Participation and Power: Civic Discourse in Environmental Policy Decisions.

• Author: Patrick, Amy M.

Participation and Power: Civic Discourse in Environmental Policy Decisions. By W. Michele Simmons. New York: SUNY Press, 2007; pp. ix + 204. $60.00 cloth; $21.95 paper.

When Congress created legislation requiring public participation in environmental policy decisions, the need for communication to citizens about risk and its assessment arose. Though it has been over forty years since Congress first passed such legislation, current practices often limit public participation to a cursory role. One of the goals of Simmons's research in risk communication is to improve the democratic participation process required by law and policy. Her work not only contributes to theories of risk communication, but also examines problems in the public sphere, highlighting practical implications for both pedagogy and community participation in environmental issues at the local and national levels.

As the cases Simmons examines reveal, there are many levels on which institutions and publics intersect and conflict in the policymaking process. Risk communication offers several models for explaining risk to citizens. However, as the author points out, these models are often "arhetorical-typically decontextualizing risks, failing to consider the knowledge local citizens can contribute, and striving to influence/educate citizens in order to bring their perceptions into conformity with scientific rationale" (1). To ensure more ethical and just risk communication practices, Simmons proposes ways to address and mediate that conflict. To do this, she examines risk communication in selected historical and contemporary environmental policy decisions. She is concerned with discovering what inhibits and what encourages significant public participation in order to develop a new rhetorical model of risk communication based on participatory design.

In Chapter One, Simmons explains that risk communication and its associated models developed in response to conflicts between experts' assessment of risk and the public's perception of it. These models were intended to facilitate public participation; in reality, they tend to be problematic, often hindering or even preventing true public involvement in policy decisions. The author argues that current practice, based on traditional risk communication models, fails to allow for true participation by citizens and is therefore both unethical and unjust.

Reviewing studies by other risk researchers, Simmons highlights the insights and...