Bringing society back in grassroots ecosystem management, accountability, and sustainable communities /

Weber, a well-published political scientist heading the Thomas S. Foley Public Policy Institute at Washington State University, takes on the seemingly intractable issue of "accountability" in the analysis of environmental policy performance. He argues for environmental problems to be addressed within the encompassing ecosystem framework and managed using a collaborative citizen and governance arrangement called "grass roots environmental management" (GREM). Implementation of this approach brings together citizen participants and the array of stakeholders within the ecosystem (i.e., business representatives, concerned citizens, and governmental officials at all levels) to participate in a deliberative decision-making process. At the heart of this process is accountability to a cross-section of governmental jurisdictions and the vested interests of the ecosystem inhabitants. He illustrates the workability of the GREM concept by citing three case studies discussing what accountability looks like from the perspective of the participants. Unique to this discussion is a chapter on temporal accountability focused on future accountability and environmental sustainability. Although the cases are drawn from the northwest region, they have applicability anywhere. A well-crafted and highly readable study. ^BSumming Up: Highly recommended. General readers; lower-division undergraduates through faculty. M. Evans SUNY Empire State College