{"title":"Norm domestication challenges for local climate actions: A lesson from Arizona, USA","authors":"Mahir Yazar","doi":"10.1002/eet.2038","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/eet.2038","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Research on norm domestication in multi-level governance structures is overlooked in urban climate governance and policy literature. This paper conceptualizes multi-scalar interactions of norm domestication for local climate actions. The city of Phoenix, which operates under the “purple” (blue cities and red legislatures) state of Arizona, is analyzed to illustrate how a local government can take up the climate actions left in the void at the state and federal levels. The empirical findings reveal important temporal politics at the state level that influenced the local government's climate norm domestication. The period of Democratic party leadership diffused climate norms at the state-level and positioned the local government more as a climate policy-taker, adopting decisions from the state legislature. Swings in the state-level executive orders under the subsequent period of Republican leadership, however, forced the local government to seek some common ground for norm domestication, usually related to the nonpartisan goals of economic development. Consequently, local climate actions are subject to depoliticization of climate change from the higher-level governance structures. Overall, decarbonization targets are not being directed in ways that lead to a broader shift in the socio-technical system but would support short-term emission reductions if multiple institutions, both at the state and sub-state levels, created spaces for collaboration rather than competition.</p>","PeriodicalId":47396,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Policy and Governance","volume":"33 4","pages":"386-397"},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2022-10-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/eet.2038","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"50145610","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Shifts in governance modes and explanatory factors in the NIMBY: Findings from the X waste incineration plant in Shenzhen, China","authors":"Haiyan Lu, Rui Mu, Yanwei Li","doi":"10.1002/eet.2034","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/eet.2034","url":null,"abstract":"<p>With increasing numbers of environmental conflicts in recent years, Chinese local governments are changing their modes of governance with the aim of addressing these conflicts satisfactorily. Through a case study, we identified shifts in modes of governance from hierarchical to network and from market to hybrid (characterized by a combination of market and hierarchical) in three arenas. Our findings confirm that initiating actors, stakeholder involvement types, rules of interaction, and implementation strategies are useful indicators of shifts in governance modes. Media, protests and policy entrepreneurs in different arenas are important factors in the shift from hierarchical to network governance, while policy entrepreneurs and higher-level government intervention are crucial factors in the shift from market to a hybrid governance mode. Policy entrepreneurs play an important role in all three arenas. As for theoretical contribution, our research has provided the evidence for non-hierarchical governance practices in the NIMBY in China. In the future, local governments in China may learn to consider proper governance mode shifts to deal with the NIMBY conflicts in infrastructure planning and construction.</p>","PeriodicalId":47396,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Policy and Governance","volume":"33 4","pages":"440-455"},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2022-10-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"50145427","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Okka Lou Mathis, Michael Rose, Jens Newig, Steffen Bauer
{"title":"Toward the sustainability state? Conceptualizing national sustainability institutions and their impact on policy-making","authors":"Okka Lou Mathis, Michael Rose, Jens Newig, Steffen Bauer","doi":"10.1002/eet.2032","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/eet.2032","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The achievement of global sustainability and climate objectives rests on their incorporation into policy-making at the level of nation-states. Against this background, governments around the world have created various specialized sustainability institutions—councils, committees, ombudspersons, among others—in order to promote these agendas and their implementation. However, sustainability institutions have remained undertheorized and their impact on policy-making is empirically unclear. In this paper, we develop a conceptual framework for sustainability institutions and systematically explore their potential impact on more sustainable policy-making. We define sustainability institutions as public, trans-departmental and permanent national bodies with an integrated understanding of sustainability that considers socio-ecological well-being, global contexts and a future-orientation. Drawing on literature on sustainability and long-term governance as well as on illustrative case examples, we propose conducive conditions and pathways through which sustainability institutions may influence policy-making. As conducive, we assume sustainability institutions' embodiment of sustainability governance principles as well as their authority, a strong legal basis, resources, and autonomy. Further, we outline how sustainability institutions can influence policy-making based on their roles in the public policy process. We conclude that the increasing prevalence of national sustainability institutions indicates an ongoing shift from the <i>environmental state</i> toward a more comprehensive <i>sustainability state.</i> However, sustainability institutions can only be one building block of the sustainability state out of many, and their potential to reorient political decision-making effectively toward the socio-ecological transformation hinges upon individual design features such as their mandate, resources and authority, as well as on the specific governance context.</p>","PeriodicalId":47396,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Policy and Governance","volume":"33 3","pages":"313-324"},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2022-10-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/eet.2032","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"50130264","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Annelie Sjölander-Lindqvist, Katarina Hansson-Forman, Camilla Sandström
{"title":"Success by agreement? Uncovering power struggles in translating Swedish moose policy","authors":"Annelie Sjölander-Lindqvist, Katarina Hansson-Forman, Camilla Sandström","doi":"10.1002/eet.2033","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/eet.2033","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Exploring how actors translate public policy content into practice provides new insight into policy processes. Because they are driven by contextual circumstances and values, that is, they are socially constructed, studying the interpretations and negotiations involved in the translation process advances our understanding of what shapes implementation agents, and subsequently the success of policy implementation. The Swedish moose policy, a legislative framework for decentralizing moose management in order to balance the various interests affected by the presence and abundance of moose, was used as a case study. In response to the task of implementation, some of the key stakeholders sought their own strategies for successful implementation and to achieve the national policy goals. This response expressed itself as two separate agreements, in 2016 and 2019, between different constellations of implementing actors (landowner and hunter organizations). These agreements provide an example of how key actors can translate policy, and expose inadequate policy designs. Revealing how the implementing actors perceive the policy and each other helps explain the continued presence of social and political conflict. Our results indicate that power struggles underpin the translation process; by constructing the core problem differently, not sharing ideas about management and using language that discourages collaboration, the actors' translations, together with a lack of clarity in policy design, hinder the chances of successful policy implementation. Policy processes have become increasingly complex, and differences between implementers present as obstacles that have to be overcome. The paper contributes to our understanding of implementation processes within a collaborative governance setting, where the responsibility of the implementation process has been devolved to non-state actors.</p>","PeriodicalId":47396,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Policy and Governance","volume":"33 3","pages":"325-335"},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2022-10-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/eet.2033","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"50129202","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Social acceptance of biodiversity offsetting: Motivations and practices in the designing of an emerging mechanism","authors":"Liisa Varumo, Juha M. Kotilainen, Eeva Primmer","doi":"10.1002/eet.2031","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/eet.2031","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Biodiversity offsetting is a governance mechanism proposed as a solution to ecosystem degradation and the underlying economic drivers. Biodiversity offsetting's potential is often evaluated and argued with ecological and economic criteria. These factors are intertwined with a multitude of social and ideological conditions for acceptance and legitimacy, which have received less systematic empirical attention especially from the perspective of the actors who implement the offsets. In this paper, we empirically analyse how companies and authorities, the central actors applying biodiversity offsetting in practice, perceive the social acceptance in the design and implementation of the emerging mechanism in Finland. The interview data analysed with three interlinked dimensions of social acceptance, namely socio-political acceptance, market acceptance and community acceptance reveal where the mechanism's implementation may face friction with the central actors. While the importance of social acceptance of biodiversity offsetting shows to be a priority for the actors that will be implementing the mechanism and carrying the responsibility of the offsets in practice, the division of roles and benefits remains a point of tension, in the political sphere, in the market and in the community. Our analysis points to the necessity of integrating social and local values alongside ecological and economic ones as a way to address social acceptance. Finding the limits to flexibility between ecological, economic and social aspects is important in order to reach the diverse objectives of a BO mechanism.</p>","PeriodicalId":47396,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Policy and Governance","volume":"33 3","pages":"301-312"},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2022-10-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/eet.2031","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"50134969","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Copenhagen CO2 neutrality in 2025? A polycentric analysis of urban climate governance in Copenhagen 2006–2020","authors":"Karsten Bruun Hansen, Annika Agger","doi":"10.1002/eet.2030","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/eet.2030","url":null,"abstract":"<p>In 2009, the City of Copenhagen declared its objective to become the first CO<sub>2</sub>-neutral city in the world by 2025 by practicing a collaborative climate governance approach. However, a 2020 status reported a further need for decarbonisation of at least 33% to reach this target. By applying a synthesised polycentric concept—supplemented by participatory climate governance studies—we analyse the deficient results of collaborative climate governance in Copenhagen 2006–2020. The empirical analysis reveals an altered political prioritisation of climate issues in 2010 and, as a crucial aspect of that, an inadequate mobilisation of civic society actors and waning departmental collaboration. We conclude that, since 2010, Copenhagen has mainly applied a rather monocentric governance approach and relied on technological innovation instead of behavioural change via civic society mobilisation, which does not promote sufficient carbon mitigation processes to reach carbon neutrality in 2025. Finally, we discuss what the synthesised polycentric concept adds to the debate about bold urban climate governance and how it could be further developed. Empirically, we draw on document analysis and interviews with 32 key actors in Copenhagen.</p>","PeriodicalId":47396,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Policy and Governance","volume":"33 3","pages":"288-300"},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2022-10-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/eet.2030","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"50132205","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Why policy coherence in the European Union matters for global sustainability","authors":"Hanna Ahlström, Beate Sjåfjell","doi":"10.1002/eet.2029","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/eet.2029","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The global economy is producing unequal economic exchanges between countries, including illegitimate transfer of wealth from low-income countries, which ultimately undermine efforts towards securing robust social welfare systems. This puts policies on trade and finance, corporate governance and circular economy at the centre of the global development puzzle. Policy coherence for development must be understood in the context of the tension between the overarching societal goal of achieving sustainability and the functioning of the global economy. In this article, we focus on the political and legal challenges this puzzle presents, using the case of European Union policies on business, finance and circular economy, which have global impacts. We see these as core areas of law and policy where advances are made but which need to be better positioned within an overarching aim of sustainability.</p>","PeriodicalId":47396,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Policy and Governance","volume":"33 3","pages":"272-287"},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2022-09-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/eet.2029","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"50146080","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Jannes J. Willems, Lizet Kuitert, Arwin Van Buuren
{"title":"Policy integration in urban living labs: Delivering multi-functional blue-green infrastructure in Antwerp, Dordrecht, and Gothenburg","authors":"Jannes J. Willems, Lizet Kuitert, Arwin Van Buuren","doi":"10.1002/eet.2028","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/eet.2028","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Policy integration required for delivering multi-functional blue-green infrastructure (BGI) is difficult to achieve, because environmental policymaking is characterised by sectoral responsibilities and institutional structures that hinder collaboration. Both theory and practice consider urban living labs (ULLs) as promising vehicles for policy integration, as ULLs can overcome institutional structures. This article presents a framework that assesses how the urban living lab can contribute to policy integration in BGI projects and applies this to three case studies in Antwerp (Belgium), Dordrecht (the Netherlands), and Gothenburg (Sweden). Our findings demonstrate that ULLs can enhance policy integration through defining integrative aims, creating shared accountability structures, and assigning a clear problem owner with authority. ULLs can equally hinder policy integration because their dependence on sectoral funding results in narrowed-down goals. Moreover, their experimental, non-committal position gives them limited power to pull down institutional structures. Thus, ULLs do not automatically enhance policy integration in BGI projects.</p>","PeriodicalId":47396,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Policy and Governance","volume":"33 3","pages":"258-271"},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2022-08-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/eet.2028","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"50141330","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Ebun Akinsete, Achilleas Vassilopoulos, Laura Secco, Elena Pisani, Maria Nijnik, Valentino Marini-Govigli, Phoebe Koundouri, Alkis Kafetzis
{"title":"Social innovation for developing sustainable solutions in a fisheries sector","authors":"Ebun Akinsete, Achilleas Vassilopoulos, Laura Secco, Elena Pisani, Maria Nijnik, Valentino Marini-Govigli, Phoebe Koundouri, Alkis Kafetzis","doi":"10.1002/eet.2022","DOIUrl":"10.1002/eet.2022","url":null,"abstract":"<p>In this paper, we explore how social innovation can provide a range of ecosystem services to local people while supporting public policies and private sector initiatives in delivering successful and innovative food distribution channels. In the Mediterranean basin, the status of commercial fish stocks is critical. In this sense, small-scale, low-impact fishing is a way to sustainably utilise socially innovative practices in the use of natural assets and to provide support to rural livelihoods while having minimal impacts on the marine environment. We use an innovative evaluation method, based on the integration of qualitative information with quantitative indicators, to assess social innovation initiatives and their impacts. The use of the methodology is demonstrated on the example of the project <i>A Box of Sea</i>, Greece. The results obtained show that this social initiative provides a novel food consumption and distribution model aiming at making low impact fishing more economically viable, and therefore achieving a triple sustainability for the sector (environmental, social, and economic). We identify third sector social innovation schemes as key tools to develop novel distribution systems supporting local communities (providing employment, fostering new networks and collaborations across fishers), while improving governance practices of the current fishing sector by creating a fairer market that protects the marine environment. Our findings provide a foundation upon which future evaluations of similar projects can build and compare. Such comparisons are crucial in determining patterns related to the innovation transfer processes.</p>","PeriodicalId":47396,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Policy and Governance","volume":"32 6","pages":"504-519"},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2022-08-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"81613083","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"How can a cooperative-based organization of indigenous fisheries foster the resilience to global changes? Lessons learned by coastal communities in eastern Québec","authors":"Marco Alberio, Marina Soubirou","doi":"10.1002/eet.2025","DOIUrl":"10.1002/eet.2025","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Halieutic resources and small-scale fisheries are globally under stress due to global changes. This phenomenon has very strong impacts on the socioeconomic situation of vast coastal areas worldwide and of the communities living there, whose economies rely on the ocean. In the current context of a decrease of several halieutic stocks, there is a need of understanding what could be the avenues for fisheries-dependent communities to adapt to global changes whilst preserving both local biodiversity and their ability to develop themselves. In this paper, we explore how a cooperative fisheries organizational model could allow coastal communities to foster their development without increasing the pressure on the resource they harvest. Through the analysis of the example of northern shrimp (<i>Pandalus borealis</i>) indigenous fisheries in eastern Québec, we expose how a cooperative-based organization of fisheries that is oriented towards community development can foster resilience against the current decline of the resource in a socially vulnerable context at a micro and macro level. Furthermore, we show how collaboration between diverse types of fisheries organizations can allow socially innovative practices to scale up.</p>","PeriodicalId":47396,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Policy and Governance","volume":"32 6","pages":"546-559"},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2022-07-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/eet.2025","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"91386687","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}