Understanding Environmental Governance

Abstract

This article presents an historical sketch of the insights and applications provided by social science scholars on environmental governance. The authors begin with a review of the conceptual developments during the past 50 years characterized in terms of six conceptual perspectives: pluralism, agency capture, ecological Marxism, ecological modernization, social constructionism, and global environmentalism. This section is followed by an empirical analysis of academic journal coverage of research on environmental governance from 1963 to 2001 listed in the database Sociological Abstracts. The authors conclude that an understanding of the potential for environmental improvement could be advanced by the treatment of works that fall within the conceptual typology described herein, as a cumulative body of interdisciplinary knowledge. Advancements in this area could, furthermore, be facilitated through a broadening of empirical and methodological treatment of environmental governance and a greater attention to macro-structural relations among state and societal forces and environmental phenomena.

Retracted: Does Better Environmental Governance Reduce Anthropogenic Carbon Dioxide Emission? a Cross-Country Analysis

“…Rather, better environmental governance in a country is due to high environmental literacy, spill-over effects of environmental literacy and awareness from other countries, awareness of human-made damages to the environment that are directly not related to CO 2 emission, etc. (Mehta et al 2001, Davidson and Frickel 2004, Damodaran 2012, Paavola 2007.…”

Interplay of actors, scales, frameworks and regimes in the governance of biodiversity

“…For some, governance refers to new ways of achieving social objectives in which states participate but do not necessarily play a leading role (see, e.g., Rhodes, 1996;Stoker, 1998). To others, environmental governance relates to all attempts to address environmental dilemmas or to resolve environmental confl icts by creating, changing or reaffi rming institutional arrangements (see Davidson and Frickel, 2004;Paavola, 2007). Further understandings of environmental governance are also possible as we seek to demonstrate below.…”

Global Anthropogenic Carbon Dioxide Emission in 2005: Environmental Kuznets Curve Hypothesis and Implications for Policy

“…Rather, it is due to increased environmental literacy in that country, spill-over effects of environmental literacy and awareness from other countries, awareness of humanmade damages to the environment that are directly not related to CO 2 emission, etc. (Damodaran, 2012;Davidson and Frickel, 2004;Mehta et al, 2001;Paavola, 2007). The importance of using fossil fuel usage and clean fuel usage variables need separate emphasis.…”