<p>How can we make research in environmental sociology more practical and policy-oriented? As an experiment to tackle this widely asked question, this paper explores the possibility of applying the concept of participatory research to fieldwork in environmental sociology, taking the Evaluation Workshop on the Sanbanze Roundtable (Sanbanze Entakukaigi Furikaeri Workshop) as an example.</p><p>From 2002 to 2004, the government of Chiba Prefecture held the Sanbanze Roundtable, a participatory conference where local residents, fishermen, environmental NGOs, and researchers discussed the environmental restoration plan of Sanbanze Tidal Flats in Tokyo Bay. The roundtable was an epoch-making concept in Japan for public works planning and for an environmental restoration project because of its thorough disclosure and participation. In 2004, it finalized the policy proposal for the restoration of the tidal flats. The participants of the conference, however, complained that there were numerous problems such as the passivity of the prefectural government and the inconvenient meeting schedule resulting in reduced participation by local citizens. Three committee members from local environmental NGOs resigned in protest to these problems. Fishermen also voiced their dissatisfaction in that their professional experience was neglected.</p><p>Just after the conference, local citizens and researchers who participated in the roundtable as committee members and audiences, including myself, launched a workshop to examine the planning process of the Sanbanze Roundtable. In our project, as a preliminary survey, we first interviewed the committee members and analyzed the written records of the roundtable in order to clarify the problem areas. Then, we compiled the findings we have made through the survey as a basis for discussion, and in October 2004, we held a one-day workshop to discuss the planning process of the Sanbanze Roundtable. Through the whole process of the survey and the workshop, we elucidated the challenges that the participatory planning must bear, especially in the roundtable conference method: e. g. the local government should participate as an important stakeholder in a conference ; the need for the governing board of a conference that should be independent from the local government ; and the importance of local groundwork for consensus building as an infrastructure of a participatory conference.</p><p>The practice of the evaluation workshop in Sanbanze suggests the possibility of applying the knowledge of environmental sociology. Participatory research like this can provide local residents and stakeholders with research methods of environmental sociology such as process analysis based on the observation of actions and claims of stakeholders, structural and holistic comprehension of environmental problems, and the techniques of survey, interview, and document analysis. We can utilize such methods and techniques especially when residents or stakeholders attempt to investigate and evaluate the decision-making process regarding environmental issues which they themselves are involved in. In such a participatory way, we can find a way to make environmental sociology more practical and policy-oriented.</p>