Anna Davies

Environmental Governance and Transnational Municipal Networks in Europe

The nature of environmental governance within Europe is increasingly considered to be multilevel – involving actors and institutions at local, national and international levels, and from public, private and civil society spheres. One interesting feature of the development of multilevel governance is the emergence of transnational municipal networks (TMNs). This article examines why and how TMNs have emerged in the arena of European environmental governance, and the ways in which they can be conceptualised. Some specific examples of TMNs concerned with urban sustainable development are examined in order to explore the structure and capacity of networks, the development of new forms of governance within such networks, and the nature of co-operation and competition between governments and networks. From these preliminary analyses, three key themes relating to the role of such networks in environmental governance emerge: the impact of networks on policy making; their influence in multilevel governance; and issues of representation and legitimacy. In the final section, issues for future research are considered.

Local action for climate change: transnational networks and the Irish experience

Climate change policies are informed by contributions from public, private and civil society organisations at a range of scales from the local to the global. Such policy formation has come to be termed multilevel governance. Transnational networks of local authorities are an emerging feature of multilevel governance and they have been heralded as a means to improve the implementation of climate change policy on the ground. However empirical evaluation of these transnational climate change networks is geographically limited and no research examining their impact in Ireland has been conducted. In response this paper considers the significance of European climate change networks within Irelands climate change strategy. It concludes that these formal transnational networks have had limited impact to date due to ongoing negotiations about the politics of scale and responsibility with respect to climate change policies in Ireland.

The Geographies of Garbage Governance : Interventions, Interactions and Outcomes

Contents: Introduction Garbage and governance: an introduction Part 1 Theories, Concepts and Frameworks: Governance, environmental governance and garbage Garbage governance in international context. Part 2 Governing Garbage: Case Studies: A comparative framework: contextual background Garbage governance in Ireland: waste wars in the Emerald Isle? Garbage governance in New Zealand: clean and green? Part 3 Comparisons and Conclusions: Comparing garbage governance: shades of green governance Geographies of garbage governance: some concluding thoughts Bibliography Index.

Waste wars‐ public attitudes and the politics of place in waste management strategies

Abstract Arguments about waste management in Ireland are so deeply contested that they have been conceptualised as cultural wars. Key arguments between the warring factions have revolved around what kind of processes will provide a sustainable waste management strategy and at what scale the conflicts over waste should be resolved. To date much of the research into waste management has been fixated on technical issues, institutional arrangements and the top end of governance structures as significant sites for negotiation about waste. Attention to wider publics in these waste wars has been confined to a surface examination of NIMBYism and the State‐based development of information‐based awareness campaigns. It is proposed in this paper that in order to approach the strong demands of sustainable waste management through multilevel governance in Ireland, as stipulated by EU institutions, a more serious consideration of the role of publics in waste management needs to be undertaken.

Incineration Politics and the Geographies of Waste Governance: A Burning Issue for Ireland?

The governance of waste in Ireland is highly contentious, with conflicts over many issues ranging from landfill expansion to charges for municipal waste collection. One of the most intense conflicts surrounds plans to introduce, over the forthcoming decade, incineration for municipal solid waste for the first time in the Republic. Such conflicts over waste incineration, and particularly over the siting of waste-incineration facilities, are not new phenomena and they have been examined empirically and theoretically through a range of disciplinary lenses and in different geographical contexts. These studies, although useful and interesting, rarely give close attention to the geographical strategies involved in such conflicts. The authors empirical investigation of incineration conflicts in Ireland reveals the centrality of a dynamic and evolving spatial dimension, both in the governing strategies adopted by the state in support of a system of waste management that involves a commitment to incineration, and in the transnational advocacy coalition approach adopted by antiincineration campaigners seeking alternatives to incineration. The author concludes that the scalar strategies surrounding incineration reveal the need for a more intricate analysis of power, politics, and place in the analysis of conflicts over waste governance, both in Ireland and beyond—an approach that may be more clearly articulated through a geographically informed understanding of governmentality.

A wasted opportunity? Civil society and waste management in Ireland

Abstract The management of Irelands household waste is a key environmental area where systems of governance can be identified. However, while policy statements clearly support public–private partnerships and have encouraged householders to modify their waste management behaviour, civil society remains on the periphery of waste policy development and implementation. Two contrasting areas of waste-related civil society activities are examined to establish potential reasons for this marginalisation: community-based recycling organisations and coalitions against the imposition of household waste charges. The findings indicate that despite the different tactics used by these civil society groupings similar contingent conditions serve to constrain their operation and the development of future initiatives. So, while the existence of the three spheres of waste governance is undeniable, significant imbalances remain between those spheres in terms of policy influence.

Transforming Household Consumption: From Backcasting to HomeLabs Experiments

Following the rhetoric of an impending “perfect storm” of increasing demand for energy, water, and food, it is recognized that ensuring sustainability will require significant shifts in both production and consumption patterns. This recognition has stimulated a plethora of future-oriented studies often using scenario, visioning, and transition planning techniques. These approaches have produced a multitude of plans for future development, but many valorize technological fixes and give limited attention to the governance and practice of everyday consumption. In contrast, this article presents empirical findings from a practice-oriented participatory (POP) backcasting process focused on home heating, personal washing, and eating. This process provided spaces for collaborative learning, creative innovation, and interdisciplinary interaction as well as producing a suite of ideas around promising practices for more sustainable household consumption. Further action is required, however, to explore how such ideas might be translated into action. The article concludes by outlining how collaborative experiments among public, private, civil society, and citizen-consumers, or HomeLabs, provide a means to test and evaluate the promising practices developed through POP backcasting.

Mind the gap! Householder attitudes and actions towards waste in Ireland

The growing volume of domestic waste is a particularly visible manifestation of the environmental problems caused by high levels of economic growth and consumption in Ireland, while the effective management of waste is becoming progressively problematic for policy-makers and householders alike. Surveys of public opinion demonstrate a gap between concern for the environment and actions to protect it. However, there has been little consideration of public views of, and behaviour in relation to, the waste sector. An in-depth study of public actions and attitudes towards waste in Ireland was conducted in response to this paucity of information. The research revealed a complex landscape of attitudeaction relationships influenced by factors ranging from personal characteristics to social and institutional contexts. Attention to this complexity by policy makers in Ireland will be essential if the management of household waste is to be improved.

Enterprising Communities: Grassroots Sustainability Innovations

This book provides an internationally grounded and critical review of grassroots sustainability enterprises, specifically focusing on the processes that lead to their formation, the governing context that shapes their evolution, the benefits they create and the challenges that they face in different contexts. This is the first internationally focused study of grassroots sustainability enterprises that covers such a range of environmental sectors. For the first time grassroots sustainability enterprises and their actions and impact receive comprehensive academic analysis from the perspective of their contribution towards more resilient development. The book begins by defining the term and placing it in context, looking at contemporary agendas in sustainability innovation and enterprise, and sustainability impacts and grassroots enterprises. It then examines a variety of grassroots sustainability enterprises such as low impact housing in the UK, eco-villages in Ireland, community gardening in Germany and turtle conservation in Costa Rica. It concludes by looking ahead to the future at governing frameworks for grassroots sustainability enterprises and smart green clean-tech economy.

Clean and green? A governance analysis of waste management in New Zealand

The moniker of ‘clean and green’ has been popularly applied to New Zealand since the 1980s. Following the 1991 Resource Management Act, New Zealand was also heralded as a progressive nation in terms of its environmental policy. While both the greenness and progressiveness have subsequently been questioned, the formation, implementation and impact of environmental management has rarely been analysed from an explicit governance perspective. Environmental governance analyses are useful because they permit attention to the multitude of actors operating at a range of scales. In response, this paper examines one significant sector of environmental management in New Zealand – waste. Initially key policies and programmes shaping the waste landscape are considered, then consideration is given to the roles that public, private and civil society sectors play in forming and reforming that landscape. Finally, the performance of governing actors and the practice of governance are brought together in a critical appraisal of waste governance outcomes.