Effects of the intermediate organization in public participation: A case study of TIIWE in Dongshi, Chiayi
Date Issued
2014
Date
2014
Author(s)
Hsiao, Hui-Tsen
Abstract
What would happen when the initiator of public participation (PP) is not grass-roots but official agents? In 2010-2011, Water Resources Agency(水利署) of Taiwan government spent $4,450,000 NTD in public participation which embedded in an official project, Coastal Subsided Restoration program, in Dongshi, Chiayi(嘉義東石). Taiwan International Institution of Water Education (TIIWE), whom a water engineering professional organization, was appointed for conducting the public participation. This article is to figure out if the public could enter early stages of decision making when an intermediate organization between government and grass-root exists, and try to identify the top-down partial in the public participation.
The purposes of methods used in my research were to rebuild the scene of the public participation, and trace the effect of the public participation. Without chances to observing the public participation in Dongshi, Chiayi, I collected information by interviewing from the following four groups with different purposes and interviewing outlines: (1) staffs in TIIWE that responsible for PP in Dongshi; (2) staffs in TIIWE working in Dongshi but not doing PP; (3) locals that was invited to attend activities of the PP; (4) others that helping TIIWE conduct PP; and (5) locals collaborate with TIIWE but not attend PP. Group 3 and 4 were selected from an appendix of TIIWE’s official report called Establishment and Assessment of Strategies for Public Participation and Empowerment in Coastal Subsided Restoration Program (沿海地層下陷區國土復育工程公眾參與及培力深耕策略研擬). I also used the appendix to analyze the emphasis had been put and identify what kind of information had been revealed and discussed by TIIWE in the public participation.
The public participation in Dongshi was top-down in two aspect: (1) rather than involving locals as co-workers in the public participation and the government project,, TIIWE considered locals as simply reporters of local problem and experience in a passive way; (2) In official project forming process, locals was revealed limited information and with a little feedback about locals’ opinion and experience in the official program. Furthermore, without deeper discussion about the influences in Coastal Subsided Restoration program, grass-roots did not even find a point to involve in official program forming process. The two aspects mentioned above also indicated that the public remained difficult to enter into early stage of government decision making process in this case.
Subjects
民眾參與
國土復育
中介組織
TIIWE
東石
Type
thesis
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