Suchergebnisse

Develops & applies an interpretative framework on environmental reform in transnational urban spaces, exploring how multinational corporate office buildings are creating new hybrid arrangements of environmental management. At issue is achieving a conceptual understanding of the mechanisms & dynamics instigating the environmental restructuring of buildings, proposing a model that transcends the basic state vs market & global vs local dichotomies. Explored are the arrangements regulating & restructuring the environmental dimensions of urban office stock, & how traditional entities & actors of state & market are "enmeshed" & "hybridized" in practices of environmental reform where global & local interface. Twelve case studies of the interception of corporate environmental strategies & urban environmental policies in Amsterdam, Netherlands, Sao Paulo, Brazil, & Beijing, People's Republic of China, are subject to qualitative analysis to shed light on how the dynamics of urban environmental governance are changing. The model is then developed further, assessing urban environmental reforms & asserting that conceptualizing them as simply place-bound political processes is inadequate. Figures, References. D. Edelman

In addressing the debate on the role & function of nation-states in environmental politics, a collection of essays focuses on the relationship between globalization, the environment, & the state. Three domains in the studies & debates on globalization & governance are emphasized: (1) conceptualizing the changing nature of the state & its role in global environmental governance; (2) stressing the environmental dimension as critical to the dynamics of globalization & governance; & (3) assessing the consequences of globalization & the changing role of the environmental state for understanding the concept of the environment. After discussing the conceptualization of the environment in terms of environmental flows, focus turns to the essay's theoretical basis, starting with a review of the sociological & political science literature on environmental governance & global modernity. Attention is given to the notion of "hybrid arrangements." Contributions are introduced in closing. Figures, References. D. Edelman

Comanagement in Vietnamese Special-Use Forests (SUFs) has been constrained by an administrative mode of state control. Consequently, SUF Management Boards have limited scope to engage local resource users in conservation and management. Concurrently, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) have developed capacities as bridging organizations between SUF Management Boards, local communities, and the government by coordinating collaboration across levels, sectors, and knowledge systems. We analyze the extent bridging roles of NGOs can overcome the constraints of administrative comanagement by facilitating knowledge sharing, a common vision, conflict resolution, and local empowerment. Our analysis is based on a national survey of SUF managers and four in-depth case studies of NGO engagement in SUFs. The results indicate NGOs are only partly able to fulfill their bridging roles and thus overcoming the dominant mode of administrative comanagement in Vietnam. We conclude that the structural barriers of state engagement with NGOs demonstrate a need to better contextualize the form and function of bridging organizations in natural resource management.

We analyze the role of international agrofood supply chains in greening vegetable and fruit products and production in Vietnam. Mainly through contract-based procurement, the export-oriented vegetable and fruit supply chain is better structured and organized than the domestic supply chain. Exporters intervene to some degree in fruit and vegetable farming, to safeguard supply and to improve product quality. Pesticide use is one of exporters' concerns, although pesticide application remains largely controlled by farmers. Despite some endogenous innovations to improve vegetable and fruit pesticide practices, farmers and exporters are especially responding to the demands of importers. Relatively lax import regulations from the main export markets (China and Russia) are the main reason for limited achievements in less-pesticide-dependent vegetable and fruit production in Vietnam. By the same token, these limited innovations constrain farmers and exporters from exporting to more challenging markets in the EU, the US, and Japan. Hence, in Vietnam export markets have hardly induced reduction in the use of pesticides in agricultural vegetable and fruit production.

Closes a collection of essays on the governance of environmental flows amid globalization, reflecting on the fledgling field of environmental flows while also accounting for the broader concern of environmental sociology & political science. The emergence of the environmental flows perspective in light of the sociointellectual context of the development of US & international environmental sociology & political sciences. Key intellectual sources of the environmental flows perspective are discussed, along with how there is continuity in ecological modernization to environmental flows as well as some notable discontinuities. It is concluded that there are two distinct tendencies within environmental social sciences: de-privileging governance & stressing the new character of environmental governance. The potential & shortcomings of the environmental flows perspective are outlined, asserting that global environmental flows indicate how diversified environmental sociology & political science have become. However, while this new research agenda has been advanced, it is contended that issues of power, nation-states, distribution, & identities cannot be dismissed. References. D. Edelman

Closes a collection of essays on the governance of environmental flows amid globalization, reflecting on the fledgling field of environmental flows while also accounting for the broader concern of environmental sociology & political science. The emergence of the environmental flows perspective in light of the sociointellectual context of the development of US & international environmental sociology & political sciences. Key intellectual sources of the environmental flows perspective are discussed, along with how there is continuity in ecological modernization to environmental flows as well as some notable discontinuities. It is concluded that there are two distinct tendencies within environmental social sciences: de-privileging governance & stressing the new character of environmental governance. The potential & shortcomings of the environmental flows perspective are outlined, asserting that global environmental flows indicate how diversified environmental sociology & political science have become. However, while this new research agenda has been advanced, it is contended that issues of power, nation-states, distribution, & identities cannot be dismissed. References. D. Edelman

Considers the besieged ecological modernization theory by taking Vietnam as a case study & focusing on three major issues of environmental restructuring in economic development: state-market relations, technology development, & environmental awareness. Revealed are major deviations from an environmental reform trajectory as hypothesized by ecological modernization theory. It is concluded that the theory is of limited value for analyzing contemporary processes of & attempts at environmental reform in Vietnam. However, recent developments such as economic liberalization, privatization, & internationalization & emergent democratization of governance offer ecological modernization-inspired opportunities to incorporate environmental considerations in the economic development of Vietnam. If ecological modernization theory is to be used to outline a feasible path of environmental reform, it has to be refined to fit the specific local conditions & institutional developments of industrializing countries. 53 References. Adapted from the source document.