‘Modes of governing’ and solid waste management in Maui, Hawaii, USA

Abstract

Maui, Hawaii, USA is an island with sensitive ecosystems and sharply circumscribed spatial resources for waste disposal. Despite the State of Hawaii's preferences to the contrary, Maui remains heavily dependent on landfilling and to a lesser extent, landfill diversion techniques to manage its solid waste. This article examines the history of solid waste management on Maui through the lens of Bulkeley, Watson, and Hudson's (2007) 'modes of governing' framework for the analysis of environmental and infrastructural policy issues. This approach asks users to consider equally and simultaneously the structures, processes, technologies, and ultimately, multiplicities of governance activities. Based on an analysis of approximately 200 government, private firm, and news media documents, it is demonstrated that private firms played a very significant role in shaping solid waste management on Maui, and were able to introduce their own desired modes for governing solid waste management that supplanted the preferences of State and County entities. In making this addition to the original modes of governing framework, it is argued that differences in both legal authority over and functional proximity to the practices and processes of solid waste management on Maui spurred the deployment of and competition between multiple modes of governing solid waste management there, as well as the eventual entry of private firms into the solid waste management process. Ultimately, the fragmentation of solid waste management practices on Maui has resulted in a somewhat ambivalent outcome for the natural environment. As such, this study adds to growing literatures examining both solid waste management and environmental policy issues.

Modes of governing Canadian waste management: a case study of Metro Vancouver’s energy-from-waste controversy

“…In this paper, we have attempted to enhance the modes of governing framework by drawing on earlier empirical work that attends to how locally contingent interpretations of governing rationalities can result in conflict (Boyle, 2002;Murdoch, 2000). The extensive devolution of WM has resulted in a significant amount of inter-regional politics being determined by the private industries with whom regions have partnered (Howell, 2015).…”

“…The following sections explore how WM in Canada, governed almost exclusively at the local level, has resulted in a fragmented landscape of 'competing rationalities' (Howell, 2015(Howell, , p. 2157). As regional districts attempt to redefine WM in their local context, these locally constructed rationalities overlap, intersect, and are contested.…”

“…Bylaw 280 exemplifies how the disposal, diversion, and emergent local modes have coalesced to form a fragmented waste governance landscape informed by different stakeholder rationalities across governing scales (Howell, 2015). Attempts to prevent the passing of bylaw 280 are indicative of the work needed to stabilize governance networks and prevent local actors from 'going their own way' (Murdoch, 2000, p. 514).…”

Shifting modes of governing municipal waste – A sociology of translation approach

“…The contribution of this study goes beyond understanding the ways of changing municipal waste systems (e.g. Bulkeley and Gregson, 2009;Howell, 2015;Pollans, 2017). We address calls from environmental policy implementation studies (e.g.…”

“…This study contributes to the governance of waste literature in particular (e.g. Bulkeley and Gregson, 2009;Howell, 2015;Lawhon, 2012;Pollans, 2017), and to environmental policy implementation studies in general (e.g. May, 2015;Switzer, 2017).…”