Decision Analysis can not be done without some reflection on the normative grounds of the analysis. The aim of decision analysis is to recommend an action. This recommendation constitutes a normative act. There are mainly two economic decision analyses: Cost-benefit analysis and...

Books reviewed: Masahiko Aoki, Toward a Comparative Institutional Analysis. Cambridge Albert Breton, Gianluigi Galeotti, Pierre Salmon, Ronald Wintrobe (eds.), Political Extremism and Rationality Gerard Caprio, Patrick Honohan and Joseph E. Stiglitz (eds.), Financial Liberalization Richard N....

Multicriteria analysis needs a normative basis. Utilitarianism could be such a normative basis, but it cannot meet the normative demands in the contexts of sustainable development. Another ethical approach, discursive ethics, can be applied to social dilemmas, but it cannot integrate all...

1. Needs, capabilities and quality of life : refocusing sustainable development / Felix Rauschmayer, Ines Omann and Johannes Fruhmann -- 2. The overshadowing of needs / John O'Neill -- 3. Sustainability as a challenge to the capability approach / Ortrud Lessmann -- 4. From individual well-being...

This paper is an introduction to the special issue on a role of participation in dealing with the interactions between environment and fisheries. In this introduction, we explore the recent discussion on the ecosystem-based approach to fisheries management (EBAFM) and extract important points...

Successful species conservation typically results in conflicts between wildlife protection and economic uses of natural resources as in fisheries and aquaculture. This article shows why managing these conflicts require a more comprehensive approach than currently pursued by endangered species...

In this synthesis article, we claim that institutional innovation is required for ecosystem-based approaches to fisheries management (EBAFM), and that such innovation can best be achieved by engaging in a delicate process of societal decision making. Current instances of participation in...

We explore the theory and practice of participation in EU biodiversity governance, focusing on the implementation of the Birds and Habitat directives and Natura 2000 at the EU and member-state levels in the cases of France and Germany. We identify three shifts in EU biodiversity governance which...

Public participation in environmental decisionmaking has become an accepted part of Western societies over the last three decades. Whereas on a simple level every democratic process based on aggregating individual preferences contains an element of public participation, the literature on...