Decisions, dilemmas and deliberation: exploring the legitimacy of the organisation and design of a stakeholder workshop in an environmental research project

摘要

This paper explores the legitimacy of the organisation and the design of a stakeholder workshop undertaken as part of an interdisciplinary academic project researching the redevelopment of urban river corridors. Beetham's [1991. The legitimation of power. Basingstoke: Macmillan] conceptual framework of legitimacy is adopted as the lens through which the workshop's organisation and design is viewed and through this a critique of Beetham's framework is developed. The organisation and design of the workshop was legitimate insofar as it conformed to established rules, that these rules were justifiable and there was consent from members of the research project. However, an appreciation of context and different, sometimes conflicting, meanings of legitimacy found among members of the project only partially acknowledged in Beetham's framework is integral to a deeper understanding of the legitimacy of the workshop's organisation and design.