Epsilon Archive for Student Projects

Abstract

This study explores the perspectives of the County Administrative Board civil
servants working for Nature Conservation in relation to communication and with a
focus in participatory approaches. The institution itself with its traditional top down
hierarchical framework and its Nature Conservation focus in natural sciences,
constitutes an important reference group for the employees, and also acts as a
constraining factor limiting their learning experiences and thus the possibilities for
achieving the environmental goals it seeks. In this situation attempts that aim for an
institutional change towards a more dialogical nature conservation approach such as
the Dialogue for Nature Conservation training program, risk to go to waste unless
there is a shared understanding of this epistemology followed by a coherent
structural change in the institution that will allow for the theory to go hand in hand
with the civil servants actual practice.