Exploring prospects of deliberation in intractable natural resource management conflicts

Abstract

Deliberative processes are increasingly advocated as means to handle intractable natural resource management (NRM) conflicts. Research shows that disputing actors can deliberate and achieve higher degrees of mutual understanding and working agreements under ideal conditions, but the transferability of these findings to realworld intractable NRM conflicts can be questioned. This paper explores the possibilities of designing and realizing deliberation and its expected outcomes in real-world NRM conflicts. We used recommended design principles to set up deliberative processes in two intractable mining conflicts involving indigenous peoples in Northern Sweden and assessed the actors' communication and outcomes using frame analysis.The results show that the recommended design principles are hard, but not impossible, to fully implement in intractable NRM conflicts. Both conflicts proved difficult to deliberate and resolve in the sense of reaching agreements. However, the findings suggest that deliberation, as well as meta-consensus, or structured disagreement, is possible to achieve in settings with favorable conditions, e.g. good and established inter-group relations prior to the conflict. In the absence of these conditions, where relations were hostile and shaped by historical and institutional injustices, deliberation was not achieved. In both cases, polarization among the participants remained, or increased, in spite of the deliberative activities. The study highlights the importance of understanding deliberation as embedded in place specific historical and institutional contexts which shape both process and outcomes in powerful ways. More efforts should focus on alternative, or complementary, ways to handle intractable NRM conflicts, including how contested experiences of history, institutions and Indigenous rights can be addressed.

Keywords

Natural resource management; Mining conflicts; Deliberation; Conflict management; Deliberative democracy; Frame analysis

Published in

Journal of Environmental Management
2022, volume: 315, article number: 115205

SLU Authors

• Johansson, Andreas

  • Luleå University of Technology

UKÄ Subject classification

Environmental Sciences
Political Science (Excluding Peace and Conflict Studies)

Publication identifier

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2022.115205

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/131187