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This article challenges the assumption that the boundaries of state versus non-state and public versus private can readily be drawn. It argues that the roles of actors -- as state or non-state -- and the forms of authority -- public or private -- are not pre-given but are forged through the process of governing. Drawing on neo-Gramscian and governmentality perspectives, it suggests that a more dynamic account of the state can offer a more nuanced means of analysing the process of governing global environmental affairs. In order to understand this process and the outcomes of governing climate change, we argue that analysis should focus on the hegemonic projects and programmes through which the objects and subjects of governing are constituted and contested, and through which the form and nature of the state and authority are accomplished. We suggest that this is a process achieved and held in place through 'forging alignment' between diverse social and material entities in order to achieve the 'right disposition of things' through which the will to govern climate change can be realized (Murray Li, 2007a). We illustrate this argument by examining the governing of climate change in two global cities, London and Los Angeles. [Reprinted by permission; copyright Sage Publications Ltd. & ECPR-European Consortium for Political Research.]

This article challenges the assumption that the boundaries of state versus non-state and public versus private can readily be drawn. It argues that the roles of actors — as state or non-state — and the forms of authority — public or private — are not pre-given but are forged through the process of governing. Drawing on neo-Gramscian and governmentality perspectives, it suggests that a more dynamic account of the state can offer a more nuanced means of analysing the process of governing global environmental affairs. In order to understand this process and the outcomes of governing climate change, we argue that analysis should focus on the hegemonic projects and programmes through which the objects and subjects of governing are constituted and contested, and through which the form and nature of the state and authority are accomplished. We suggest that this is a process achieved and held in place through 'forging alignment' between diverse social and material entities in order to achieve the 'right disposition of things' through which the will to govern climate change can be realized (Murray Li, 2007a). We illustrate this argument by examining the governing of climate change in two global cities, London and Los Angeles.

AbstractThis article focuses on a variant of multi‐level governance and Europeanization, i.e. the transnational networking of local authorities. Focusing on local climate change policy, the article examines how transnational municipal networks (TMNs) govern in the context of multi‐level European governance. We find that TMNs are networks of pioneers for pioneers.

This paper connects research on home-based consumption with research on waste policy and governance. We argue that, in order to meet the enhanced goals of waste reduction specified in Waste Strategy for England 2007, UK municipal waste policy needs a far closer engagement with the household, the primary unit of consumption. Opening-up the 'black box' of the household, we show why the potential for achieving enhanced rates of materials diversion through recycling is limited in certain neighbourhoods. We demonstrate the potential for furthering waste reduction through the intensification of existing practices with the 'arts of transience', and by engaging with the lumpiness of household-waste generation. The paper considers the policy implications of these findings and offers a number of suggestions as to how such insights might be taken up within UK municipal waste policy.

This paper argues that, in order to address the challenges of climate change, attention needs to be focused not only at the international level but also on how climate protection policy is taking shape locally. It provides a comparative analysis of local climate change policy in Germany and the UK. By moving the focus from an analysis of the formal competencies of local government to the multiple modes of governing through which climate protection is taking place, the similarities between the two countries are brought into view. In both cases, actions are concentrated in the energy sphere and municipalities are increasingly deploying self-governing and enabling approaches to undertaken emissions reductions. The paper argues that the impacts of EU policies, financial crises and the political challenges of implementing climate change policies are changing the capacity for local intervention, with potentially significant consequences for medium- and long-term goals for climate protection.

For over a decade climate change has been considered one of the most significant political issues facing the international community. In order to address this challenge, attention needs to be focused not only at the international level of treaties and conventions, but also on how climate protection policy is taking shape at the local level. Germany and the UK have been leading countries for international action on climate change. However, the reductions in domestic emissions of greenhouse gas emissions achieved benefited in both countries from specific circumstances. This report details the national climate change policy, the structure of local governments, their competencies and powers, the institutionalisation of local climate change policy, the most important spheres of action and the different roles played by municipalities in local climate protection policy in both countries. ; Seit mehr als zehn Jahren wird der Klimawandel als eine der wichtigsten politischen Herausforderungen betrachtet, mit denen sich die internationale Gemeinschaft konfrontiert sieht. Um diese meistern zu können, darf sich die Aufmerksamkeit nicht nur auf Verträge und Konventionen auf der internationalen Ebene beschränken, sondern muss sich auch auf die Umsetzung des Klimaschutzes auf der lokalen Ebene richten. Deutschland und Großbritannien sind im Bereich des Klimaschutzes international führende Nationen. Allerdings wurde die Reduktion der Treibhausgasemissionen in beiden Ländern durch die jeweiligen Rahmenbedingungen erheblich begünstigt. Der vorliegende Bericht beschäftigt sich mit der nationalen Klimaschutzpolitik, der Struktur der Kommunen, ihren Zuständigkeiten, der Institutionalisierung der lokalen Klimapolitik, den wichtigsten Handlungsbereichen sowie mit den unterschiedlichen Rollen der Kommunen im Bereich des Klimaschutzes in beiden Ländern.

In this paper, we seek to contribute to the debate concerning the emergence of a 'new realism' in transport planning in the UK, through an examination of the development of Local Transport Plans. After describing the background to these policy changes, we consider how one central tenet of the new realism—the need to manage demand—is taking shape within the local transport planning process in Cambridgeshire and Leicester. We argue that although a 'climate of desperation' exists in each case over levels of traffic growth and their associated impacts, policy learning and change have been confined to a 'weak' interpretation of new realism where transport planning remains effectively subservient to prevailing local notions of how economic competitiveness ought to be promoted. In conclusion, we argue that this poses fundamental challenges for national government's transport and sustainable development policies.

AbstractClimate change governance is increasingly being conducted through urban climate change experiments, purposive interventions that seek to reconfigure urban sociotechnical systems to achieve low‐carbon and resilient cities. In examining how experiments take effect, we suggest that we need to understand not only how they are made and assembled, but also how they are maintained within specific urban contexts. Drawing on literatures from urban political ecology and the specific debate on urban repair and maintenance, this article examines maintenance in two case studies of climate change experiments in housing in Bangalore (India) and Monterrey (Mexico). We find that maintenance is a crucial process through which not only urban obduracy is preserved, but also the novel and innovative character of the experiment is asserted and reproduced. The process of 'maintaining' experiments is a precarious one, which requires a continuous external input in terms of remaking the experiment materially and discursively. This process causes further reconfigurations beyond the experiment, changing the patterns of responsibility attribution and acceptability that configure the urban fabric.