Alexander, M orcid.org/0000-0003-3147-085X, Doorn, N and Priest, S (2018) Bridging the legitimacy gap – translating theory into practical signposts for legitimate flood risk governance. Regional Environmental Change, 18 (2). pp. 397-408. ISSN 1436-3798
Abstract
Legitimacy is widely regarded as a founding principle of ‘good’ and effective governance, yet despite intense academic debate and policy discourse, the concept remains conceptually confusing and poorly articulated in practice. To bridge this gap, this research performed an interpretive thematic analysis of academic scholarship across public administration, public policy, law, political science and geography. Three core themes were identified in relation to representative deliberation, procedural and distributive equity and justice, and socio-political acceptability, with numerous sub-themes therein. In an attempt to clarify conceptual confusion, this paper grounds these theoretical debates in the context of flood risk governance where numerous legitimacy dilemmas exist. A number of questions are presented as conceptual ‘sign posts’ to encourage reflexive governance in the future. Thus, more broadly, we assert the importance of bringing legitimacy to the forefront of contemporary flood risk governance discourse and practice, moving beyond the realm of academic reflection.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © The Author(s) 2017. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. |
Keywords: | Flood risk governance; Legitimacy; Justice; Equity; Participation; Representative deliberation |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Environment (Leeds) > School of Earth and Environment (Leeds) > Sustainability Research Institute (SRI) (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 23 Jun 2017 09:05 |
Last Modified: | 23 Jun 2023 22:31 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Springer Verlag |
Identification Number: | 10.1007/s10113-017-1195-4 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:118173 |