The Collaborative Management of Sustained Unsustainability: On the Performance of Participatory Forms of Environmental Governance

Abstract

In modern democratic consumer societies, decentralized, participative, and consensus-oriented forms of multi-stakeholder governance are supplementing, and often replacing, conventional forms of state-centered environmental government. The engagement in all phases of the policy process of diverse social actors has become a hallmark of environmental good governance. This does not mean to say, however, that these modes of policy-making have proved particularly successful in resolving the widely debated multiple sustainability crisis. In fact, they have been found wanting in terms of their ability to respond to democratic needs and their capacity to resolve environmental problems. So why have these participatory forms of environmental governance become so prominent? What exactly is their appeal? What do they deliver? Exploring these questions from the perspective of eco-political and sociological theory, this article suggests that these forms of environmental governance represent a performative kind of eco-politics that helps liberal consumer societies to manage their inability and unwillingness to achieve the socio-ecological transformation that scientists and environmental activists say is urgently required. This reading of the prevailing policy approaches as the collaborative management of sustained unsustainability adds an important dimension to the understanding of environmental governance and contemporary eco-politics more generally.

European environmental policy at 50: Five decades of escaping decision traps?

“…Starting with the Water Framework Directive (2000/60/EC), EU environmental policy adopted a “mandated participatory planning” (MPP) approach (Newig & Koontz, ), in which directives specify very broad overall goals (such as “good water quality”) and procedures for adopting measures on the national level, giving member states substantial flexibility (see also Blühdorn & Deflorian, ). In contrast to traditional framework directives, in which the substantive targets were defined in subsequent “daughter directives” adopted on the EU level, the MPP approach leaves the target specification to the member state, but even the MPP approach does not prevent deadlock, as evinced by the 7 years of negotiations and eventual withdrawal in 2013 of the soil framework directive proposal (Deters, ).…”

Smart gridlock? Challenging hegemonic framings of mitigation solutions and scalability

“…There is a need to shift from 'hero stories' to 'learning stories' in goal-setting for energy transitions (Janda and Topouzi 2015). To support energy transitions, sustained academic pushes can counteract hollow performances of sustainability and build a culture of substantively evidencing sustainability claims to support energy transitions (Blühdorn and Deflorian 2019). Hence, disrupting business-as-usual promissory discourses, such as around smart meters, with a publicly-engaged evidence base as with the PARENT project, represents a vital step towards unlocking deep and rapid climate mitigation solutions and identifying how to scale them.…”

“…Cities emit 70% of global carbon emissions and host half the world population; thus, major initiatives and investments like smart grids gain traction through claims that align their growth prospects with urban mitigation solutions. Even lip service to mitigation targets helps depoliticise challenges and weaken resistance to particular new interventions (Blühdorn and Deflorian 2019). Earnest belief in upscaling smart grids as mitigation solutions can also play on a strong existing discourse on energy efficiency and shape the urban growth agenda (Janda and Topouzi 2015).…”

The work after “It's too late” (to prevent dangerous climate change)

“…Description of examples Example references Earth/climate system End of relative climatic stability characterizing the Holocene, that is, the conditions that gave rise to human civilization (e.g., slow-down or collapse of Atlantic meridional overturning circulation; collapse of major polar ice sheets; instability of monsoonal systems) (Lenton et al, 2008;Rockström et al, 2009;Schellnhuber, 2009;Steffen et al, 2018) Specific natural systems Die-back of globally significant biomes (e.g., Amazon rainforest, coral reefs and related marine ecosystems; insect collapse) (Barnosky et al, 2016;Kareiva & Carranza, 2018;Schyns, Hoekstra, Booij, Hogeboom, & Mekonnen, 2019) Specific human-built systems Unraveling of social, economic, infrastructure, governance, food and health systems and geopolitical order/stability with severe consequences for society (e.g., for Pacific atoll island nations) (Barnett, 2017;Benson & Craig, 2014;Butzer & Endfield, 2012;Hsiang & Meng, 2014;Turner, 2012) Capitalism Following the fate of state-controlled socialism, the end of this particular form and paradigm of economic activity and associated systems that depend on perpetual material growth and exploitation of Earth's resources and life forms (Fergnani, 2019;Mason, 2015;Spash, 2015;Streeck, 2014) Modern civilization, including modernist values, beliefs, worldviews and identities, and the associated comfort and safety of the privileged End to the exceptionalism that current society could avoid the fate of past civilizations; that the wealthy will be spared inconvenience or danger; that modernist hopes can be fulfilled (Blühdorn & Deflorian, 2019;Ehrlich & Ehrlich, 2013;Hamilton, 2010;Kingsnorth & Hine, 2009) Human species End to anthropocentrism and human exceptionalism which assumes that Homo sapiens would not follow the fate of other species who either overshot the limits of their habitat or could not evolve with it fast enough (Baker & McPherson, 2012;Lovelock, 2009) typically when there is no longer any other alternative, individuals may come to accept the approaching death and engage actively in efforts to bring unfinished aspects of their lives to a more satisfying closing. For many, this time offers opportunities to reckon, heal, and come to peace with past f...…”