We investigate national greenhouse gases mitigation objectives, labeled as carbon voluntarism, in the context of contemporary globalized finance-led capitalism. Using principal components analysis and clustering, we delineate a typology of OECD and BRICS countries from the standpoint of the assumed underpinnings of carbon voluntarism: the productive structure of the economy, the relative position in global GHG chains, the levels of income and capitalist development, the political demand for the environment, the class structure of GHG emissions and financialization.The least carbon voluntary countries appear to be at the beginning of global GHG chains and to rely heavily on the primary sector. They have a weak political demand for the environment and a more unequal class structure of emissions. The most carbon voluntary countries have a higher political demand for the environment, a more equal class structure of emissions, weaker financialization, and greater reliance on the tertiary sector. These countries are also net importers of GHG emissions. ; On s'intéresse dans ce travail aux objectifs de réduction des émissions de gaz à effet de serre (GES), que l'on désigne par le terme volontarisme carbone, dans le contexte du capitalisme globalisé et tiré par la finance. A partir d'une analyse en composante principale et d'une classification, on esquisse une typologie des pays de notre échantillon (OCDE et BRICS) du point de vue des déterminants hypothétiques du volontarisme carbone : le tissu productif des économies, la position relative dans les chaines globales de GES, le niveau de revenu et de développement capitaliste, la demande politique d'environnement, la structure de classe des émissions et le processus de financiarisation. Les pays les moins volontaristes sont ceux situés au début des chaines globales de GES et dont le secteur primaire est le plus important. Ils ont une faible demande politique d'environnement et une structure de classe des émissions plus inégale. Les pays les plus volontaires ont une ...
We investigate national greenhouse gases mitigation objectives, labeled as carbon voluntarism, in the context of contemporary globalized finance-led capitalism. Using principal components analysis and clustering, we delineate a typology of OECD and BRICS countries from the standpoint of the assumed underpinnings of carbon voluntarism: the productive structure of the economy, the relative position in global GHG chains, the levels of income and capitalist development, the political demand for the environment, the class structure of GHG emissions and financialization.The least carbon voluntary countries appear to be at the beginning of global GHG chains and to rely heavily on the primary sector. They have a weak political demand for the environment and a more unequal class structure of emissions. The most carbon voluntary countries have a higher political demand for the environment, a more equal class structure of emissions, weaker financialization, and greater reliance on the tertiary sector. These countries are also net importers of GHG emissions. ; On s'intéresse dans ce travail aux objectifs de réduction des émissions de gaz à effet de serre (GES), que l'on désigne par le terme volontarisme carbone, dans le contexte du capitalisme globalisé et tiré par la finance. A partir d'une analyse en composante principale et d'une classification, on esquisse une typologie des pays de notre échantillon (OCDE et BRICS) du point de vue des déterminants hypothétiques du volontarisme carbone : le tissu productif des économies, la position relative dans les chaines globales de GES, le niveau de revenu et de développement capitaliste, la demande politique d'environnement, la structure de classe des émissions et le processus de financiarisation. Les pays les moins volontaristes sont ceux situés au début des chaines globales de GES et dont le secteur primaire est le plus important. Ils ont une faible demande politique d'environnement et une structure de classe des émissions plus inégale. Les pays les plus volontaires ont une demande politique d'environnement supérieure, une structure de classe des émissions plus égalitaire, la financiarisation y est moins importante et la tertiarisation plus poussée. Ils sont également importateurs nets de GES.
Green Persuasion traces the history and evolution of volunteer-based public lands stewardship in the United States as well as the Advertising Council's work promoting environmental causes, such as the Smokey Bear fire prevention and the Keep America Beautiful campaigns. The Take Pride in America program, developed during the Reagan administration, was revised, neglected, and readopted by subsequent presidencies. Working with the U.S. Department of the Interior, the Ad Council enlivened the Take Pride initiative with public service announcements featuring celebrity spokespersons Clint Eastwood, Charles Bronson, and Louis Gossett Jr. Green Persuasion offers valuable insights into how and why Americans have expressed care of the nation's landed inheritance in their collective political choices.
The Kendeng Mountains, which are rich of limestone, clay, spring and other varying mining sources, are a strategic choice for establishing a cement factory. The plan to establish a cement factory was supported by government but was opposed by the Samin community along with Kendeng farmers. This study aims to discuss the resistance of the Samin (Sedulur Sikep) indigenous people to extractive companies. To discuss this article, we need a theory that can be used to analyze how these volunteers grow and work. This theory is Parsons' volunteer Action theory. Meanwhile, the research method used was an ethnographic approach. The results showed that the strength gained by the Samin community is the awareness of striving to uphold the maturity of its members through the spirit of a volunteer. This voluntary spirit is developed by cultivating farmer solidarity. Some actors have good rhetorical abilities so that the JMPPK is established to move with an active and open line of resistance.
A growing number of major corporations and industry organizations now overtly advocate the general concept of corporate social and environmental responsibility, commonly emphasising the 'business case' for such behaviour on the basis that it is 'good for business'. Many now report to their stakeholders on a voluntaristic basis a range of information regarding their impacts on the social and physical environment in which they operate. Intrinsic to the business case model is the argument that an optimal balance between the needs of economic growth and the sustainable management of natural resources can best be attained through the conventional mechanisms of corporate governance and voluntary corporate activity, rather than by imposition of governmental regulation. This view implies, however, that where the exigencies of environmental sustainability conflict with those of economic imperatives, the latter must take precedence. A view oppositional to that of the business case instead promotes an intensified interventionist approach towards natural resource management, advocating increased governmental regulation and control, including the mandating, standardization and independent verification of corporate sustainability reporting. This view gives precedence to public good concepts of natural resource management, prioritising intra- and inter-generational equity and human rights theories as to natural resource distribution, and challenges traditional economic approaches to the relational intersects of business, politics and environment science. This paper considers the relative claims for efficacy in achieving desirable corporate environmental behaviours of the business case and voluntary self-regulation model, vis-à-vis those for extended mandatory governmental control, utilizing the exemplar of voluntary sustainability reporting in the New Zealand fishing industry.
Along with the rise in income inequality in the U.S., we have observed a simultaneous move toward fiscal devolution and increased government reliance on private provision of public goods. This paper argues that these phenomena are related. We describe a model of jurisdiction and policy formation in which the structure of government provision is endogenous and public good provision levels are determined by a political process that can exploit private motives for voluntary giving. The model predicts that an increase in income inequality leads to decentralization, with local jurisdictions becoming more income-homogeneous than the population as a whole. This reduction in local income heterogeneity, combined with a reduced tax base, results in increased reliance by government on private provision.
There has been considerable debate as to whether attempting to improve health and safety practices at work by legislation is more effective than voluntarism and the play of market forces. A survey was conducted in mid 1988 to ascertain the response of New Zealand enterprises to a Voluntary Code of Practice (1987) issued by the Advisory Council for Occupational Safety and Health. An attempt was also made to identify internal and external factors which might have influenced the decision to comply. It would appear that a voluntary approach has some part to play, but the absence of effective health and safety legislation in New Zealand may particularly disadvantage those working in small firms in high risk industries.
The fates of "transboundary" environmental systems depend on how nation states interact with one another. In the absence of a hegemon willing and able to coerce other states into avoiding a "tragedy of the commons," shared environments will be safeguarded if international cooperation succeeds and degraded or even destroyed if it fails. Treaties and related institutions of international law give form to these efforts to cooperate. Often, they implore states to act in their collective (as opposed to their national) interests. Sometimes, they impel cooperating states to punish free riders. A few agreements coordinate states' behavior. Here, I present simple game-theoretic models showing whether and how treaties and related institutions can change incentives, aligning states' self-interests with their collective interests. I show that, as a general matter, states struggle to cooperate voluntarily and enforce agreements to cooperate but that they find it relatively easy to coordinate actions. In some cases, the need for coordination is manifest. In other cases, it requires strategic thinking. Coordination may fall short of supporting an ideal outcome, but it nearly always works better than the alternatives.
Traditional wrestling occupies pride of place in Niger, compared to other sports and cultural activities. Interest in traditional wrestling is widespread among Nigériens from all walks of life: young men, adults, senior citizens, young women, mature women, adult men, handicapped persons, prisoners, peasant farmers, civil servants, artisans, housewives, politicians, marabouts (Muslim religious leaders/imams), féticheurs (animist priests), griots (wandering poets/musicians), trainers, researchers, journalists, labourers … In short, it can be asserted that traditional wrestling is firmly entrenched in Nigérien culture and generates unequalled enthusiasm. This unwavering popularity, built up over the years, is the result of the transposition of certain traits of political, social, cultural, sporting and economic life of Nigérien society into the National Championships of Traditional Wrestling. These championships, held in the various regions of the country, in turn, were institutionalised in 1975 by the government. This official intervention transformed traditional wrestling into a "great sport", the king of sports in Niger. The predominant presence of the state administration in the organisation and management of the championships is justified by the official pursuit of national unity and social cohesion through the promotion of this sporting heritage. Cultural elements, like the opening prayer (fatiah), praise poems (take), poems of self-praise (kirari), formal salutations (gaysuwa), the giving of gifts and gratuities (kari), the wearing of charms (gris-gris) and the enthronement of the champion, transposed from the life of Nigérien society to the arena of the National Wrestling Championships, are the basis for the people's support of the championships and their identification with wrestling and wrestlers.
The climate is changing. As the global mean temperature continues to rise, the immense urgency of addressing the climate change crisis is evident. Since climate change entered the international political agenda in the 1980s, efforts to construct an effective global response have been organized under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Recently, this UN-led interstate diplomacy has been criticized for its inability to grapple with the polycentric, multiactor landscape of today. In this context, the 2015 Paris Agreement altered the formal context of global climate politics by institutionalizing a 'hybrid,' 'catalytic' regime where states are to outline, submit, and periodically enhance their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) to the global response. While the continuous submission of NDCs is legally binding, their content and design are largely determined by states' ideas about the appropriate means and ends of climate action. The Paris regime also entails an unprecedented position for nonstate actors who were welcomed as an integral part of climate mitigation and adaptation and invited to pledge their contributions to the global effort through various UNFCCC-led initiatives. Through this supposedly cata-lytic design, the Paris regime pins its hopes on continuous increases in ambition levels and implementation rates of states' and nonstate actors' pledges to stave off the urgent crisis that is climate change. Global climate governance research has delved into the characteristics of this new architecture to examine how the disperse climate action pledges can be understood, aggregated, and enhanced, and how this hybrid design can ensure legitimate orchestration of a plurality of actors. While providing valuable suggestions for enhanced effectiveness of and participation in the Paris regime, this thesis suggests that post-Paris climate governance research to a large extent center around issues of improving the functions of the Paris model and that there is a lack of critical accounts of how the hybrid, catalytic, and largely voluntary Paris design rests upon and projects particular ways of ordering world politics. To fill this gap, this thesis draws upon Foucauldian governmentality studies to critically examine how climate change is governed through voluntarism under the Paris regime and its political implications in terms of shaping the idea of what constitutes appropriate climate conduct. It asks how climate change is constructed as a problem for government by exploring the rationalities that inform climate governance under the Paris regime and the technologies through which governing is conducted. By illuminating the ideas and practices that underpin governing through voluntarism, the thesis contributes to a critical discussion on the means and ends of this mode of governing which, in turn, carves space for articulation of alternative problem descriptions and solutions. The thesis builds on four studies that, in turn, examine how climate change is problematized in states' NDCs in terms of climate policy discourses employed (Paper I) and suggested roles for the state in climate action (Paper II), and how climate action is mobilized through the NDC (Paper III) and UNFCCC-led initiatives to engage nonstate actors (Paper IV). The thesis demonstrates that governing climate change through voluntarism under the Paris regime is characterized by efforts of coordination that emphasize a need for quantifiable, comparable, and aggregable climate actions. Rather than merely a technical necessity for organizing disperse climate pledges, it argues that coordination is a governing strategy that posits climate action as a non-conflictual project of problem-management and shapes the idea of appropriate climate conduct by constructing states and nonstate actors as responsible actors charged with keeping their conduct in check. At the same time, the thesis also finds that the Paris regime leaves some room for resistance where alternative ideas on the appropriate means and ends of government can be advanced and debated. It argues, however, that the overwhelming emphasis on coordination shapes the field of possibilities for resistance by treating resisters as 'those not yet convinced,' rather than as ex-pressors of fundamental political differences. In essence, by illuminating how current modes of government shape the idea of appropriate climate conduct, the thesis stresses that the urgency of the climate change challenge must not foreclose critical discussions on how governing climate change under the Paris regime is accomplished. ; Klimatet förändras. I ljuset av den fortsatta ökningen av den globala medeltemperaturen är det akuta behovet att möta klimatkrisen uppenbart. Sedan klimatförändringar tog plats på den internationella politiska agendan under 1980-talet har försök att konstruera effektiva globala åtgärder organiserats under Förenta nationernas ramkonvention om klimatförändringar (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, UNFCCC). På senare tid har denna FN-ledda, mellanstatliga diplomati blivit kritiserad för dess oförmåga att handskas med dagens polycentriska politiska landskap där många olika typer av aktörer florerar. Parisavtalet, som antogs år 2015, ändrade den formella kontexten för global klimatpolitik genom att institutionalisera en "hybrid," "katalytisk" regim inom vilken stater förväntas formulera, skicka in och periodvis revidera sina nationella klimatplaner, så kallade Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC:er). Medan det kontinuerliga inlämnandet av NDC:er är juridiskt bindande bestäms deras innehåll och design till stor del av staters idéer om vad som är lämpliga metoder och mål för klimatåtgärder. Parisregimen innebär också en förändrad position för icke-statliga aktörer som nu välkomnas som en integral del av arbetet med mitigering av och anpassning till klimatförändringar. Icke-statliga aktörer upp-muntras att skicka in sina bidrag till det globala arbetet mot klimatförändringar genom olika UNFCCC-ledda initiativ. Genom denna katalytiska design sätter Parisregimen hoppet till en kontinuerlig ökning av staters och icke-statliga aktörers ambitionsnivåer och implementeringstakter för att avvärja klimatkrisen. Forskning inom global klimatpolitisk styrning har undersökt egenskaperna hos denna nya styrningsarkitektur och hur de varierade klimatbidragen kan förstås, aggregeras och ökas samt hur den hybrida designen kan säkerställa en legitim orkestrering av en stor mix av aktörer. Sådan forskning har bidragit med värdefulla förslag på hur effektiviteten och deltagandet kan ökas i Parisregimen. Denna avhandling menar dock att forskning om klimatpolitisk styrning post-Paris till stor del behandlar frågor om hur den nuvarande Parismodellen kan förbättras och att det finns en brist på kritiska studier av hur den hybrida, katalytiska och, till stor del, frivilliga Parisdesignen vilar på och projicerar specifika sätt att ordna världspolitiken. För att fylla denna forskningslucka tar denna avhandling inspiration från Foucaults idéer om politisk styrning (på engelska, governmentality) för att kritiskt undersöka hur kli-matförändringar styrs genom frivillighet under Parisregimen och dess politiska implikationer i termer av att forma idén om vad som konstituerar lämpligt klimatbeteende. Den undersöker hur klimatförändringar konstrueras som ett problem för styrning genom att utforska de rationaliteter som informerar klimatpolitisk styrning under Parisregimen och de teknologier genom vilka styrning genomförs. Genom att belysa de idéer och praktiker som ligger till grund för styrning genom frivillighet bidrar avhandlingen till en kritisk diskussion om styrningens metoder och mål vilket ger utrymme för artikulation av alternativa problembeskrivningar och lösningsförslag. Avhandlingen bygger på fyra studier som i tur och ordning undersöker hur klimatförändringar problematiseras i staters NDC:er vad gäller de klimatpolitiska diskurser som används (Artikel I) och de roller som föreslås för staten (Artikel II) samt hur klimatåtgärder mobiliseras genom NDC:n (Artikel III) och UNFCCC-ledda initiativ för att engagera icke-statliga aktörer (Artikel IV). Avhandlingen visar att klimatpolitisk styrning genom frivillighet karaktäriseras av tekniker för koordinering som framhåller behovet av klimatåtgärder som går att kvantifiera, jämföra och aggregera. Snarare än en teknisk nödvändighet för att organisera vitt skilda klimatbidrag, är koordinering en styrningsstrategi som presenterar klimatåtgärder som ett problemhanteringsprojekt i vilket stater och icke-statliga aktörer konstrueras som aktörer som är ansvariga för att hålla sitt eget beteende i schack. Samtidigt visar avhandlingen att det finns utrymmen för motstånd i Parisregimen där alternativa idéer om metoder och mål för styrning kan föras fram och diskuteras. Den överväldigande emfasen på koordinering formar dock möjlighetsutrymmet för motstånd genom att behandla motståndare som "ännu inte övertygade" snarare än som uttryck för fundamentala politiska skillnader. Ge-nom att peka på hur nuvarande sätt att styra formar idén om lämpliga klimatåtgärder understryker avhandlingen att brådskan i klimatutmaningen inte får hindra kritiska diskussioner om hur klimatpolitisk styrning under Parisregimen genomförs. ; Funding agencies: Swedish Research Council Formas through the project 'A Global Potluck: Cross-National Patterns of State Engagement and Performance in the New Landscape of International Climate Cooperation' (Grant No. 2011-779) and the Swedish Foundation for Strategic Environmental Research – Mistra through the 'Mistra Geopolitics'research program (Grant No. 2016/11 #5).
In this article, I explore whether, and if so how, national identity affects the level of formal democracy in a country. I theorize and then investigate four assumptions: (i) classical nationalist stances hold that national membership depends on the accident of origin and cultural markers learned by early socialization. This non-voluntary identity gives human beings a natural sense of belonging in society and fosters solidarity and trust that lead to better democracy; (ii) drawing on ideas about core values of ideal democracy the non-voluntarist national identity exhibits an inherent contradiction between in-group bias and intrinsic equality, which leads to lower levels of democracy; (iii) homogeneity in belief about what constitutes national belonging eases the dynamics between majority and minority, which benefits democracy; (iv) the presence of an in-group identity, understood as a shared fellow-feeling, boosts trust and solidarity and thereby benefits democracy. Individual-level data about national identity comes from International Social Survey Programme (ISSP, 2013). Data about democracy comes from Varieties of Democracy (Coppedge et al., 2021; Pemstein et al., 2021). Results indicate that higher levels of non-voluntarist features of national identity are strongly negatively correlated with levels of democracy and heterogeneity in beliefs about what constitutes national belonging relating to a higher level of liberal democracy.
This paper sets out the history of the attempt to establish voluntary health and safety committees in Britain, their failure and the attempt to legislate for their development. The impact of this legislation is analysed and the paper concludes by presenting a framework, which it is argued, would be developed for analysing the impact of legislation in Britain and in other countries such as New Zealand.
Polycentric governance and stakeholder participation in natural resource management have potential benefits for both human and environmental well-being. Researchers and decision-makers have attempted to conceptualise the ecological, social and political potential of such semi-formal approaches to urban green space management. However, few studies have quantified the actual benefits in terms of biodiversity and associated ecosystem service provision, or the factors that mediate levels of participation. The links between biodiversity potential, site access and user participation were explored in a case study comprising ten established examples of organised social-ecological initiatives in the inner-city area of Greater Manchester. At the micro-scale, the case study quantified the levels of community involvement (measured in volunteer hours month¯¹) in local green commons and the biodiversity potential (assessed using floristic and structural diversity as a surrogate) of the ten sites. Descriptive analysis identified that site spatial and design characteristics affected all three measures and subsequent correlational analyses revealed a high degree of synergy between site use and biodiversity. The study thereby provides quantitative evidence of the synergistic relationship between green space use and urban biodiversity and, importantly, the positive feedbacks which should result between volunteer input and the local generation of ecosystem services. The study provides support for the promotion of a highly decentralised, stakeholder-led stewardship of green space as a valid consideration in the management of urban ecosystem services.
In: Durrant , H 2016 , ' Governing good, bad and ugly workplaces? Explaining the paradox of state-steered voluntarism in New Labour's skills strategy ' , Journal of Education and Work , vol. 29 , no. 4 , pp. 373-401 . https://doi.org/10.1080/13639080.2014.987736
The post-compulsory education and training system in the UK has long been defined as an archetypical voluntarist model. Yet, with the election of a New Labour government in 1997, the relationship between the state as supply-side provider of skills and employers as the demanders of skills began to subtly change. An additional rhetoric emerged in skills policy that suggested a role for the state to shape higher skills demands. This instigated a move towards what is here defined by the oxymoron 'state-steered voluntarism'; an approach to the governance of skills which aimed to deliver both a demand-led skills system and a system to lead demand. Drawing on policy documents and interviews with key policy-makers, this article offers an interpretive analysis of New Labour's ideas about the nature of workplaces, and the role of the state and skills providers in response, that explains the existence of policy paradox. We find that New Labour articulated three distinct strategies for governing skills, depending on whether workplaces were perceived to have 'good', 'bad', or frankly 'ugly' skills aspirations. However, whilst this threefold skills strategy seemingly served the 25 purpose of containing multiple policy objectives and creating a graded role for state action, it was also prone to being used selectively by those with vested interests in UK skills policy (i.e. the representatives of businesses and employers and the representatives of employees and learners).