Abstract

UNESCO Global Geoparks are promoted as governance spaces that integrate geoheritage conservation, education, and sustainable development through community engagement. However, participation in many geopark settings can remain procedurally visible while institutionally constrained, raising questions about how participation design shapes governance outcomes, especially in hazard-prone landscapes. This study conceptualizes participation as an institutional system rather than an engagement activity and examines how authority structures, communication practices, and knowledge hierarchies interact to influence governance and risk management. Using an in-depth qualitative case study of the Dieng Plateau UNESCO Global Geopark in Central Java, Indonesia, where persistent volcanic-geothermal hazards coincide with expanding energy development, the study analyzes interviews, observations, and documentary materials to examine participation under centralized authority and epistemic asymmetry. The findings show that participatory interfaces are widespread but uneven in decisional influence; risk communication is inconsistent across channels and periods of uncertainty; and local experiential knowledge is frequently acknowledged yet rarely translated into decision-relevant inputs. To advance theory, the paper introduces the Participatory Geopark System (PGS) as an analytical framework comprising interdependent components: authority structures, participation interfaces, communication-and-trust infrastructure, and epistemic integration mechanisms. The study reframes participation as institutional design, links participation constraints to risk-governance vulnerabilities, and offers a practical lens for evaluating epistemically inclusive collaboration under real-world constraints.