ABSTRACT
An evaluation process seeks to determine some aspect of the quality of an exercise. The GM Nation? public debate has generally been considered an example of an exercise in ‘public participation’. In practice, however, it was a broader programme of activity, including a number of distinct component parts, some of which may, indeed, be described as ‘participation’, though others might be better described as ‘elicitation’, ‘consultation’ or ‘communication’ processes (e.g. Fiorino, 1990). The collective term ‘engagement’ has been used to cover all such communication, consultation and participation processes (see e.g. Rowe and Frewer, 2005). The essential difference we draw between these modes of engagement is that in consultation exercises information is simply elicited from participants without any sponsor input, whereas in participation processes, information flows to and from both parties. It is important to draw this distinction because relevant effectiveness criteria will differ depending upon the fundamental type of process, and hence purpose of the engagement being considered.
