| 1. |
- Andersson, Malin, et al.
(författare)
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Sustaining business as usual or enabling transformation? : A discourse analysis of climate change mitigation policy in Swedish municipalities
- 2024
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Ingår i: Environmental Policy and Governance. - : WILEY PERIODICALS, INC. - 1756-932X .- 1756-9338. ; 34:4, s. 337-441
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This article explores how discourses may influence the potential for success in mitigating climate change in Swedish municipalities. We identify dominant discourses in climate change mitigation policy in three Swedish municipalities using argumentative discourse analysis, based on policy documents and interviews as empirical material. Political leadership and adequate organizational preconditions are necessary for working with climate change mitigation in municipalities, but the role of discourse is also significant. Policy discourse constructs preconditions for certain scenarios while rendering others less likely. Previous studies have shown that the ecological modernization (EM) discourse tends to be dominant, something which this study confirms and investigates further. We find that the dominant discourse is strong EM, which largely considers it possible to decouple economic growth and environmental problems through renewable energy and technology. A focus on collaboration between stakeholders is central and a global climate justice perspective is present to some extent. Potential solutions that are not related to the market or technological innovation risk being rendered invisible when this discourse is dominant, but the inclusion of a diversity of actors and an increased focus on climate justice could potentially minimize this risk. Finally, emerging discourses around transformation and circular economy have potential to enable the forging of new paths. This depends, however, on how these concepts are framed and how they are used.
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| 2. |
- Anshelm, Jonas, 1960-, et al.
(författare)
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The Politics of High-Level Nuclear Waste Management in Sweden: on Confined Research versus Research in the Wild.
- 2009
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Ingår i: Environmental Policy and Governance. - : Wiley press, John Wiley & sons. - 1756-932X .- 1756-9338. ; 19, s. 269-280
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In 2010, the Swedish nuclear energy industry is expected to announce a proposal for the final storage of high-level nuclear waste in bedrock. The underground storage concept is attracting increasing interest from other countries in Europe. Because of the nature of Swedish political culture, the development of the actual method for final disposal is commonly perceived as resting on consensus and democratic cooperation. However, this paper argues that the aforementioned disposal method instead represents the outcome of intense conflict between the nuclear energy industry and the anti-nuclear movement. Accordingly, any investigation of the technical and political solutions to controversial environmental problems should involve the study of lay people and social movements. The present study does so, employing theoretical notions from science and technology studies that allow the analysis to conceptualize actions and strategies (enactments) of the nuclear energy industry (confined research) and the anti-nuclear movement (research in the wild).
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| 3. |
- Armitage, Derek, et al.
(författare)
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An Approach to Assess Learning Conditions, Effects and Outcomes in Environmental Governance
- 2018
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Ingår i: Environmental Policy and Governance. - : Wiley. - 1756-932X .- 1756-9338. ; 28:1, s. 3-14
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We empirically examine relationships among the conditions that enable learning, learning effects and sustainability outcomes based on experiences in four biosphere reserves in Canada and Sweden. In doing so, we provide a novel approach to measure learning and address an important methodological and empirical challenge in assessments of learning processes in decision-making contexts. Findings from this study highlight the effectiveness of different measures of learning, and how to differentiate the factors that foster learning with the outcomes of learning. Our approach provides a useful reference point for future empirical studies of learning in different environment, resource and sustainability settings.
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| 4. |
- Bjärstig, Therese, Docent, 1978-, et al.
(författare)
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Collaboration as a policy instrument in public administration : evidence from forest policy and governance
- 2024
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Ingår i: Environmental Policy and Governance. - : John Wiley & Sons. - 1756-932X .- 1756-9338.
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In recent decades, collaboration has become a common policy instrument in public administration, both internationally and in Sweden. Inspired by scholarly literature on collaborative governance, the aim of this study is to analyze the crucial role of public administration in the design and implementation of collaborative governance. Drawing on several years of research on Swedish forest policy and governance, our work is based on extensive empirical material, including 88 semi-structured interviews, observations, written comments from open public consultations and actors, enacted policy documents, open public hearings and a survey. Our results confirm that factors related to process design strongly affect the outputs and outcomes of collaboration in public administration. We assert that public officials should meticulously design and adapt the collaborative process during its initiation and progress, according to the policy problem and actors' incentives and motivations to participate. However, despite good intentions by public officials, the overarching priorities and contextual factors governing the policy area must be set by elected decision makers at an early stage to establish democratic accountability and high levels of policy legitimacy and acceptance. A major implication for public administration is that the increasing use of collaborative governance may be highly inefficient if it is difficult for participants to draft shared objectives and provide intended outputs because of low levels of trust, and different interpretations of knowledge and norms. Finally, in contentious policy areas, such as forest policy, political priorities must sometimes be set by elected decision makers rather than through collaborative processes.
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| 5. |
- Blicharska, Malgorzata, 1979-, et al.
(författare)
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The water–energy–food–land–climate nexus : Policy coherence for sustainable resource management in Sweden
- 2023
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Ingår i: Environmental Policy and Governance. - : John Wiley & Sons. - 1756-932X .- 1756-9338.
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The concept of a ‘nexus’ across issues regarding the management of natural resources has gained increasing academic attention in recent years, but there is still relatively limited research on the application of the nexus approach for evaluating policies. This study analyses coherence among the main goals of five policy areas (water, energy, food, land, and climate) in Sweden, drawing upon a desk review, expert assessment, and interaction with stakeholders. The main objective is to enhance understanding of opportunities and challenges posed by such a nexus, understand policy interactions in Sweden, and provide insights into the use of policy coherence analysis as an integral part of resource nexus assessments. The analysis reveals synergies and conflicts between policy goals. For example, Sweden's environmental quality objectives (EQOs) regarding land and all the goals regarding water are either synergistic or neutral. Likewise, climate policy goals are well aligned with the goals regarding energy and ground water quality. On the other hand, the key goal for agriculture, which is food production, is the least coherent with those of the other policy areas. There are conflicts between the EQOs and goals regarding agricultural and forestry production. Stakeholders also indicate that climate goals are treated with higher priority than the goals of other policy areas. Notably, some interactions between policy goals are synergistic or conflicting depending on the context or their interpretation. Implementation of existing goals depends on relevant stakeholders' interests, priorities and interpretations, and on existing prevailing discourses in society, often supported by higher level policies.
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| 6. |
- Book, Karin, et al.
(författare)
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Governing the Balance between Sustainability and Competitiveness in Urban Planning: the Case of the Orestad Model
- 2010
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Ingår i: Environmental Policy and Governance. - : Wiley. - 1756-932X .- 1756-9338. ; 20:6, s. 382-396
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Urban development politics are being challenged in various ways today, which becomes obvious when analysing strategies for sustainability versus competitiveness. In parallel to this, alternative ways of fi nancing, planning and organizing urban development and transport projects are becoming more common. However, although the use of publicly owned enterprises in urban development is becoming more common it is still a fairly new phenomenon and differs considerably from development led by a traditional government agency. The question analysed in this article is how well equipped these new governing arrangements are to handle goals of both sustainability and economic competitiveness. As a case study we use a special fi nancial and planning model used in the development of public transport (the metro) and a new urban area (Orestad) in Copenhagen, here called the Orestad model. Special focus is given on the creation of the Orestad Development Corporation, a new hybrid development organization, which was given the mandate to develop both Orestad and the metro. The study shows that there is a lot to gain from both a sustainability and an effi ciency perspective by integrating land use development and public transport infrastructure in the same hybrid project organization. While there is definitely a tension between the goals of sustainability and competitive image building, the two do not have to be mutually exclusive. Even though the role of the state is transformed in this new governance arrangement, our case clearly shows how the state remains a crucial actor in sustainability governance. However, there is an obvious risk of a lack of strategic thinking and accountability when a hybrid project-oriented organization is responsible for planning.
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| 7. |
- Boström, Magnus, et al.
(författare)
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Responsible Procurement, Complex Product Chains and the Integration of Vertical and Horizontal Governance
- 2013
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Ingår i: Environmental Policy and Governance. - : Wiley. - 1756-932X .- 1756-9338. ; 23:6, s. 381-394
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The management of environmental and health risks associated with products from global product chains is a pressing task for contemporary society, a task that involves public and private actors and poses great governance challenges. This article explores how governance arrangements relate to these challenges by focusing on how public and private procuring organizations interpret, use, develop and combine mandatory and voluntary policy instruments. This is theorized in terms of responsible governance of transnational supply chains (RGSC) as well as regarding the combination of vertical and horizontal governance (VG and HG). The article focuses on chemical risks in the textile sector, and is based on findings from case studies of Swedish public and private procuring organizations, with additional interviews with actors engaged in developing various policy instruments. The article shows how mandatory and voluntary policy instruments can - in various ways and combinations - assist in chemical risk management, but also highlights the existence of considerable limitations and gaps, which users need to develop a reflective awareness about. The article reveals different conditions for public and private procurers, and the conclusion includes suggestions on how to bridge the gap between private and public actors. Finally, we conclude by emphasizing that combinations of HG and VG arrangements promote constructive and feasible pathways towards RGSC, but which needs reflective and constructive efforts among actors with insight, willingness and capabilities to create governance linkages. Copyright (c) 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.
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| 8. |
- Buhr, Katarina, 1980-, et al.
(författare)
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The Clean Development Mechanism in China : Institutional Perspectives on Governance
- 2012
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Ingår i: Environmental Policy and Governance. - : John Wiley & Sons. - 1756-932X .- 1756-9338. ; 22:2, s. 77-89
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) has grown into a central feature of the global carbon market. Besides a range of normative and evaluative research into the CDM, scholars have applied international relations perspectives in which the CDM has been analysed as an example of global governance, engaging multiple actors across administrative levels. This paper focuses on a national government and how its activities affect the CDM market. We draw on an empirical case study of China to demonstrate how governmental action can be understood in light of national institutional factors, defined as normative, cognitive or regulative elements. The paper describes and explains the extensiveness of Chinese government action regarding the CDM and discusses its consequences for the market.
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| 9. |
- Cinque, Serena, 1975, et al.
(författare)
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Frontline bureaucrats in wildlife management: Caught in the dilemma between effectiveness and responsiveness
- 2022
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Ingår i: Environmental Policy and Governance. - : Wiley. - 1756-932X .- 1756-9338. ; 32:1, s. 17-28
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Frontline bureaucrats are positioned at the interface between citizens and the state. They convert political resolution into action and in effect form the core of many public decisions through interaction and communication with both the recipients of those decisions and upper management levels that initiate them. However, dilemmas often arise when frontline bureaucrats attempt to translate political goals and strategies into local administrative praxis. The case of large carnivore management in Sweden will be used to demonstrate the insuperable difficulties that can arise when managers simultaneously need to balance the bureaucratic tasks of planning, executing, and evaluating performed decisions with attending to calls for increased responsiveness to public values in order to improve the delivery of service. This responsiveness is typically reflected through the new principles of public participation and collaboration, which are added to the bureaucracy to support the integration of broader sets of interests, experiences, and knowledge. In such an environment, the work of frontline managers becomes even more crucial in order to balance and align policy goals with the need to enhance public involvement. Our study reveals that in striving to meet the formal policy requirement to implement and lead collaboration (which in turn creates the central dilemma that concerns us here) managers develop strategies to secure effectiveness rather than responsiveness. Actually, they have few possibilities to do, otherwise when the latest policy edict clearly instructs the authorities to oversee the effective implementation and achievement of goals, leaving little opportunity to pursue genuine collaboration.
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| 10. |
- Glaas, Erik, 1981-, et al.
(författare)
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Disentangling municipal capacities for citizen participation in transformative climate adaptation
- 2022
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Ingår i: Environmental Policy and Governance. - : Wiley Periodicals Inc. - 1756-932X .- 1756-9338. ; 32:3, s. 179-191
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Transformative adaptation is described as decisive to mitigating risks and to seizing opportunities from a changing climate, requiring new ways of governing, planning and collaborating, alongside technical innovations. Building municipal capacities for citizen participation in adaptation is important to enabling such transformational changes but remains challenging. By applying capacities distilled from the literature on Urban Transformative Capacity and Participatory Climate Governance in a Swedish municipal case, this study aims to disentangle key limits for, and innovations to strengthen, local capacities for citizen participation in transformative climate adaptation. Interviews with municipal officials, focus groups with citizens, and document analyses were employed to analyse how climate adaptation and citizen participation are governed, and how these policy areas are interacting and could be bridged. The study points at conditions that foremost prevent bridging established policies and practices on adaptation and citizen participation, stemming from the different logics and distribution of responsibility within, and lacking collaboration between, these separated policy areas. The analysis concludes that potential ways to enable citizen participation in adaptation involve: broadening the geographical boundaries of deliberations; redefining the target groups for participation; co-designing participation targets, approaches and evaluation; and developing new ways to analyse and act on the patterns in the citizen inputs received.
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