Precaution, participation and sustainability

Preoccupations with issues of precaution and participation are two of the most important elements in current discussions of the terms ‘governance’ and ‘sustainable development’. They represent two of the principal forms in which the sustainability agenda might be seen most tangibly to have penetrated the ways in which society at large is governed. Recently, a series of pressing policy challenges surrounding the development of new science and technology have raised difficult questions about the role of precaution and participation in the governance of innovation. Surprisingly, however, there remains relatively little attention to the interlinkages between the issues of sustainability, precaution and participation. Academic and policy discussions alike remain largely segregated. It is in this regard that the work of Tim O'Riordan has – until recently – been rather unusual, in that he has tended to address all three topics in an integrated way and with equal vision and vigour (O'Riordan and Cameron, 1994; O'Riordan et al., 2000; O'Riordan, 2001; O'Riordan and Stoll-Kleemann, 2002).

This chapter seeks to build on his contributions by exploring some of the conceptual and policy implications of the links between these themes, while pointing towards possible future orientations. It begins by exploring some important general characteristics of ‘sustainability’ as a high-profile concept in contemporary governance discourses. In particular, it will be argued that there exist three quite distinct ways in which the concept of sustainability can be understood: substantively – as a set of publicly deliberated goals; normatively – as a social process; and instrumentally – as a means discursively to support and justify narrow sectional interests.