When Experts Feel Threatened - Strategies of Depoliticization in Participatory River Restoration Projects

This paper explores how experts involved in river management projects in Switzerland consider public participation. It reflects on the consequences that these considerations have on the potential for participation to become a political space. Public participation has become a standard practice in river management at the European level since the 1990s. In Switzerland, the federal government incentivises public participation in river-work projects through guidelines and additional subsidies for projects planned in a participatory way, with the goal of avoiding costly conflicts. Based on an analysis of expert discourses, we examine how experts activate three different arguments to depoliticise participation: that participation should be implemented to ensure acceptance of the project; that the exclusion of some actors is justified based on assumptions about the type of knowledge required for participation; and that disagreement should not be expressed within participatory processes but through representative politics. We conclude that the consistent motivation of experts to depoliticise also indicates a potential for participation to become political, which is worth exploring with new perspectives for engaging the public.