At the recent ICEM05 conference, Mike Egan presented a paper elaborating upon a participatory methodology to pursue the objective of studying and defining mechanisms for local actors to 'stretch' national players in decision making for radioactive waste management.
This paper describes work in progress for one of four work packages constituting the COWAM 2 European 6ᵗʰ Framework research project, which runs from January 2004 to the end of 2006. The work encompasses three consecutive tasks:
- Focusing on local-national relations through the study of specific current situations in France, Spain and the UK;
- Working out possible mechanisms for an effective local influence on national decision processes;
- Reflecting upon the balance of power in local-national relationships.
The project is working within a framework set by stakeholders, who have defined the case studies in progress and established success criteria for the work. This has been accomplished in part through workshops in which more than 20 stakeholder representatives, constituted as a 'reference group', have been involved. The same collaborative approach will continue throughout the project.
Raul Espejo, Michael Egan, Gilles Heriard-Dubreuil and Mariano Vila d'Abadal. Radioactive Waste Management: A Participatory Approach to Increase the Influence of Local Actors on the National Decision-Making Process. 10ᵗʰ International Conference on Environmental Remediation and Radioactive Waste Management, ICEM05, Glasgow, September 2005, Paper 131