Facilitating Public Participation in Toxic Waste Management Through Engaging 'The Object of Politics'

This paper uses the experience of local community involvement in the disposal of the world's largest stockpile of toxic hexachlorobenzene waste, at Botany in Sydney, to refine insights regarding strategies for facilitating public participation in such challenging scientific and technological problems. Recent research focussed upon the politics of such issues is used to clarify a critical epistemological role for non-expert community stakeholders building upon an earlier analysis of this case study. This public input can help resolve issues that escape traditional political and/ or technical control by enhancing the participatory process and facilitating further attention to the contextual dimensions of planned outcomes. These are then couched in terms of a collectively agreed set of objectives whose integrative character is more conducive to effective outcomes than the traditional, narrower focus upon technical options.