Understanding new expectations for democratic environmental governance : a policy analysis of an activist movement in the South-East of France

Abstract: This paper is based at the nodal points of several phenomena, including political distrust in France, a European trend supporting public participation, a failed experiment of citizen assembly in France, and the organisation of a citizen collective to advocate for a replication of a similar citizen assembly, at the regional level, by environmental activists. In this context, I have conducted a policy analysis focusing particularly on the activist movement with the aim to provide insights into new expectations for democratic governance of environmental resources. This research introduces a new approach to the study of the dynamics of democracy. By applying a power- and subjectivity-sensitive policy analysis framework to an activist movement, I argue that much can be learned about the grounds and sense-making of this movement, which holds a great potential in facilitating dialogue between the civil society and political governance institutions, and democratising governance. The analysis revealed that the current model of French governmental policymaking is criticised on the grounds of its unwillingness to include external knowledge, perspectives, and actors. The rationale for replicating a citizen assembly then, stood both in the process and in the outcome. The process of the CCC-AURA project enables for a subjectivity-sensitive form of governance to take place, based on principles of inclusion, the valuation of all knowledges, and the specific attention to lived experiences and subjectivities created, and in which citizens reclaim decision-making power. This holds implications in terms of the agency, and subjectivities created by the policy, but also for future governance: the CCC-AURA comes in as a project to re-align environmental governance practices to the democratic expectations held by citizens and creates a momentum that can be harnessed to challenge and redefine what democratic governance means in practice.