ABSTRACT
Issues of management have been referred to previously as being at the very core of an EA process. In many respects it is management, in terms of the organization, the individuals and the specific mechanisms which defines an audit rather than the scope, procedures or other aspects of the ‘technical’ policy process. To put this another way, there is a distinction in auditing between the techniques of environmental management and the political process (in the widest sense of the word) of decision making and institutional change. The previous chapter has focused on the former, while hopefully also drawing attention to the overriding importance of the institutional aspects. This Chapter aims to build on the discussion of process by examining how EA can (or can be made to) fit within the structures of a local authority and how it can promote participative decision making and positive change.
