Suchergebnisse

Despite the criticism, frequent in the literature, of business influence on the formulation of pesticide risk regulation, there has been remarkably little systematic study of this practice. This article discusses Costa Rica pesticide producers' business influence on global and national efforts to improve risk regulation. Generic pesticide producers, selling off-patent chemicals, contest the views of traditional, research-based pesticide companies, which demand stricter application of global regulatory guidelines. These business sectors use different forms of power (as identified in neo-Gramscian theory) for bending regulation to their advantage. The argument developed here builds on neo-pluralist business conflict theory for explaining shifts in environmental governance. It challenges a recently made argument that business conflict increases the state's ability to issue more restrictive environmental regulation. Instead, to truly understand the outcomes of business conflict–environmental governance interactions and the implementation of global environmental standards, researchers should analyze the structural heterogeneity within states.

AbstractRecurring political and economic crises in agriculture lie behind policymakers' demands for more interdisciplinary, problem‐solving approaches. This article examines different systems theories in agricultural sciences that claim to adopt interdisciplinarity and to bridge a supposed gap between the natural and social sciences. It analyses the debates and differences between so‐called 'hard systems' and 'soft systems' approaches, or positivist and interpretative approaches. It aims to make the confrontation between these two approaches more legible as well as to reveal the shortcomings of each position. In particular, the implicit and unsophisticated sociology underlying the hard systems approach is a key issue. Critical realist theory is explored as an alternative to both the hard and the soft systems approach towards interdisciplinarity since it opens up space for thinking in a non‐reductionist way about multiple determinations without rejecting the value of single disciplines for uncovering the working of important causalities.

Hurricane Mitch hit Honduras in October 1998, leaving a trail of death, injury and devastating damage. As it tore through the country, the hurricane damaged a number of warehouses which contained pesticides, resulting in the discharge of more than 70 tonnes of pesticides into the environment. This article explores the responses of the Honduran state and international relief agencies to this event. It analyses the use of crisis discourses and their role in the reconstruction process, arguing that crisis discourses may legitimize political rule in the context of a weak state. It goes on to make the point that the shaping of crisis discourses is not the exclusive terrain of politicians but necessarily involves technical experts.

Agribusiness and environmentalism : the politics of technology innovation and regulation /Kees Jansen and Sietze Vellema --Reconciling shareholders, stakeholders and managers : experiencing the Ciba-Geigy vision for sustainable development /William Vorley --Monsanto facing uncertain futures : immobile artefacts, financial constraints and public acceptance of technological change /Sietze Vellema --The appearance and disappearance of the GM tomato : innovation strategy, market formation and the shaping of demand /Mark Harvey --Contrasting paths of corporate greening in Antipodean agriculture : organics and green production /Kristin Lyons [and others] --Room for manoeuvre? : (in)organic agribusiness in California /Julie Guthman --Greening bananas and institutionalizing environmentalism : self-regulation by fruit corporations /Kees Jansen --The DBCP pesticide cases : seeking access to justice to make agribusiness accountable in the global economy /Erika Rosenthal --Business and biotechnology : regulation of GM crops and the politics of influence /Dominic Glover and Peter Newell --Social struggles and the regulation of transgenic crops in Brazil /Victor Pelaez and Wilson Schmidt --Private versus public? : agenda-setting in international agro-technologies /Paul Richards.