Workshops in Public Involvement: Do They Help Find Common Ground?

Abstract

A case study of public involvement in a controversial land-use plan indicated that participants who attended one or more Forest Service workshops failed to see themselves in any greater agreement with the agency than did participants who merely wrote letters or attended public meetings. Among each participant group (workshop attenders and non-attenders, perceived differences between the public and the agency were about twice as great as actual differences. This ratio of real to imagined differences is consistent with findings of two earlier studies where workshops were not part of the involvement technique. The failure to achieve more consensus suggests that the agency was seen as an adversary rather than as a mediator in the workshop process.