An article by Dr. Albert Denk has been published in the journal "Frontiers in Political Science" in which public participation in site selection is described theoretically and conceptually as an "exclusive public". Following the work of Max Weber and Ulrich Beck, social closures are elaborated both internally and externally. Closure mechanisms work externally through the characteristics of a supposed separation between people and their natural environment, the nation-state, and a restriction to symptoms. Closures work internally through ignorance of unequal social positions, atomic-historical amnesia, and the decoupling of security and justice. The result is the contradictory participation of an exclusive public.

Denk, Albert (2024): Exclusive Public. An Analysis of Public Participation in the Site Selection Procedure for a Repository for Nuclear Waste. In: Frontiers in Political Science, Comparative Governance (6). https://doi.org/10.3389/fpos.2024.1271062