Dissonant discourses: revealing South Africa's policy-to-praxis challenges in the governance of coastal risk and vulnerability

摘要

Despite South Africa's transition to democracy and policy vocabularies of co-governance, inclusivity and fairness in decision making that underpin both the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa and national coastal policy - the White Paper on Sustainable Coastal Development - these principles remain elusive in the day-to-day governance of coastal risk and vulnerability. A basic quantitative investigation into the representation of civil society on government-led 'collaborative' forums and the application of an Argumentative Discourse Analysis (ADA) reveals that a state-centric mode of governance dominates. This mode of governance is being stimulated and reinforced by isolationistic provisions contained within South Africa's principal coastal legislation and policy instrument: the Integrated Coastal Management Act (No. 36 of 2014 as amended). This mode of governance is, in return, amplifying coastal risk and vulnerability in South Africa more broadly.