A Critical Analysis of Communicative Rationality as a Theoretical Underpinning for Collaborative Approaches to Integrated Resource and Environmental Management

Abstract

Communicative planning theory is increasingly being advocated as procedural theory to underpin collaborative approaches to Integrated Resource and Environmental Management. Yet this is occurring without critical analysis of the theoretical foundations that underlie this theory. By critically analysing communicative planning theory, and its application to Integrated Resource and Environmental Management, this article describes the foundations of this approach to decision-making. In particular, the hypothesized benefits of communicative planning theory and the ways in which they are to be achieved are described and critiqued. This paper identifies four limitations of communicative planning theory when applied in natural resource management contexts. First, communicative planning theory fails to acknowledge and account for the influence that external forces have in shaping decisions and outcomes; second, it fails to adequately account for the role that power inequities play in shaping outcomes; third, it encourages socially constructed (rather than scientifically developed) decisions and outcomes; and finally, it provides no evidence to suggest that the decision-making process advanced in communicative planning theory results in better management of natural resources. In response to criticism, early proponents of communicative planning theory are beginning to revise previous assertions to temper the expectations arising around this theory. These recent developments have yet to be clearly discussed within the natural resource management literature. Findings of this paper indicate that caution should be exercised in the encouragement of communicative planning theory until the limitations of this concept are more fully understood and addressed.