Local Growth Coalitions and Air Pollution Controls: The Ecological Modernization of the US in Historical Perspective

González, George A.

doi:10.1080/714000623

Cited by 8 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…Concerns in the late 1980s over acid rain, the ozone layer, and climate change represented new issue attention cycles, which fall outside our scope. (in 1943, 1946, 1949) caused eye irritation, coughing, and respiratory discomfort, which led to public complaints and petitions to elected officials [49]. Initial sensemaking attempts saw manufacturing and industrial districts as the principal offenders.…”

Section: Air Pollution and The American Car Industry (1943-1985)mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Policy-makers. Although local policy makers expressed some concerns about smog, they did not go beyond "well-publicised but essentially token enforcement efforts" [49] (p. 134). Officials promoted research via the newly created (1947) LA County Air Pollution Control District (APCD), which hired Haagen-Smit.…”

Section: Air Pollution and The American Car Industry (1943-1985)mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The car industry denied that cars caused smog problems [49]. Industry actors undertook neither political nor innovation strategies, because the issue was seen as insignificant.…”

Section: Car Industry Issue Responsesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Multi-dimensional struggles in the greening of industry: A dialectic issue lifecycle model and case study

Penna

Geels

2012

Technological Forecasting and Social Change

111

107

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This paper aims to make two conceptual contributions to the greening of industry literature. Firstly, we propose that the greening process can be conceptualized as an issue lifecycle dynamics with multi-dimensional struggles between 'greening' pressures and industry response strategies. To capture the endogenous dynamics, we develop a Dialectic Issue LifeCycle model with five phases, which conceptualize how these struggles play out over time. Secondly, we propose that issue lifecycle dynamics are also influenced by (external) alignments with contextual field-level developments. This proposition accommodates the notion that industries not only face 'green' issues but also other relevant pressures. We apply the model to a historical case study: air pollution problems and responses from American automakers . The case study presents a good match with the first three phases of the model, but shows deviations in the fourth and fifth phase, which are due to: a) decreasing pressure from public opinion; b) limited spillovers from air pollution to consumer demand; c) rise of competing issues; and d) strong resistance from the car industry. The findings underline that the greening of industry cannot be fully understood by looking only at the focal issue (e.g. air pollution). Broader developments in industry and external contexts also need to be taken into account.

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Section: Air Pollution and The American Car Industry (1943-1985)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Air Pollution and The American Car Industry (1943-1985)mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Multi-dimensional struggles in the greening of industry: A dialectic issue lifecycle model and case study

Penna

Geels

2012

Technological Forecasting and Social Change

111

107

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“…And while Gonzalez describes Los Angeles's Stamp Out Smog as a manifestation of elite concern for the deleterious effects of air pollution on local growth, Moore ascribes different motivations to the Salt Lake Women's Chamber of Commerce (e.g., greater local autonomy). 34 Finding that the MLCW played an important role in the city's smoke abatement policy-making would present an opportunity to further explore this type of activism.…”

Section: Local Elites Address Air Pollutionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Urban Elites, Energy, and Smoke Policy in Montreal during the Interwar Period

Temby¹,

MacFadyen²

2017

uhr

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During the late 1920s and early 1930s, Montreal’s air was blackened by smoke from coal-burning homes, factories, and the locomotives and lake freighters connecting its growing economy to the rest of Canada. Lacking regulatory tools suited to the task of abating this nuisance, the municipal government passed the country’s first modern smoke bylaw, consisting of an objective emissions standard, a smoke control bureau, and requirements for the installation and utilization of technology to lessen emissions. In providing an account of the process through which Montreal’s smoke nuisance was addressed, this article describes the role of the city’s most influential local growth coalition, the Montreal Board of Trade, in introducing the issue on the city’s policy agenda, participating in the formulation of a policy response, and monitoring the implementation of the resulting bylaw. The Board of Trade sought a resolution to the problem because it damaged the city’s reputation and business climate. Consistent with other documented examples of smoke abatement in large urban areas, the response promoted by this elite growth coalition consisted largely of technology-based measures that managed the problem while eschewing recourse to measures that would dampen economic activity.

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“…In The Politics of Air Pollution, Gonzalez shows that in Chicago during the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century, local elite pollution-abatement activists were unable to secure reductions because the technology to do so in a way that would not ostensibly harm the local economy was unavailable. 10 Using the comparison case of Los Angeles's moderately successful clean air programs of the 1940s and 1950s, he contends that solutions to air and water pollution are mutually acceptable to local elites and heavy industry only if they can occur in a way that does not negatively affect urban economic activity. Thus, a decisive factor in whether or not mobilized activists are successful is the availability of an economical "ecological modernization" solution to the problem, enabling compromise involving the utilization of technology.…”

Section: Nuisances and Political Contestationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Environmental Nuisances and Political Contestation in Canadian Cities: Research on the Regulation of Urban Growth’s Unwanted Outcomes

Temby¹

2015

Urban History Review

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Local Growth Coalitions and Air Pollution Controls: The Ecological Modernization of the US in Historical Perspective

Cited by 8 publications

References 17 publications

Multi-dimensional struggles in the greening of industry: A dialectic issue lifecycle model and case study

Multi-dimensional struggles in the greening of industry: A dialectic issue lifecycle model and case study

Urban Elites, Energy, and Smoke Policy in Montreal during the Interwar Period

Environmental Nuisances and Political Contestation in Canadian Cities: Research on the Regulation of Urban Growth’s Unwanted Outcomes

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