Consultation as Science Communication?  The Case of Local Air Quality Management

Aims

• to investigate the nature, scope and effectiveness of local authority air quality management consultation approaches and thereby to contribute to the development of communication theory

• to develop a conceptual model of the communication process used by local authorities, identifying where the value-added parts of the process arise for statutory and non-statutory stakeholders and for the initiating local authority

Objectives

• to identify, audit and evaluate consultation strategies utilising a triangulation approach involving questionnaire and case study methods. This will include identification of one way (information), two way (consultation) and active involvement (participation) modes of consultation

• to categorise communication strategies by local authority administrative type, Government Office Region and Office of National Statistics 'family' type

• to develop a suite of recommendations for the development of research and practice in the field of communicating air quality information specifically and for environmental protection more generally

• to develop internet and paper-based case study resources for local authorities and their stakeholders to enhance the quality of the consultation and communication processes

• to make available a quality assured database of questionnaire and case study data as a resource for secondary research purposes