Can environmental appraisal be truly interdisciplinary?

Paola Gazzola

Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, 2011, vol. 54, issue 9, 1189-1208

Abstract: Environmental appraisal is a multidisciplinary decision-making support tool, which aims to promote sustainable development through policies of environmental management and planning. It does so by relying on skills and knowledge that come from the social sciences, natural sciences and applied sciences. Within this context, many recognise that to strengthen and improve practice, environmental appraisal needs to evolve into a more interdisciplinary tool, with greater cross-fertilisation between disciplines and closer collaborations between practice traditions and communities of professionals. This paper suggests that, to date, environmental appraisal is far from being truly interdisciplinary. It argues that ‘gate-keepers’ are ensuring that the boundaries, traditions and cultural assumptions between disciplines and professions are maintained, setting the frame of reference that guides the practice of environmental appraisal, and influencing professional views in terms of the way in which things are/should be done. Therefore, this paper attempts to explore the cultural assumptions through which environmental appraisal is practised in competent planning organisations, using a cultural filters approach.

Date: 2011
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/09640568.2011.562074 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:jenpmg:v:54:y:2011:i:9:p:1189-1208

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/CJEP20

DOI: 10.1080/09640568.2011.562074

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Environmental Planning and Management is currently edited by Dr Neil Powe, Dr Ken Willis and George Bill Page

More articles in Journal of Environmental Planning and Management from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().