Urban Environmental Governance

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Urban Environmental Governance

• Special Lecture in Environmental Biology
  Environmental Research, 13.2.2006
• Arho Toikka
• Researcher, PhD Student

Department of Social Policy, Faculty of Social
Sciences
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Introduction the general problem

• Societies face a range of environmental problems
• The methods chosen to deal with issues vary over
  time and between issues
• How to explain environmental policy choice in
  different settings?
• Joas, Marko (2001). Reflexive Modernisaion of the
  Environmental Administration in Finland. Turku
  Åbo Akademi University Press.

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Outline

• Environmental policy research in the social
  sciences
• Urban environmental issues and policies
• Governance
• Networked governance
• Networked governance research in urban
  environmental policies

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Environmental policy research in the social
sciences

• An umbrella of different scientific disciplines
• Sociology, policy science, economics, psychology,
  history
• The relation between the natural environment and
  the social as the object of study
• The collective or the social as the level of
  interest

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Environmental policy research in the social
sciences

• Three components
• The study of ideas and theories concerning
  environmental policies
• The study of political parties and environmental
  movements
• The study of collective decisions affecting the
  environment (Massa 2004)
• Social construction of environmental problems and
  their solutions
• Hajer, Maarten (1995). The Politics of
  Environmental Discourse. Ecological Modernization
  and the Policy Process.

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Urban environmental issues and policies

• Local, regional, national, global issues all have
  consequences on urban life
• From global warming and biodiversity loss to
  congested traffic and smoking on balconies
• Local or city politics face unique environmental
  pressures, but also possibilities
• Between everyday life and national or
  international politics
• Access to both resources and local, tacit
  knowledge

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Urban environmental issues and policies

• Local decision-making processes
• Less institutionalized
• Often more open
• Programmes and public planning instead of laws
  and regulation
• Local environmental policy instruments
• Public planning
• Legal-administrative steering

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The general problem

• Societies face a range of environmental problems
• The methods chosen to deal with issues vary over
  time and between issues
• How to explain environmental policy choice in
  different settings?
• Analyzing collective choice situations

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Governance

• A theory of collective decision-making
• Increasing level of complexity of issues and
  decreasing opportunity space for public policy
  have forced a move from government to governance
• Governance is characterized by
• Differentiation of government
• Public and private co-operation
• Networked decision-making
• Bargaining games

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Local governance

• The local level forerunner in governance
• No tradition of a strong executive
• Local interest groups and business included
• Networks of knowledge and resources important
• Informal and formal bargaining shapes decisions
• Doing research in governance processes
• Theoretical move from traditional government
  institutions to the informal co-operation
  processes
• Empirical focus on the networks and bargaining
  games

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Social network analysis

• Focus on the relationships between social
  entities
• A distinct set of quantitative, mathematical or
  computational, methods
• Uses graphic imagery

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Social network data and methods

• Definition of
• Actor
• Relationship or tie
• Data on complete network required
• Methods include the assessment of centrality,
  prominence, structural balance, cohesive
  subgroups

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Networked governance

• Political decisions are made by a network of
  connected, interdependent actors
• Using network analysis methods and network data,
  we can better understand the decision-making
  processes
• Governance network data requirements
• Relevant actors organizations
• Relevant ties stable negotiation links
• Data collection informant interviews at all
  organizations

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Networked governance research in urban
environmental policies

• The HERC-funded project Urban and Rural Air
  Pollution
• Aim Explaining the differences in attitude and
  action in dealing with different environmental
  problems in the City of Helsinki
• Research design
• Data collection and methodology
• Some preliminary results

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Research design
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Research design
Why some environmental problems become political
questions and some do not?
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Research design
What happens in the process of seeking a
solution to an environmental issue?
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Research design
How do the differences in the decision-making
process affect policy choice?
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Data collection and methodology

• The data on City of Helsinki environmental
  decision-making networks
• Definition of actors Organizations that actively
  participate in environmental policy processes
• Definition of ties Established co-operation
  links on any environmental issue relevant to the
  organizations
• Interviews with the persons responsible for
  environmental matters at the organization
• About 100 organizations
• In-person interviews, 45-90min
• Data registered by interviewer on questionnaire

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Data collection and methodology

• Data input into a n x n matrix
• The analysis methods are matrix manipulations on
  this matrix
• Special ready-made computer programs for the
  analysis, usually freely available

A
B
C
D
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Data collection and methodology

• The Helsinki Environmental Decision-Making
  Network Data consist
• The 100 x 100 network matrix with the ties
  between actors
• The preferences on selected environmental issues
  for each actor
• The goal To find the model that best explains
  the transformation of the individual preferences
  into a collective decision

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Data collection and methodology

• Modelling the decision-making process
• The base models
• City government rule
• Party politics
• Equal access
• The empirical models
• Centrality
• Brokerage
• Network exchange

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Preliminary results

• Illustration of the idea The Helsinki Ecological
  Sustainability Programme draft process analysis
• The environmental policy of Helsinki for
  2005-2008
• Drafted in a collaboration process
• Includes 6 goals, divided into 25 subgoals and 54
  concrete measures
• Some measures are very ambitious and influential
• Some are either very cautious in wording and/or
  lack necessary resources for realization
• Why are there differences between different
  arenas of environmental policy achievement?

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HEKO Network
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HEKO Network
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Conclusions

• Societies face a range of environmental problems
• The methods chosen to deal with issues vary over
  time and between issues
• How to explain environmental policy choice in
  different settings?
• The answer of governance theory

• Decisions are made by networks of actors
• The actors negotiate or bargain to find a policy
  choice that
• best suits everyone's preferences
• Network position defines importance

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Conclusions
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What you can do?