ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the theory available to practitioners to assist the analysis and suggest that it is inadequate from the perspective of those interested in promoting social justice. It explores how insights from participation, community development and policy literature can help make some tentative steps towards a more useful theory about public involvement. The requirement that theory should be empirically fitting is one which has always been required in science. The chapter describes the theories which are most commonly drawn upon in accounts of public involvement. The theories are applied to XYZ community group, and J. Forester’s criteria enable a critique to be generated. S. Arnstein’s original ladder clearly fulfils Forester’s requirement that theory should be ethically illuminating. Ethical illumination is achieved because the analysis enables such comparisons to take place. Specific participation processes can be compared through examining the “degree of danger” they pose.
