas of engagement
topic political planning
political participation
governance
australia
policy sciences
Case study
Civil service
Decision-making
Public administration
thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JP Politics and government::JPA Political science and theory
topic_facet political planning
political participation
governance
australia
policy sciences
Case study
Civil service
Decision-making
Public administration
thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JP Politics and government::JPA Political science and theory
url 459074
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