Hellmuth Lange

Path dependencies and path change in complex fields of action: climate adaptation policies in Germany in the realm of flood risk management.

The spatial and temporal repercussions of climate change are of an extremely complex nature. Coping with climate change is, first and foremost, a challenge to political decision making and, considering the long-term effects of the climate system, to planning. However, there have never been more doubts that the political-administrative system is able to meet these requirements. Although much evidence has been put forward in favor of such skepticism, sometimes, it is dangerous to overstate the existing limits. Drawing on two case studies in the area of flood risk management in Germany, the article illustrates how and why significant path change came about. In both cases, the state proved to still being a pivotal actor, due to a number of functions that cannot be assumed by other actors. However, other actor groups—such as actors from science, the media, NGOs, and citizen groups—play a significant role as well by providing relevant expertise and influencing the public discourse, thus mobilizing significant political pressure.

Risk Management at the Science–Policy Interface: Two Contrasting Cases in the Field of Flood Protection in Germany

Abstract This paper concerns the way in which the scientific debate on climate change and new risks is being adopted as a basis for political decision making. How does the crucial risk issue ‘diffuse’ into policy, which in turn has to give the public account of the risks of climate change? In discussing the science–policy interface, reference is made to the debate on blurring boundaries between science and policy making. Here, heterogeneous and often competing discourses come into play. This makes discourse analysis an appropriate and well-accepted tool in both conceptual and theoretical aspect. However, which of the competing discourses wins the day can hardly be explained in a discourse analytical way, due to its constructivist bias. Case studies provide some evidence that complex understanding can be obtained when discourse analysis is framed by a more realistic approach, such as Kingdons policy window approach. Two cases are presented. Although representing overlapping policy domains, the risk management differs considerably. In both the state proves to be the pivotal actor. In the first case, on coastal protection in northern Germany, the administrative officers in charge try to transform and to curtail the risk issue and its emphasis on uncertainty in a way that makes it compatible with their own safety discourse, thus generating a scientific–administrative hybrid. The second case, a newly enacted political strategy on riparian flood protection, draws explicitly on uncertainty and risk, thus transferring and integrating the issue firsthand into the political–administrative system. Taking a governance perspective, the explanation refers to different steering contexts in terms of institutional settings, actor constellations, political framings and natural extreme events.

Who are the New Middle Classes and why are they Given so Much Public Attention

Although still a relatively unexplored group, the new middle classes are enjoying a great deal of public attention. The first section discusses the question of why, then, the new middle classes have become a favored topic in the media and the broader political public. Section 1.2 looks at who the new middle classes are and how they can be examined empirically. Section 1.3 links the issue to the overarching debate on cultural globalization between McDonaldization, modernities and cultural hybrids. The focus of Section 1.4 is on the emergence of “civic environmentalism” between individual concern, social protest and political decision making.

Highly Qualified Employees in Bangalore, India: Consumerist Predators?

This chapter discusses the lifestyles of the upper tier of the Indian new middle classes. Its members can be seen as a pilot group which is about to adopt a “Western” way of life. But there is little evidence that environmental and social responsibility were basically being rejected, as suggested by the predator hypothesis. The data suggests that many in this group like to shop and consume, however, in a businesslike and sober way, trying to pragmatically balance diverging concerns. Ecological concern is just one among many, and clearly one that is accorded minor importance. But about one third of the sample explicitly repudiates excessive consumption and can be seen as amenable to elements of the ecological and the civil society discourses – which is the same pattern as can be found in the West.

Innovationen im politischen Prozess als Bedingung substantieller Nachhaltigkeitsfortschritte

Uberlegungen zur Art und Weise des Innovationsbedarfs, der mit dem Ziel der Beforderung von Nachhaltigkeit einhergeht, legen es nahe, sich zunachst einmal daruber zu verstandigen, welche Besonderheiten der Nachhaltigkeitsproblematik fur diesen Zusammenhang relevant sind. Im Vordergrund steht hier das Spannungsverhaltnis von ‚messen und verhandeln‘ (Abschnitt 1). Die Frage des Innovationsbedarfs wird sodann in zwei Richtungen erortert. Zum einen werden drei notwendige Erweiterungen des politischen Instrumentenkastens behandelt: intermediare Institutionen des ‚science-policy interface‘, Achsen der Politikintegration und das Konzept des ‚transition-management‘ (Abschnitt 2). Der folgende Abschnitt diskutiert Nachhaltigkeit als eine verteilungspolitische Herausforderung (Abschnitt 3). Der Schwerpunkt liegt hier auf Befunden der empirischen Gerechtigkeitsforschung und der nachhaltigkeitspolitischen Notwendigkeit, etablierte Vorstellungen von Angemessenheit und Gerechtigkeit zu uberwinden oder zumindest zu relativieren.