Democracy underwater: public participation, technical expertise, and climate infrastructure planning in New York City
Open accessAbstract
This article provides an explanation for how increased public participation can paradoxically translate into limited democratic decision-making in urban settings. Recent sociological research shows how governments can control participatory forums to restrict the distribution of resources to poor neighborhoods or to advance private land development interests. Yet such explanations cannot account for the decoupling of participation from democratic decision-making in the case of planning for climate change, which expands the substantive topics and public funding decisions that involve urban residents. Through an in-depth case study of one of the largest coastal protection projects in the world and drawing on global scholarship on participation, this article narrates the social production of resistance to climate change infrastructure by showing how the state sidestepped public input and exercised authority through appeals to the rationality of technical expertise. After a lengthy participation process wherein participants reported satisfaction with how their input was included in designs, city officials switched decision-making styles and used expertise from engineers to render the publicly-supported plan unfeasible, while continuing to involve residents in the process. As a result, conflict arose between activists and public housing representatives, bitterly dividing the neighborhood over who could legitimately claim to represent the interests of the "frontline community." By documenting the experience of participants in the process before and after the switch in decision-making styles, this article advances a sociological description of public influence in policy: The ability for participants in a planning process to recognize their own input reflected in finished plans.
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Nearly every participant in the participatory planning process deemed the city's plan change undermined the project's legitimacy.
“Nearly every participant in the process deemed the city's plan change undermined the project's legitimacy (Araos 2021).”
From Design for Climate Change in the Neoliberal Present: Gentrification, Ecocide, and the Loss of Urbanity in New York City (2022) · cites this paper as Araos 2021
The “Legitimacy crisis: participation without influence” section (page unavailable) says the plan change damaged the project’s legitimacy in the public’s view. But the paper describes a divide between residents who valued the revised plan and those who rejected it; it does not support the claim that nearly every participant deemed the project illegitimate. (LLM, conf=0.88)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredCouncilwoman Carlina Rivera and Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer both withdrew their support for the plan for the first few months.
“Additionally, the councilwoman representing Community District 3, Carlina Rivera, and Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer both withdrew their support for the plan for the first few months (Araos 2021).”
From Design for Climate Change in the Neoliberal Present: Gentrification, Ecocide, and the Loss of Urbanity in New York City (2022) · cites this paper as Araos 2021
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
The citation lists haven’t been fetched yet
References 108 · Cited by 64
Research works printed but not linked: 65
- Agyeman, J., Schlosberg, D., Craven, L., & Matthews, C. (2016). Trends and directions in environmental justice: From inequity to everyday life, community, and just sustainabilities. Annual Review of Environment and Resources, 41.
- Anguelovski I Shi L Chu E Gallagher D Goh K Lamb Z Equity impacts of urban land use planning for climate adaptation: Critical perspectives from the global north and south Journal of Planning Education and Research 2016 36 3 333 348 10.1177/0739456X16645166 · DOI
- Araos M Berrang-Ford L Ford JD Austin SE Biesbroek R Lesnikowski A Climate change adaptation planning in large cities: A systematic global assessment Environmental Science & Policy 2016 66 375 382 10.1016/j.envsci.2016.06.009 · DOI
- Arnstein SR A ladder of citizen participation Journal of the American Institute of Planners 1969 35 4 216 224 10.1080/01944366908977225 · DOI · Paper page
- Auyero J Swistun D The social production of toxic uncertainty American Sociological Review 2008 73 3 357 379 10.1177/000312240807300301 · DOI
- Baiocchi G Ganuza E Popular democracy: The paradox of participation 2016 Stanford University Press
- Beck U Risk society: Towards a new modernity 1992 SAGE Publications
- Bourdieu P The corporatism of the universal: The role of intellectuals in the modern world Telos 1989 1989 81 99 110 10.3817/0989081099 · DOI
- Brash J Bloomberg’s New York: Class and governance in the luxury city 2011 University of Georgia Press
- Bullard RD Dumping in Dixie: Race, class, and environmental quality 2018 Routledge
- Callon M Lascoumes P Barthe Y Acting in an uncertain world: An essay on technical democracy 2009 MIT Press
- Checker M “ We all have identity at the table”: Negotiating difference in a southern African American environmental justice network Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power 2004 11 2 171 194 10.1080/10702890490451947 · DOI
- Ciplet D Roberts JT Khan MR Power in a warming world: The new global politics of climate change and the remaking of environmental inequality 2015 MIT Press
- Dewey J The Public and Its Problems 1927 Swallow Press
- Eyal G The crisis of expertise 2019 Polity Press PMC8099709 33972814
- Fan M Environmental justice and the politics of risk: Water resource controversies in Taiwan Human Ecology 2016 44 4 425 434 10.1007/s10745-016-9844-7 · DOI
- Fleming, B. (2019). Design and the Green new Deal. Places Journal. 10.22269/190416. · DOI
- Futrell R Technical adversarialism and participatory collaboration in the US chemical weapons disposal program Science, Technology, & Human Values 2003 28 4 451 482 10.1177/0162243903252762 · DOI
- Georgeson L Maslin M Poessinouw M Howard S Adaptation responses to climate change differ between global megacities Nature Climate Change 2016 6 6 584 588 10.1038/nclimate2944 · DOI
- Golan T Laws of men and laws of nature 2004 Harvard University Press
- Graham L Debucquoy W Anguelovski I The influence of urban development dynamics on community resilience practice in new York City after superstorm Sandy: Experiences from the lower east side and the rockaways Global Environmental Change 2016 40 112 124 10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2016.07.001 · DOI
- Green KE Lund JF The politics of expertise in participatory forestry: A case from Tanzania Forest Policy and Economics 2015 60 27 34 10.1016/j.forpol.2014.11.012 · DOI
- Habermas J The public sphere: An encyclopedia article New German Critique 1974 3 49 55 10.2307/487737 · DOI
- Held D Hervey A Democracy, climate change and global governance: Democratic agency and the policy menu ahead The governance of climate change 2013 Polity Press 89 110
- Hino M Field CB Mach KJ Managed retreat as a response to natural hazard risk Nature Climate Change 2017 7 5 364 370 10.1038/nclimate3252 · DOI
- IPCC. (2018). Summary for policymakers. In global warming of 1.5°C. an IPCC special report on the impacts of global warming of 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels and related global greenhouse gas emission pathways, in the context of strengthening the global response to the threat of climate change, sustainable development, and efforts to eradicate poverty. Geneva: World Meteorological Organization. https://www.ipcc.ch/sr15/chapter/summary-for-policy-makers/. Accessed 5 Apr 2019.
- Jerolmack C Murphy AK The ethical dilemmas and social scientific trade-offs of masking in ethnography Sociological Methods & Research 2019 48 4 801 827 10.1177/0049124117701483 · DOI
- Jerolmack C Walker ET Please in my backyard: Quiet mobilization in support of fracking in an Appalachian community American Journal of Sociology 2018 124 2 479 516 10.1086/698215 · DOI
- Klinenberg E Denaturalizing disaster: A social autopsy of the 1995 Chicago heat wave Theory and Society 1999 28 2 239 295 10.1023/A:1006995507723 · DOI
- Klinenberg, E., Araos, M., & Koslov, L. (2020). Sociology and the climate crisis. Annual Review of Sociology, 46. 10.1146/annurev-soc-121919-054750. · DOI
- Koslov L The case for retreat Public culture 2016 28 2 79 359 387 10.1215/08992363-3427487 · DOI
- Kulp SA Strauss BH New elevation data triple estimates of global vulnerability to sea-level rise and coastal flooding Nature Communications 2019 10 1 4844 10.1038/s41467-019-12808-z PMC6820795 31664024 · DOI · Paper page
- Lakoff A Klinenberg E Of risk and pork: Urban security and the politics of objectivity Theory and Society 2010 39 5 503 525 10.1007/s11186-010-9123-3 · DOI
- Li, Y., & Zhong, X. (2020). ‘For the People’Without ‘by the people’: People and plans in Shanghai’s waterfront development. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research.
- Maskovsky J Governing the “new hometowns”: Race, power, and neighborhood participation in the new inner city Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power 2006 13 1 73 99 10.1080/10702890500535566 · DOI
- Mauss M A category of the human mind: The notion of person; the notion of self The category of the person: Anthropology, philosophy, history 1985 Cambridge University Press 1 25
- McQuarrie M No contest: Participatory technologies and the transformation of urban authority Public culture 2013 25 1: 69 143 175 10.1215/08992363-1890495 · DOI
- Millner N Peñagaricano I Fernandez M Snook LK The politics of participation: Negotiating relationships through community forestry in the Maya biosphere reserve, Guatemala World Development 2020 127 104743 10.1016/j.worlddev.2019.104743 · DOI
- Molotch H Oil in Santa Barbara and power in America Sociological Inquiry 1970 40 1 131 144 10.1111/j.1475-682X.1970.tb00990.x · DOI
- Moynihan DP Maximum feasible misunderstanding: Community action in the war on poverty 1969 University of Michigan Press
- Murphy, A. K., Jerolmack, C., & Smith, D. (2021). Ethnography, data transparency, and the information age. Annual Review of Sociology, 47.
- Navon D Eyal G Looping genomes: Diagnostic change and the genetic makeup of the autism population American Journal of Sociology 2016 121 5 1416 1471 10.1086/684201 27092389 · DOI
- Oppenheimer, M., Glavovich, B. C., Hinkel, J., van de Wal, R., Magnan, A., Abd-Elgawad, R., et al. (2019). Sea level rise and implications for low-Lying Islands, Coasts and Communities. In IPCC Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate. https://www.ipcc.ch/srocc/chapter/chapter-4-sea-level-rise-and-implications-for-low-lying-islands-coasts-and-communities/. Accessed 24 Nov 2019.
- Oreskes N Conway EM Merchants of doubt: How a handful of scientists obscured the truth on issues from tobacco smoke to global warming 2011 Bloomsbury USA
- Ottinger G Changing knowledge, local knowledge, and knowledge gaps: STS insights into procedural justice Science, Technology, & Human Values 2013 38 2 250 270 10.1177/0162243912469669 · DOI
- Pacewicz, J. (2020). What can you do with a single case? How to Think About Ethnographic Case Selection Like a Historical Sociologist. Sociological Methods & Research. 10.1177/0049124119901213. · DOI
- Park RE The city: Suggestions for the investigation of human behavior in the city environment American Journal of Sociology 1915 20 5 577 612 10.1086/212433 · DOI
- Pickering J Bäckstrand K Schlosberg D Between environmental and ecological democracy: Theory and practice at the democracy-environment nexus 2020 Taylor & Francis
- Porter TM Trust in numbers: The pursuit of objectivity in science and public life 1996 Princeton University Press 11623934
- Rice, J. L., Cohen, D. A., Long, J., & Jurjevich, J. R. (2019). Contradictions of the climate-friendly New Perspectives on Eco-Gentrification and Housing Justice. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research. 10.1111/1468-2427.12740. · DOI
- Roberts JT Parks B A climate of injustice: Global inequality, north-south politics, and climate policy 2006 MIT press
- Schlosberg D Collins LB From environmental to climate justice: Climate change and the discourse of environmental justice Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change 2014 5 3 359 374
- Schmeltz MT González SK Fuentes L Kwan A Ortega-Williams A Cowan LP Lessons from hurricane Sandy: A community response in Brooklyn, New York Journal of Urban Health 2013 90 5 799 809 10.1007/s11524-013-9832-9 24022182 PMC3795193 · DOI
- Schudson M The good citizen: A history of American civic life 1999 Harvard University Press
- Schudson M The trouble with experts–and why democracies need them Theory and Society 2006 35 5–6 491 506 10.1007/s11186-006-9012-y · DOI
- Selznick P TVA and the grass roots: A study in the sociology of formal organization 1953 University of California Press
- Shi L Chu E Anguelovski I Aylett A Debats J Goh K Roadmap towards justice in urban climate adaptation research Nature Climate Change 2016 6 2 131 131 10.1038/nclimate2841 · DOI · Paper page
- Siders A Social justice implications of US managed retreat buyout programs Climatic Change 2019 152 2 239 257 10.1007/s10584-018-2272-5 · DOI
- Taylor DE The environment and the people in American cities, 1600s–1900s: Disorder, inequality, and social change 2009 Duke University Press
- Taylor DE The rise of the American conservation movement: Power, privilege, and environmental protection 2016 Duke University Press
- Wachsmuth D Cohen DA Angelo H Expand the frontiers of urban sustainability Nature News 2016 536 7617 391 10.1038/536391a 27558049 · DOI
- Walker ET McQuarrie M Lee CW Rising participation and declining democracy Democratizing inequalities: Dilemmas of the new public participation 2015 NYU Press 3 23
- Weber M Science as a vocation science and the quest for reality 1946 Springer 382 394
- Weber M The essential Weber: A reader 2004 Routledge
- Zussman R People in places Qualitative Sociology 2004 27 4 351 363 10.1023/B:QUAS.0000049237.24163.e5 · DOI
- Authors
- Araos, M.
- Affiliations
- New York University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Araos, Malcolm
- ORCID
- Araos, Malcolm
- Venue
- Theory and Society
- Published
- 2021-11-09
- Volume
- 52
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 1-34
- ISSN
- 0304-2421 (ISSN-L)
- 1573-7853
- PMC
- PMC8577394
- OpenAlex
- W3213822001
- Cited by
- 64
- References
- 108
- Citations by year
- 2026: 22 · 2025: 18 · 2024: 11 · 2023: 7 · 2022: 6
- FWCI
- 14.08
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Theory and Society (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Urban Studies › Urban Planning and Governance
- Social Sciences › Political Science and International Relations › Political Theory and Democracy
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › French Urban and Social Studies
- Keywords
- citizen participation, democratic decision-making, coastal protection, technical expertise, urban planning, frontline communities, public housing, participatory democracy, New York City, decision-making styles
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
