Communicative Skills Development of Administrators: A Necessary Step for Implementing Participatory Policies in Natural Resource Management

Abstract

In 2007, the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) asked the authors to design and run a program for communicative skills development of Natural Resource Management (NRM) administrators and managers at SEPA and county administrative boards. This essay is based on our experiences with and reflections on the program. We first discuss basic assumptions about the situation of the administrators and their need for communicative skills development. Second, we provide a brief description of program implementation. Finally, we use our experiences to explore implications for a wider context of NRM. We conclude that initiating and supporting bottom-up processes within top-down structures is a delicate task that demands continuous training. Establishing professional learning teams at the administrators' places of work can facilitate continuous reflection and communicative competence development.

Keywords

Communicative Skills; Competence; Conflict; Public Participation; Sweden

Published in

Environmental Communication
2010, volume: 4, number: 2, pages: 225-236
Publisher: ROUTLEDGE JOURNALS, TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD

SLU Authors

• Westberg, Lotten

  • Department of Urban and Rural Development, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

• Hallgren, Lars

  • Department of Urban and Rural Development, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

UKÄ Subject classification

Environmental Sciences

Publication identifier

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/17524031003755309

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/48159