Lala Razafimahefa

Environmental regulations and sustainable mining in the semi-arid American southwest: perspectives from the National Environmental Protection Act process for the Rosemont mine project (Arizona)

Based on the case study of the Rosemont mine project in Southern Arizona, this paper explores the links between environmental regulations—the public response—and sustainable mining—the private response for balancing growth and environmental conservation. Since the 1990s, public participation in environmental issues has been promoted and is at the core of both public and private responses to environmental debates. We therefore analyze the public comments produced during the National Environmental Protection Act process which conditions the opening of the Rosemont mine. We ran a multiple correspondence analysis to determine who are the stakeholders involved in the definition of environmental regulations and sustainable mining and what their positions in the social spaces are. The results show a prominent role of science and expertise in the process which lead to the professionalization of the environmental debate; among those professionals, we can distinguish two groups that tend to shape Arizona political chessboard, pro-growth and anti-growth, but even though they failed to set up a compromise either through environmental regulations or sustainable mining, they seem to share a common vision of nature: a nature to domesticate—whether through productive or recreational activities—and the sharing vision of the American southwest desert and its specific lifestyle.

The Leader Programme as a Model of Institutional Transfer: Learning from Its Local Implementation in France and Lithuania

Abstract Between 2007 and 2013, the European Rural Development Policy targets were supported by the LEADER policy, an instrument that can be interpreted differently according to each country. Based on the examples of France and Lithuania, we studied the way in which the institutional organization of the device at local level helps to understand the stakeholders system and how adaptable it is to situations in each of the corresponding countries and project areas. A comparative approach, based on a joint methodology of investigation and analysis, was used on four project areas: Joniškis and Ignalina in Lithuania, and Gévaudan-Lozère and Pays Coeur d’Hérault in France. It shows that, in all cases, a form of “municipalization” of the LEADER programme, or at least a strong integration of the association sector, is dominant and seems to be established. Studying the network of stakeholders helps to identify the interknowledge as well as the interdependency relationships that lie at the heart of the system. The development of the “social capital of individuals” is often an entry point, if not a cornerstone, of the stakeholders system in place. Finally, it is through the analysis of the project selection process that we can truly grasp the characteristics of the new public action mode, in particular by studying the allocation of projects in these local areas.