Jörg Balsiger

Climate change in mountain regions: how local communities adapt to extreme events

This paper examines how local communities adapt to climate change and how governance structures can foster or undermine adaptive capacity. Climate change policies, in general, and disaster risk management in mountain regions, in particular, are characterised by their multi-level and multi-sectoral nature during formulation and implementation. The involvement of numerous state and non-state actors at local to national levels produces a variety of networks of interaction and communication. The paper argues that the structure of these relational patterns is critical for understanding adaptive capacity. It thus proposes an expanded concept of adaptive capacity that incorporates (horizontal and vertical) actor integration and communication flow between these actors. The paper further advocates the use of formal social network analysis to assess these relational patterns. Preliminary results from research on adaptation to climate change in a Swiss mountain region vulnerable to floods and other natural hazards illustrate the conceptual and empirical significance of the main arguments.

Navigating Regional Environmental Governance

Global environmental governance is growing increasingly complex and recent scholarship and practice raise a number of questions about the continued feasibility of negotiating and implementing an ever-larger set of global environmental agreements. In the search for alternative conceptual models and normative orders, regional environmental governance (REG) is (re)emerging as a significant phenomenon in theory and practice. Although environmental cooperation has historically been more prevalent at the regional than at the global level, and has informed much of what we know today about international environmental cooperation, REG has been a neglected topic in the scholarly literature on international relations and international environmental politics. This introduction to the special issue situates theoretical arguments linked to REG in the broader literature, including the nature of regions, the location of regions in multilevel governance, and the normative arguments advanced for and against regional orders. It provides an overview of empirical work; offers quantitative evidence of REGs global distribution; advances a typology of REG for future research; and introduces the collection of research articles and commentaries through the lens of three themes: form and function, multilevel governance, and participation.

New Environmental Regionalism and Sustainable Development in the European Alps

In the context of increasing fragmentation and functional differentiation in international governance, new environmental regionalism represents a recent trend involving initiatives that seek to territorialize environmental governance at the level of transboundary ecoregions, such as mountain ranges or river basins. This article examines the implications of this trend for sustainable development, which is defined here as a procedural norm for reconciling the tradeoffs between environmental, economic, and social dimensions of wellbeing. This article (1) traces arguments concerning the origins of functional differentiation to research on European state-making; (2) offers two complementary perspectives that generate insights into sustainable development at the transboundary level, one focusing on the intersection of multiple and overlapping functional spaces, and the other focusing on regionalization as the domestic manifestation of regional themes; and (3) illustrates the significance of these perspectives in the case of the European Alps. The article suggests that the Alps serve both as the bounded object of an international legally binding agreement asking its signatories to formalize sustainable development, and as the intersection of multiple overlapping functional spaces. It lends support to claims about the link between rescaling and functional differentiation, but demonstrates that a sympathetic critique of new environmental regionalism need not conclude that the phenomenon exacerbates the fragmentation of international governance.

Mountains of Our Future Earth: Defining Priorities for Mountain Research: A Synthesis from the 2015 Perth III Conference

The Perth conferences, held every 5 years in Perth, Scotland, bring together people who identify as mountain researchers and who are interested in issues related to global change in mountain social-ecological systems. These conferences provide an opportunity to evaluate the evolution of research directions within the mountain research community, as well as to identify research priorities. The Future Earth Strategic Research Agenda provides a useful framework for evaluating the mountain research communitys progress toward addressing global change and sustainability challenges. Using a process originally set up to analyze contributions to the 2010 conference, the abstracts accepted for the 2015 conference in the context of the Future Earth framework were analyzed. This revealed a continued geographic underrepresentation in mountain research of Africa, Latin America, and South and Southeast Asia but a more even treatment of biophysical and social science themes than in 2010. It also showed that the Perth conference research community strongly focused on understanding system processes (the Dynamic Planet theme of the Future Earth research agenda). Despite the continued bias of conference contributions toward traditional observation- and conservation-oriented research, survey results indicate that conference participants clearly believe that transdisciplinary, transformative research is relevant to mountains. Of the 8 Future Earth focal challenges, those related to safeguarding natural assets, promoting sustainable land use, increasing resilience and understanding the water-energy-food nexus received considerable attention. The challenges related to sustainable consumption, decarbonizing socioeconomic systems, cities, and health were considerably less well represented, despite their relevance to mountain socioeconomic systems. Based on these findings, we outline a proposal for the future directions of mountain research.

Sustainability principles put into practice: case studies of network analysis in Swiss climate change adaptation

Climate adaptation policies increasingly incorporate sustainability principles into their design and implementation. Since successful adaptation by means of adaptive capacity is recognized as being dependent upon progress toward sustainable development, policy design is increasingly characterized by the inclusion of state and non-state actors (horizontal actor integration), cross-sectoral collaboration, and inter-generational planning perspectives. Comparing four case studies in Swiss mountain regions, three located in the Upper Rhone region and one case from western Switzerland, we investigate how sustainability is put into practice. We argue that collaboration networks and sustainability perceptions matter when assessing the implementation of sustainability in local climate change adaptation. In other words, we suggest that adaptation is successful where sustainability perceptions translate into cross-sectoral integration and collaboration on the ground. Data about perceptions and network relations are assessed through surveys and treated via cluster and social network analysis.

The European Union Strategy for the Alpine Region

The emergence of macro-regional strategies on the European policy agenda is a curious development. On the one hand, the new instrument offers a promising approach to address several previous shortcomings in the implementation of the territorial cohesion objective, including the widespread shortage of meaningful policy integration and the apparent lack of coherence between numerous territorial policy initiatives. On the other hand, the EU has been cautious about actively promoting them and has emphasized that macro-regional strategies would entail no new regulations, no new institutions and no new financial resources. Despite this hesitation, several processes of macro-regionalization (see chapter 1 for a definition) have emerged since the Baltic and Danube strategies were adopted in 2009 and 2011, respectively. In December 2012, the European Council mandated the European Commission to proceed with its preparation of a macro-regional EU Strategy for the Adriatic-Ionian Region (EUSAIR), and in December 2013, it did so for an EU Strategy for the Alpine Region (EUSALP). A public consultation was conducted from mid-July to mid-October 2014. Its results were examined at a conference in Milan in December 2014, organized in the context of the Italian double presidency of the EU and the Alpine Convention. If and when the EUSALP is finalized as the fourth macro-regional strategy in mid-2015, a total of 19 EU members and 9 non-members will have joined in the macro-regional ‘turn’.

Die Alpen: Raum, Kultur, Geschichte [The Alps: Space, Culture, History]

A well-known adage has it that a book should not be judged by its cover. Jon Mathieu’s Die Alpen: Raum, Kultur, Geschichte represents an exception to this rule, for it is a magnificent volume to behold. By the sheer virtue of its impressive weight, the title’s elegant silver engraving, and the textured cover image, readers are informed that this is an important book—and indeed, it won the 2016 Science Book of the Year prize awarded by the Austrian Federal Ministry of Science, Research, and Economy. The author himself recalls one reason for the book’s uniqueness at its outset. Jon Mathieu, professor of history at the University of Lucerne, suggests that an accessible overview of Alpine history had not so far appeared. Mathieu should know, for he is one of the best-known Alpine historians and has published widely on mountains in general and the Alps in particular. His last work, The Third Dimension: A Comparative History of Mountains in the Modern Era, was published in German and English in 2011; 3 years earlier he received the King Albert I Mountain Award for his research. In Die Alpen, Mathieu addresses the deep connection between humans and nature in the cultural landscape of the European Alps, ranging from the Mediterranean coast to Slovenia. The canvas of his cultural history encompasses all phases of human settlement from roughly 50,000 years ago to the present. The long outlook serves to underline one of his main arguments, namely that the continuous process of mutual interaction between society and the environment has given rise to highly diverse imaginaries and materialities of what French historian Fernand Braudel has described as an exceptional range. It is worth noting that, in considering the exceptional character of this cultural landscape, Braudel and Mathieu are joined by Werner B€atzing, whose magisterial fourth edition of Die Alpen also appeared in 2015 (B€atzing 2015a). However, although B€atzing’s outlook—like that in The Mountain by Debarbieux and Rudaz, also published in 2015—is somewhat somber, prompting him to issue a polemic on the future of the Alps (B€atzing 2015b), Mathieu emphasizes how Alpine adaptation and resilience to crises is the result of coevolution with wider Europe’s larger ups and downs—such as the Little Ice Age, the religious wars before and after the Reformation, or the devastating nationalisms of the 2 world wars. From this historical perspective, Mathieu finds inspiration in the 1991 Alpine Convention, which has signaled increased ecological awareness and transboundary regionalism. He considers booming tourism a sign of hope for an imperiled agricultural sector that has been the linchpin of the region’s cultural landscape. Mathieu presents the evidence for his argument in a carefully structured way. This makes for an enjoyable read, even if the language is sometimes more appropriate for a scholarly audience than for a lay audience. Die Alpen includes a brief introduction, 10 chapters, and a useful annex complete with a chronology, a carefully annotated commentary on further reading, a bibliography, and a detailed index. More than 80 illustrations, many in color—with almost 20 in a special section on the Alps in arts and crafts from the 14th to the 20th centuries— round out the volume. The chapters provide fascinating insights, frequently illustrated by detailed accounts on topics such as the history of tunnel construction, differences in farmhouse architecture between the western and eastern Alps, or the transition from sheep herding to cattle farming. Because the chapters are not strictly chronological, the partial overlaps reinforce the sense that the Alps have been, and remain, many things to many people. The parallel, thematic treatment of human settlement, economic organization, and political developments, for instance, amplifies the multilayered and spatially differentiated character of the Alps, particularly against the background of modernity’s impact. Although this approach to constructing the book makes up for the necessary selectivity inherent in such a project, only the more informed readers will be able to appreciate the trade-off. Die Alpen is an indispensable book in any Alpine connoisseur’s collection, and of equal interest to students of the history of cultural landscapes in nonmountainous regions. The work is at once a sweeping analysis of interest to comparativists and a cabinet of curiosities to intrigue even seasoned Alpine experts. It is perhaps this latter trait that gives rise to the wish for a slightly more sustained integration of the chapters’ main messages.

Rootes, Christopher, ed. 2003. Environmental Protest in Western Europe

agenda controls the outcome.” It’s a bit of an overstatement, but contains much truth. Methodological choices affect outcomes. If research agendas can be controlled, then certain types of information won’t be obtained. Sensitive subjects may be downplayed or even kept off the table entirely. Choices of research methodology always require making decisions favoring one set of values relative to another. For example, individuals concerned about the intrinsic value of eagles may well feel that a study of windmills formulated in pure beneat/cost terms overemphasizes monitization at the expense of species and intergenerational equity. A research agenda designed to look only at the effects of individual chemicals will systematically exclude synergistic effects. Bocking provides numerous examples, ranging from valuation of ecosystems to decisions over siting of hazardous facilities in places where minorities live. The fact that outcomes can be inouenced by research agendas means that science can be a signiacant tool for maintaining social power. Bocking explores this theme from many dimensions, one which is the question of whether objectivity is achieved if scientists are required to disclose funding sources (no disclosure is desirable but is not sufacient). Bocking uses a broad range of examples, among them management of natural resources, international environmental disputes including global climate change, and environmental health risks. His focus is not on the science itself, but on how science is developed and used. Extensive references make it easy for the interested reader to learn about the actual science relevant to the cases examined. Nature’s Experts provides an excellent introduction to the kinds of questions non-scientists should ask of scientists, and the questions that scientists need to ask themselves when their work touches the policy world. The material should be a part of every environmental science curriculum. This book offers a good way to get it there.