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Consulting the powerful – Are the rules different?

Posted 13 years ago5 minute read

It is quite easy sometimes to imagine that all public or stakeholder consultations are dialogues between the usual bureaucracies and local communities. And it is equally easy to characterise these as an unequal contest between well-resourced organisations and enthusiastic amateurs; it is one of the reasons why some academics dismiss consultation as largely tokenistic, and why the Arnstein ladder once upon a time seemed to position consultation close to the bottom.

 

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Rhion Jones

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