Civil Society and the Governance of Water Services: German Political Parties’ Reactions to Right2Water

Tosun, Jale; Triebskorn, Rita

doi:10.3390/w12030743

Cited by 9 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 43 publications

(67 reference statements)

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“…The organizers of the initiative argued that, due to its high regulation, tap water in Europe has health and safety benefits over bottled water (Díez et al, 2018). Another argument put forth in the context of Right2Water suggests that the privatization of water services could potentially result in lower regulation and consequently in lower water quality (see Tosun & Triebskorn, 2020). Survey data gathered for 64 Spanish cities revealed that the respondents considered the quality of tap water to be lower when the urban water services were in the hands of a private company (García-Rubio, Tortajada, & González-Gómez, 2016).…”

Section: Behavioral Change Through Changes In Access To Tap Watermentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Right2Water (with the full name of the initiative being “Water and sanitation are a human right! Water is a public good, not a commodity!”) represents the first European Citizens' Initiative that managed to collect the required number of signatures and to force the European Commission to position itself on the issue of water as a public service and a public good (see Conrad, ; Tosun & Triebskorn, ). Lowering the consumption of bottled water represents one way of reducing greenhouse gas emissions (see Botto et al, ), an aim to which the signatories to the Paris Agreement committed themselves (see Tobin, Schmidt, Tosun, & Burns, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Making Europe go from bottles to the tap: Political and societal attempts to induce behavioral change

et al. 2020

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In several European countries and at the level of the European Union, we can observe political and societal attempts to promote the use of tap water. Most prominently, the European Commission proposed revisions for the Drinking Water Directive, which includes strategies for promoting the consumption of tap water. The strategies comprise the following: improving access to tap water, upgrading quality standards for tap water, and enhancing transparency concerning the benefits of tap water. National initiatives in European countries pursue similar strategies that concentrate on enhancing access to tap water and communicating its economic, environmental, and social benefits. By drawing on existent literature in different disciplines, we assess how promising these strategies are for inducing individuals to drink tap water rather than bottled water. Our overview reveals that our knowledge regarding the quality dimension is very good: numerous studies on European countries have shown that dissatisfaction with the sensory properties and health-related concerns prevent individuals from drinking (more) tap water and opting for bottled water instead. The body of research with a specific focus on Europe is significantly smaller concerning the other two dimensions: access to tap water and the benefits of tap water. Nonetheless, there is indicative and preliminary evidence that improved access to tap water and a better communication of the benefits of tap water could positively affect consumption patterns.

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Section: Behavioral Change Through Changes In Access To Tap Watermentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Making Europe go from bottles to the tap: Political and societal attempts to induce behavioral change

et al. 2020

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“…In this case, political actors, e.g. environmental organisations or citizen initiatives, try to create attention for an issue in order to place the issue on the political agenda [4,31,91]. The comparatively low presence of organisations with an interest in environmental protection, e.g.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Transition towards sustainable pharmacy? The influence of public debates on policy responses to pharmaceutical contaminants in water

Schaub

Braunbeck

2020

Environ Sci Eur

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Background Despite clear-cut scientific evidence for pharmaceutical contaminants causing adverse effects in aquatic life, the regulatory response in Germany has been weak. In principle, there are different policy approaches to address pharmaceutical contaminants: German water protection policies mostly follows a control approach, complemented by end-of-pipe solutions in some German states. The approach leaves the activities of key target groups, such as the pharmaceutical industry, largely unaffected. A stakeholder consultation initiated in 2016 by the German Federal Ministry of the Environment did not lead to significant changes in regulation. Empirical research in political science has shown that analysing the public debate can be helpful in explaining policy responses and, in particular, policy change. This study follows this approach and investigates whether the German policy response to pharmaceutical contaminants can be explained by characteristics of the public debate on the issue. Results A discourse network analysis based on newspaper reporting in Germany was conducted between 2013 and 2017 to investigate the public debate on pharmaceutical contaminants. German newspapers actually paid considerable attention to the issue. In fact, the debate was not controversial, and participating organisations expressed similar views with regard to the risk of the contaminants, the causes of contamination and the approaches to be taken to mitigate the release of contaminants to the environment. The main narrative in the debate was supportive to the current policy approach applied in Germany. There were no concerted efforts by organisations such as environmental organisations or ecological parties to mobilise for an alternative policy approach. Conclusions The low level of polarisation in the policy subsystem and the absence of a strong narrative mobilising a major policy change may explain the persistence of the policy approach to pharmaceutical contaminants applied in Germany. A significant change to the current approach in the near future seems unlikely. Nevertheless, literature in political science shows that a polarised public debate and a strong pro-change actor coalition often preceded policy change. Actors with an interest in stricter regulation might want to reconsider their mobilisation strategies.

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“…Of the successful initiatives, “Water and sanitation are a human right! Water is a public good, not a commodity!” (better known as Right2Water ) may have had the most tangible legislative impact, since the European Commission referred to it in its proposal for a revised Drinking Water Directive (Tosun & Triebskorn, 2020). As for the other ECIs, the Commission published responses to them and justified why it would not take the requested legislative action.…”

Section: Background Information On the European Citizens’ Initiativementioning

confidence: 99%

Constructing policy narratives for transnational mobilization: Insights from European Citizens’ Initiatives

Tosun

Schaub

2021

European Policy Analysis

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One of the European Union (EU) institutions’ responses to the alleged “democratic deficit” in the EU is the introduction of the European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI). The ECI provides an agenda‐setting tool accessible to different advocacy groups. This study investigates the narrative strategies of ECI organizers to mobilize citizens across the EU. Which storytelling characteristics are present in the policy narratives used by ECIs? To address this question theoretically, we rely on the Narrative Policy Framework. Empirically, we examine 59 ECIs registered between 2012 and 2020. The analysis concentrates on three dimensions of policy narratives: the mentioning of (i) story characters and (ii) cost‐benefit frames as forms of narrative strategy to increase public attention, and (iii) evidence as a means of persuasion. Our findings show that ECIs predominantly make use of the devil shift in their policy narratives and use cost‐benefit frames and evidence to expand the scope of conflict.

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Civil Society and the Governance of Water Services: German Political Parties’ Reactions to Right2Water

Cited by 9 publications

References 43 publications

Making Europe go from bottles to the tap: Political and societal attempts to induce behavioral change

Making Europe go from bottles to the tap: Political and societal attempts to induce behavioral change

Transition towards sustainable pharmacy? The influence of public debates on policy responses to pharmaceutical contaminants in water

Constructing policy narratives for transnational mobilization: Insights from European Citizens’ Initiatives

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