10.4122/1.1000001062
Cashman, A.
A.
Cashman
Can we put the PUBLIC back into UTILITIES
DTU Library, Technical University of Denmark (DTU)
2005
Conference full text
Stakeholders
public participation
civil society
water management
service provision
Sheffield University Management School, Pennine Water Group
Pennine Water Group
Sheffield University Management School
2005
en
10.4122/1.1000001061
application/pdf
Since the later half of the 1990\342\200\231s there has been a growing concern to define the role and rights of the public vis-\303\240-vis access to and provision of water services. Implicated in this debate has been the question of the nature and extent of stakeholder involvement and public participation. The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between civil society and industry with respect to the management of water resources and services in the light of the re-representation of water as an economic good. In doing so it reconfigured the relationship between those that provided the service, its oversight and those that received the service, locating the relationships in the market and manifest through market relationships. However, there appears to be increasing importance attributed to participation but it is uncertain how far and in what forms public participation and civil society might reach into policy, management and practices. The paper examines some emerging examples of public participation and stakeholder involvement from Europe before considering the implications for water service providers.