The significance of structural power in Strategic Environmental Assessment
This article presents a study of how power dynamics enables and constrains the influence of actors upon
decision-making and Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA). Based on structuration theory, a model for
studying power dynamics in strategic decision-making processes is developed. Themodel is used to map and analyse
key decision arenas in the decision process of aluminiumproduction in Greenland. The analysis shows that
communication lines are an important resource through which actors exercise power and influence
decision-making on the location of the aluminium production. The SEA process involved not only reproduction
of formal communication and decision competence but also production of alternative informal communication
structures in which the SEA had capability to influence.
It is concluded, that actors influence strategic decision making, and attention needs to be on not only the formal
interactions between SEA process and strategic decision-making process but also on informal interaction
and communication between actors as the informal structures, which can be crucial to the outcome of the
decision-making process. This article is meant as a supplement to the understanding of power dynamics
influence in IA processes and as a contribution to the IA research field with a method to analyse power
dynamics in strategic decision-making processes. The article also brings reflections of strengths and weaknesses
of using the structuration theory as an approach to power analysis.