Public participation has become an institutionalized component of infrastructure projects, driven by legislative reforms and heightened stakeholder expectations. Despite this, local stakeholder input remains frequently undervalued in project decision-making, leading to stakeholder dissatisfaction and project delays. While existing literature extensively documents procedural improvements to public participation, it offers limited insight into how practitioners' mindsets and organizational cultures shape its quality.

This research investigates how practitioners' attitudes toward public participation develop and persist, using Weick's organizational sensemaking theory as a theoretical framework. The study targets the Dutch infrastructure sector, where the new Environment and Planning Act (Omgevingswet) has prompted professionals to reconsider when and how to organize public participation at earlier project stages. Public Engagement Professionals (PEPs) (Omgevingsmanagers) are essential to this environment, as they are responsible for designing and coordinating participatory initiatives within project teams.

The study adopts a qualitative approach including a literature review, an exploratory study, and 17 semi-structured interviews with PEPs and project managers. Furthermore, two co-creative expert sessions were organized to validate the study’s results.

The research's findings are presented through three interconnected frameworks. The Process model maps how project organizations move through three sensemaking stages (Enactment, Selection, and Retention) when organizing participatory initiatives. It highlights that participatory quality is shaped not only by procedural factors but also significantly influenced by mental and organizational factors.

The Vulnerability model extends this first framework by identifying challenges across each sensemaking stage, such as limiting external constraints and established dismissive mindsets within project teams. Crucially, the model shows that procedural reforms, such as the Environment and Planning Act, address what organizations must do procedurally but cannot change how they think. Accordingly, if mental and organizational obstacles remain unaddressed, procedural improvements alone might be insufficient to achieve development in public participation.

To address these vulnerabilities, the Strategy model is developed, identifying 20 intervening strategies that directly correspond to the Vulnerability model's challenges. These strategies are categorized as meaning-, structure-, or practice-oriented, enabling practitioners to select approaches suited to their institutional context.

By framing public participation as a continuous organizational and mental process rather than a purely procedural activity, this study highlights why stakeholder input remains frequently undervalued. The sensemaking models offer both a theoretical explanation and practical guidance, supporting PEPs in changing dismissive attitudes and unsupportive cultures. Ultimately, assuring that public participation is not merely seen as a legal obligation, but as an essential driver of project success.
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Previous studies show that climate change effects and anthropogenic disturbances are having an increasingly strenuous effect on the performance of the coastal system of Sisal, a rural fishing village in the state of Yucatán, Mexico. Resilience has been a crucial component for these studies, as it presents the system's ability to react and adapt to environmental hazards and human interventions. In recent years, several research initiatives have aimed to assess the resilience of Sisal's coastal system through the use of previously identified resilience index calculations. However, these indices lack the ability to quantify disparities of resilience on a local scale. Furthermore, previous studies focus solely on the technical aspects of resilience, and therefore fall short on defining other relevant aspects of the term.

Consequently, this research project aimed to understand Sisal's coastline by understanding the multi-faceted definitions of resilience by analysing the socio-economic and technical factors impacting the coastal system. The study involved examining both its historical context, as well as potential future trends and developments.

This was done through a thorough evaluation of different aspects of the coast, a storm impact study and a social analysis. The findings of these studies are subsequently incorporated into a comprehensive web-tool, providing experts, policymakers, and community members with clear-cut and valuable information on the current resilience of Sisal's coastline.

The findings of the research present that the coastal resilience of Sisal is highly negatively impacted by human interventions along the coast, predominantly causing inadequate resilience performances on profiles with significant anthropogenic perturbations and generally along the coastline westwards of Sisal's port. Current coastal management policies are considered ineffective to deal with these developments, which is among others caused by exclusive decision-making processes and ambiguous governmental policies. Changes in coastal management strategies are therefore needed to effectively deal with future threats of environmental hazards and human interference. Ultimately, resulting in improved coastal and community resilience. ... Read more