AbstractThe Resilient Cities Network, formerly known as the 100 Resilient Cities, supports the development of local resilience policies in partaking cities from around the globe. Various policies in the network are an example of an upcoming trend where experiments are increasingly conducted in the urban space to shape governance. Experiments in this context are purposeful interventions to increase resilience through learning and the temporal and spatial diffusion of results. Experimentation and resilience are highlighted in the literature on political ecology for policies presumably leading to urban transformations. Both approaches face strikingly similar critiques, namely that related rationales and narratives frequently maintain the political and economic status quo and reproduce socially unjust urban realities. However, they are rarely examined together and empirical findings are missing when it comes to comparative research; particularly between the Global South and North.Against this background, this paper asks: Which role plays social justice in rationales and narratives of resilience experiments in Global South and Global North cities? I examine experimental policy actions in Global South and North cities of the Resilient Cities Network (N = 112) qualitatively through an analytic lens that links a social justice understanding to the setting, agency, and design of resilience experiments. Based on this analysis, I compare the results to explore emerging patterns of the role given to social justice in urban resilience experimentation across cities of the Global South and North. The findings show that narratives in Global North cities revolve stronger around recognising social justice, but Global South cities put more emphasis on marginalised groups and learning mechanisms that potentially foster social justice through output legitimacy.
Water is vital for humankind and ecosystems alike. However, population growth, agricultural inten-sification, urbanization, and climate change embody potential hazards and pressures for water re-sources without existing long-term solutions. For two decades now, policy and governance literature has increasingly emphasised the role of learning in finding solutions to environmental policy prob-lems and effectively steering governance practices. Participation of non-state actors in decision mak-ing is widely considered to deliver learning products that support effective outcomes for environ-mental problems. Besides, the institutionalisation of participation through legislation opens up the necessity for (administrative) organizers to learn about participation as a governance mode in order to steer its effective working. Apart from participation, management approaches specifically aiming at driving learning, such as adaptive management (AM), are increasingly endorsed in water govern-ance. Despite the current prominence of learning in the environmental governance literature, evi-dence is lacking on which learning approaches function effectively regarding outcomes, whether participation aids learning, and how learning about successful governance arrangements is most effectively promoted. This doctoral dissertation aims to contribute to clarification of the potential of learning for water governance. The goal is to trace and understand the environmental impacts of learning through par-ticipation (research aim 1) and adaptive management (research aim 2), and the effect of learning on participation as a governance mode (research aim 3). For this goal, I engage in a predominantly qualitative research design following the case study method. For every specific research aim cases are selected and analysed qualitatively according to conceptual categories and mechanisms which are defined beforehand. Quantitative studies are used to corroborate the results for research aim 1 and 2 in a mixed-method approach to enhance the valid-ity of results. The empirical research context is European water governance, the implementation of the EU Water Framework and EU Floods Directive (WFD, FD) specifically. Eight cases of participa-tory decision-making across three European countries and five cases of AM in Northern Germany for WFD implementation are examined to identify whether learning in these processes enhanced envi-ronmental outcomes. To detect whether governance learning by public officials occurred, the design of participatory processes for FD implementation in ten German federal states is assessed. The findings of research aim 1, understanding learning through participation and its effects on water governance, reveal that participatory planning led to learning through improved understandings at an individual and group level. Learning did, however, hardly shape effective outcomes. In the AM cases (research aim 2) managers and participants of implementing networks improved their knowledge as well as capacities, and spread the results. Nonetheless, environmental improvement was not necessarily linked to ecological learning. Regarding learning about participation as a govern-ance mode (research aim 3) all interviewed public officials in German federal states reported some degree of governance learning, which emerged not systematically but primarily drawing on own experiences and intuition. These findings are condensed into three overarching lessons for learning in water governance: (1) Interactive communication seems to form the overall frame for participant and group learning. Framing of learning experiences turned out to play an important and potentially distorting role, for which professional facilitation and structured knowledge aggregation methods might be an im-portant counterbalance. (2) Learning did not automatically enhance environmental outcomes. It may thus not be an explanatory variable for policy outcomes, but a conditioning or intervening vari-able related to collective action, motivation for participation, and situating the issue at hand at wider societal levels. (3) The concepts of puzzling and powering might help understand learning as a source for effectiveness in the long-term when complemented with interest-based debates for creat-ing sufficient political agency of policy issues. Learning seen as puzzling processes might instruct acceptance and legitimization for new powering efforts. The perpetuation of learning in systematic ways and structures appears to characterize an alternative to this reflexive and strategic interplay, for which the water-related EU directives provide the basis. These insights are of practical and policy relevance, particularly for policy makers and practitioners in the pursuit of learning. They may further contribute to the academic understanding of learning in water governance and its potential contribution to transforming and adapting water governance re-gimes, as envisioned in the European water-related directives. ; Wasser ist für Menschen und Ökosysteme gleichermaßen lebenswichtig. Bevölkerungswachstum, Intensivierung der Landwirtschaft, Verstädterung und Klimawandel bergen jedoch potenzielle Gefahren und Belastungen für Wasserressourcen, für die es keine langfristigen Lösungen gibt. Seit zwei Jahrzehnten wird in der Policy- und Governanceliteratur zunehmend die Rolle des Lernens bei der Lösung umweltpolitischer Probleme und der effektiven Steuerung von Governancepraktiken betont. Die Beteiligung von nicht-staatlichen Akteuren an der Entscheidungsfindung wird weithin als geeignet angesehen, Lernprodukte zu liefern, die effektive Ergebnisse für Umweltprobleme unterstützen. Die Institutionalisierung von Partizipation durch die Gesetzgebung eröffnet zudem die Notwendigkeit für (Verwaltungs-)Organisatoren, über Partizipation als Governancemodus zu lernen, um diesen Modus effektiv steuern zu können. Abgesehen von der Partizipation werden Managementansätze, die speziell auf die Förderung des Lernens abzielen, wie z.B. adaptives Management (AM), in der Wasserpolitik zunehmend befürwortet. Trotz der aktuellen Bedeutung des Lernens in der Umweltgovernanceliteratur fehlt es an Erkenntnissen darüber, welche Lernansätze im Hinblick auf die Ergebnisse effektiv funktionieren, ob Partizipation das Lernen unterstützt und wie das Lernen über erfolgreiche Governancearrangements am effektivsten gefördert wird. Diese Dissertation will einen Beitrag zur Klärung des Potenzials von Lernen für Wassergovernance leisten. Ziel ist es, die Umweltauswirkungen des Lernens durch Partizipation (Forschungsziel 1) und adaptives Management (Forschungsziel 2), sowie den Effekt des Lernens auf Partizipation als Governance-Modus (Forschungsziel 3) zu identifizieren und zu verstehen. Um dieses Ziel zu erreichen, verwende ich ein überwiegend qualitatives Forschungsdesign, das der Fallstudienmethode folgt. Für jedes spezifische Forschungsziel werden Fälle ausgewählt und nach zuvor definierten konzeptionellen Kategorien und Mechanismen qualitativ analysiert. Die Ergebnisse zu Forschungsziel 1 und 2 werden in einem Mixed-Methods-Ansatz durch quantitative Studien untermauert, um die Validität der Ergebnisse zu erhöhen. Der empirische Forschungskontext ist die europäische Wassergovernance, speziell die Umsetzung der EU-Wasserrahmen- und EU-Hochwasserrisikomangement-Richtlinie (WRRL, FD). Acht Fälle von partizipativer Entscheidungsfindung in drei europäischen Ländern und fünf Fälle von AM in Norddeutschland zur Umsetzung der WRRL werden untersucht, um festzustellen, ob Lernen in diesen Prozessen die Umweltergebnisse verbessert. Um herauszufinden, ob Governance-Lernen durch Beamte stattgefunden hat, wird das Design von partizipativen Prozessen zur Umsetzung der WRRL in zehn deutschen Bundesländern bewertet. Die Ergebnisse von Forschungsziel 1, Lernen durch Partizipation und seine Auswirkungen auf die Wassergovernance zu verstehen, zeigen, dass partizipative Planung zu Lernen durch verbessertes Verständnis auf individueller und Gruppenebene führte. Lernen hat jedoch kaum zu effektiven Ergebnissen geführt. In den AM-Fällen (Forschungsziel 2) verbesserten Manager:innen und Teilnehmer:innen der umsetzenden Netzwerke sowohl ihr Wissen als auch ihre Kapazitäten und verbreiteten die Ergebnisse. Dennoch war die Verbesserung der Umwelt nicht unbedingt mit ökologischem Lernen verbunden. Hinsichtlich des Lernens über Partizipation als Governancemodus (Forschungsziel 3) berichteten alle befragten öffentliche Bedienstete in deutschen Bundesländern über ein gewisses Maß an Governance-Lernen, das nicht systematisch, sondern in erster Linie aufgrund eigener Erfahrungen und Intuition zustande kam. Diese Ergebnisse werden zu drei übergreifenden Lehren für das Lernen in der Wasserwirtschaft verdichtet: (1) Interaktive Kommunikation scheint den Gesamtrahmen für das Lernen von Teilnehmer:innen und Gruppen zu bilden. Es stellte sich heraus, dass die Rahmung von Lernerfahrungen eine wichtige und potenziell verzerrende Rolle spielt, für die professionelle Moderation und strukturierte Methoden der Wissensverdichtung ein wichtiges Gegengewicht sein könnten. (2) Lernen führte nicht automatisch zu besseren Umweltergebnissen. Es ist daher möglicherweise keine erklärende Variable für politische Ergebnisse, sondern eine bedingende oder intervenierende Variable, die mit kollektivem Handeln, der Motivation zur Beteiligung und der Einordnung des Themas in breitere gesellschaftliche Ebenen zusammenhängt. (3) Die Konzepte von Puzzling und Powering könnten helfen, Lernen als eine Quelle für langfristige Effektivität zu verstehen, wenn sie mit interessenbasierten Debatten zur Schaffung ausreichender politischer Handlungsfähigkeit von politischen Themen ergänzt werden. Lernen als Prozess des Puzzling gesehen, könnte Akzeptanz und Legitimation für neue Powering-Bemühungen anleiten. Die Perpetuierung des Lernens in systematischen Wegen und Strukturen scheint eine Alternative zu diesem reflexiven und strategischen Wechselspiel zu charakterisieren, für das die wasserbezogenen EU-Richtlinien die Grundlage liefern. Diese Erkenntnisse sind von praktischer und politischer Relevanz, insbesondere für politische Entscheidungsträger und Praktiker, die sich mit dem Thema Lernen beschäftigen. Sie können außerdem zum akademischen Verständnis des Lernens in der Wassergovernance und seinem potenziellen Beitrag zur Transformation und Anpassung von Wassermanagement-Regimen beitragen, wie es in den europäischen Wasserrichtlinien vorgesehen ist.
Efforts to collaboratively manage the risk of flooding are ultimately based on individuals learning about risks, the decision process, and the effectiveness of decisions made in prior situations. This article argues that much can be learned about a governance setting by explicitly evaluating the relationships through which influential individuals and their immediate contacts receive and send information to one another. We define these individuals as "brokers," and the networks that emerge from their interactions as "learning spaces." The aim of this article is to develop strategies to identify and evaluate the properties of a broker's learning space that are indicative of a collaborative flood risk management arrangement. The first part of this article introduces a set of indicators, and presents strategies to employ this list so as to systematically identify brokers, and compare their learning spaces. The second part outlines the lessons from an evaluation that explored cases in two distinct flood risk management settings in Germany. The results show differences in the observed brokers' learning spaces. The contacts and interactions of the broker in Baden-Württemberg imply a collaborative setting. In contrast, learning space of the broker in North Rhine-Westphalia lacks the same level of diversity and polycentricity.
Mit dem Plan zum Wiederaufbau Haitis, dessen Umsetzung 5,3 Milliarden US-Dollar kosten wird, hat die Regierung in Port-au-Prince einen ersten Rahmen für die internationale Unterstützung vorgegeben. Der Plan soll von einer Wiederaufbaukommission umgesetzt werden, deren Mandat zunächst auf 18 Monate befristet ist. Auf einer von den UN ausgerichteten Geberkonferenz hat sich die internationale Gemeinschaft verpflichtet, in den nächsten zehn Jahren 10 Milliarden US-Dollar an Hilfsgeldern bereitzustellen, die von der Weltbank in einem Fonds verwaltet werden sollen. Doch stellt sich die Frage, wie die Gelder operativ einzusetzen sind. Da viele Geber keine Strukturen in Haiti unterhalten, ist die Empfehlung laut geworden, den Wiederaufbau zu 'lateinamerikanisieren'. Dafür bieten sich in erster Linie Brasilien und Mexiko an, die als aufstrebende Geberländer (emerging donors) kompetent agieren könnten.
Adaptive management has been proliferating since the 1970s as a policy approach for dealing with uncertainty in environmental governance through learning. Learning takes place through a cyclical approach of experimentation and (possible) adjustment. However, few empirical studies exist that cover full iterations of adaptive management cycles. We report on five adaptive management projects on water quality enhancement, of which four led to innovations in the small-scale management of waterways in northern Germany. We trace processes as well as outcomes, to identify factors affecting learning, environmental improvement, and the successful delivery of a project throughout a management cycle. Our findings point to a key difference between two kinds of uncertainty in the studied processes: ecological uncertainty (whether and how interventions will be effective in improving water quality) and what we term "social uncertainty" (how stakeholders will respond to interventions). We find that those managers performed better who addressed both kinds of uncertainty. Factors for dealing with social uncertainties were usually rather different than the ones linked to knowledge gain for the results in the rivers, and their acknowledgment was decisive for successful project delivery. On a conceptual level, our findings suggest that the model of a dual feedback cycle, including both types of uncertainties, allows for more clear-cut conceptual differentiation and empirical outcome measurement of adaptive management processes.
"Drawing on evidence from implementation of the European Water Framework Directive (WFD) in eight case studies (from Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom), this book examines a range of approaches to participatory river basin management planning, and considers whether and how participation impacted on the environmental standard of planning documents, quality of implementation, and social outcomes" --
"Does participatory governance benefit the environment? The European Water Framework Directive (WFD), which came into force in 2000 with the aim of revolutionizing European water governance, mandates participatory river basin management planning across the European Union. The belief of European policymakers and the European Commission is that participation will deliver better policy outputs and implementation. This book examines a range of approaches to participatory river basin management planning, and considers whether and how participation impacted on the environmental standard of planning documents, quality of implementation, and social outcomes. It draws on evidence from WFD implementation in eight case studies from Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom on the basis of a matched comparative case study design. The Directive sets common timeframes and procedural requirements, which provides a perfect test-bed and unique opportunity to study the effects of participation on implementation and outcomes in comparative perspective. "--Provided by publisher.
AbstractThere is much enthusiasm among scholars and public administrators for participatory and collaborative modes of governance as a means to tackle contemporary environmental problems. Participatory and collaborative approaches are expected to both enhance the environmental standard of the outputs of decision-making processes and improve the implementation of these outputs. In this article, we draw on a database of 305 coded published cases of public environmental decision-making to identify key pathways via which participation fosters effective environmental governance. We develop a conceptual model of the hypothesized relationship between participation, environmental outputs, and implementation, mediated by intermediate (social) outcomes such as social learning or trust building. Testing these assumptions through structural equation modeling and exploratory factor analysis, we find a generally positive effect of participation on the environmental standard of governance outputs, in particular where communication intensity is high and where participants are delegated decision-making power. Moreover, we identify two latent variables—convergence of stakeholder perspectives and stakeholder capacity building—to mediate this relationship. Our findings point to a need for treating complex and multifaceted phenomena such as participation in a nuanced manner, and to pay attention to how particular mechanisms work to foster a range of social outcomes and to secure more environmentally effective outputs and their implementation.
AbstractCurrent European Union (EU) policies require policy-makers on different levels of government to engage with new forms of governance such as participatory planning, aiming to improve environmental policy delivery. We address the central issue of how policy-makers learn about the appropriateness of different modes of governance. By way of example, we examine recent innovations in EU water governance – primarily through the enactment of the Water Framework Directive (2000) and the Floods Directive (2007), and their requirements for stakeholder participation in the planning process. We discuss scope for policy-induced 'governance learning', wherein policy-makers draw on evidence and experience to learn about how to design and execute effective participatory planning and decision-making. In doing so, we aim to extend work on policy learning by focusing on the procedural dimensions of governance, and make a case for more coordinated and systematic approaches to gathering evidence and learning from ongoing EU environmental policy implementation.
The participation of societal groups and of the broader public has been a key feature in implementing the European Water Framework Directive (WFD). Non -state actor participation in the drafting of river b asin management plans was expected to help achieve the directive's environmental goals, but the recent literature leaves us doubtful whether this has in fact been the case. This study examines a structured online survey of 118 public water managers, covering the six biggest European Union states ofFrance, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain and the UK. We assess multiple facets of participation, for example the involved actors, the intensity of communication exchange, and participants' influence on planning. Results show that participatory WFD implementation has included a wide range of actor groups but rarely citizens, and that there has been minimal provision for interactive communication. The value of active involvement to the reaching of environmental goals was assessed as limited and that of public consultation as insignificant. Participants who were actively involved mainly contributed by advocating for stronger environmental standards and by providing implementation-relevant knowledge. Potential reasons for the overall poor record of participation include the strong influence of agriculture and the lack of public interest. Our findings suggest that, in hindsight, the European Commission's conviction that participation benefits good water status appears overly naïve.
