Public Participation and the Environment:  Do We Know What Works?

This literature review of studies on public meetings, workshops, and community advisory committees discusses public participation based on empirical evidence. Public participation "success" is defined by researchers' criteria that are divided into two categories: (1) those that evaluate the success of the participatory process and (2) those that evaluate the success of the outcome of the process. We find the form of participationpublic meetings, workshops, or citizen advisory committeesdoes not determine process or outcome success. Therefore, attempts to develop a typology of public participation efforts may be problematic. However, we find some empirical support for practitioners' other widely accepted "rules of thumb".