Aalborg University No. 1 of 14

MATTHEW CASHMORE1, TIM RICHARDSON1, IVAR LYHNE1 AND JAAP ROZEMA2

(1) SCHOOL OF DEVELOPMENT AND PLANNING, AALBORG UNIVERSITY, DENMARK(2) SCHOOL OF ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES, UNIVERSITY OF EAST ANGLIA,

ENGLAND

Governing the environment: Guidance documents and the making up of expert

environmental practitioners

Aalborg University No. 2 of 14

Background to the study

• Develop new understandings of environmental policy as a site of political activity through the development of an epistemology that integrates constructivism, power analytics, historicism and ethics in creative new ways.

• Studying how power is manifest in and through environmental policy: what is at stake?

Aalborg University No. 3 of 14

Environmental Assessment as an analytical focus

• “A family of ex ante techniques and procedures … that seek to inform decision makers by predicting and evaluating the consequences of various activities” (Owens et al., 2004).

• Important feature of contemporary governance (evidence based decision-making/ knowledge society/ better regulation/ etc.)

• (Still) Overwhelmingly portrayed as neutral instruments.• Paucity of research on all aspects of the politics of EA.

Aalborg University No. 4 of 14

On governmentality

• “Political power is exercised today through a profusion of shifting alliances between diverse authorities in projects to govern a multitude of facets of economic activity, social life and individual conduct. Power is not so much a matter of imposing constraints upon citizens as of ‘making up’ citizens capable of bearing a kind of regulated freedom.” (Miller, Rose 2008 53).

• To govern is to, “structure the possible field of action of others” according to a particular rationality (Foucault 2002, 341).

• Emphasizes the ubiquity of government in social relations, the dispersed nature of power, and the significance of the individual to neoliberal government.

Aalborg University No. 5 of 14

Guidance and the ‘making up’ of expert practitioners

• Guidance as a mechanism for configuring habits, aspirations and beliefs.

• Prescriptive, suggestive, or normative notions about practitioners: problems with the current professionals, how different sorts of practitioners are needed, and the values, mindset, skills and abilities of those imagined ideal practitioners.

• Trace the virtual environmental practitioners constructed in guidance.

• Focus on “what people might be” rather than “what we are” (Hacking 1986).

• Provides insights into the values and ambitions of those who would govern.

Aalborg University No. 6 of 14

The expert environmental practitioner

• Expert environmental practitioner as a central locus of power and authority in governing through EA.

• Translate the world they experience into terms amenable to programmatic government: render environmental change and risks calculable, ecosystems as providers of services, etc.

• From 1970s up until early 1990s, expert environmental practitioner was imagined as an applied scientist, typically an ecologist.

• Guidance in response to problematisation of practices: e.g.• Needed because analytical scientific practices were poorly

reflected in EA practices. • New concerns (e.g. climate adaptation) need to be included.

Aalborg University No. 7 of 14

Cases and methods

• Purposeful selection of three guidance documents from a larger sample.• Case 1. Guidance produced by the World Bank on the

use of EA in relation to government policy.• Case 2. Guidance produced by the Danish Ministry of

Environment on the implementation of national EA legislation.

• Case 3. Guidance produced by the Netherlands Commission for EA on public participation in planning and EA.

• Iterative process of interpretation, using a qualitative coding scheme (identity of environmental practitioner, values, skills, aspirations, performance of EA stages).

Aalborg University No. 8 of 14

World Bank guidance

Aalborg University No. 9 of 14

World Bank guidance – A new skill set for the practitioner

“effective environmental assessment in policy and sector reform requires strong constituencies backing up

recommendations, a system to hold policy makers accountable for their decisions, and institutions that can balance competing

and, sometimes, conflicting interests”

• Markedly different model of EA proposed that is “focused on changing incentives, attitudes, and cultures inside organizations and social groups”.

• Problematization of existing models of EA results in calls for a practitioner with different skills.

• Focus on the analysis of “institutions, governance, political economy, and policy issues” requires practitioners from economics, politics or sociology.

Aalborg University No. 10 of 14

World Bank guidance – A not so new skill set for the practitioner?

• Despite departures from conventional practices, the guidance places considerable emphasis on analytical skills:• Analyse stakeholder interests, power basis, ‘winners’ and

‘losers’, who will resist change; identify key policy, legal, regulatory, institutional and capacity gaps; etc.

Aalborg University No. 11 of 14

World Bank guidance (2) – The practitioner as policy entrepreneur

• Strong, dynamic and assertive leader.• Can think strategically about their goals and work

opportunistically to achieve these.• Interpersonal and communication skills very important:

“make stakeholders understand”.

Aalborg University No. 12 of 14

World Bank Guidance (3) – Beliefs and values of the practitioner

• Believe that institutions and good governance (accountability, transparency, etc.) are central to the environmental problematique.

• Policy making is driven by self-interest and policy makers need convincing it is important to include environment.

• Stakeholders can be divided along lines of power and vulnerability.

• Technical solutions to including marginalized stakeholders in policy making can be devised.

Aalborg University No. 13 of 14

Cross comparison of cases

Aalborg University No. 14 of 14

Conclusions

• Governmentality provided a strong lens for identifying the key attributes of virtual environmental practitioners (conduct, values, skills, etc.).

• Very different ideas evident about the ambitions of EA actualized through the identity of the expert practitioner: • World Bank want wide ranging and deep cutting policy

reforms; the Danish guidance wants to “ease planning authorities work”; and the NCEA want a “smoother legal road” and “win wins”.

• Counter conduct with typically limited consequences: guidance doesn’t have same status as legislation.