Preface

The goals and plan of the book

This book focuses on the role of scale in environmental governance. Although scales and governance are not new subjects, their significance has grown over the last few years in cross-disciplinary research and professional practice. This growth can be explained by the increasing concerns about sustainability issues in the context of a globalizing world. Challenges, such as climate change, food and bio-energy production, the management of storm water, and the decline of biodiversity, stretch across local to global scales and require action at multiple governance scales. Governance systems are typically not ready for this task due to organizational and jurisdictional fragmentation and specialization, and short-term planning horizons. Scientific knowledge is fragmented as well, along disciplinary lines and research traditions in academia and research institutions. With this book, we aim to cross these disciplinary lines by bringing together a variety of research and governance approaches. To this end, we introduce the concept of scale-sensitive governance of the environment. This concept aims to develop advanced knowledge on scaling and governance that is practically relevant and scientifically sound.

With this book, we aim to develop a conceptual and methodological basis for scale-sensitive governance of the environment. More specifically, the book serves three goals. First, it aims to develop a holistic vision on the cross-scale interaction between social and ecological processes and the governance of these processes across scales. What is state of the art in the scale debate in environmental disciplines? What unifying concepts of scale can be developed? How should researchers and practitioners understand the relationships between social and ecological processes across scales? How sensitive are traditional governance approaches to scale? Are new approaches needed?

Second, the book aims to provide empirical evidence about scale-sensitive governance as a political and scientific practice. Rather than taking scales for granted, the social dynamics ‘behind’ it are explored. How do public and private interests, political discourses, and plain politics mobilize the bias toward a particular scale in decision-making? How does this manipulation of scale have an effect on society and the environment? Likewise, scaling is seen as a scientific activity. What decisions do scientists (often implicitly) make about scale when collecting quantitative and qualitative data and performing analyses? How do these decisions affect system descriptions and governance recommendations?

Finally, the book aims to show how current environmental governance practices can be enriched by using theories on scale. Although growing insight exists into the complex nature of social-ecological relationships, the implications for policy are not widely understood or systematically considered in environmental governance. How can policy instruments be applied in a complex multi-scalar setting? How can scientists, local experts and policymakers collaborate in scale research and negotiate on the scales to be addressed?

In order to reach these goals, we have developed the following plan for the book. Chapters 1–3 introduce definitions, theories and models for scale-sensitive governance of the environment, as well as a few real-world examples. The subsequent chapters 4–17 present a series of case studies, following a variety of scientific approaches. The primary case studies were performed in Austria, Canada, Costa Rica, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Indonesia, Italy, Kenya, Nepal, Poland, Portugal and the UK. Other chapters use secondary case studies from Europe, southern Africa and South America. The topics that these chapters address include biodiversity, climate change, commodities (e.g. palm oil and tea), cultural landscapes, energy, forestry, natural resource management, pesticides, urban development and water management. The final chapter of the book (18) combines the insights from all of these chapters in order to develop a conceptual basis for scale-sensitive governance of the environment. This chapter also proposes priorities for future research.

Brief introduction to the chapters

The first three chapters introduce the reader to the concepts of scale-sensitive environmental governance. Chapter 1, by Frans Padt and Bas Arts, explains that scale is a much debated topic in the academic disciplines of geography, urban sociology and planning, political ecology, environmental governance, ecology, spatial policy and water management. The authors suggest that there is a great potential for bringing these disciplinary approaches together around the issue of scale-sensitive environmental governance. However, conceptual ambiguity and imprecise definitions of scale stand in the way of such an effort. In this chapter, different definitions of scales are explained as well as analytical approaches for studying scale.

Paul Opdam, in chapter 2, examines how ecological processes at different scales affect local biodiversity and the provision of landscape services. Using an example from a polder in the Netherlands, the author discusses how community-based planning and collective action can affect these scales by physically adjusting the green infrastructure in the region and thereby improving the provision of landscape services.

In chapter 3, Catrien Termeer and Art Dewulf compare different governance models and show to what extent these models are sensitive toward scale. The authors also review how scale is understood in these models and to what extent they enable actors to take action at different scales. This exploration is supported by several case studies on Dutch water management.

The following 14 chapters present a series of primary and secondary case studies. Nico Polman et al. explore, in chapter 4, the role of scales in natural resource management conflicts and how these conflicts can be addressed by anticipating these scales. The authors take into account unequal distribution of knowledge and power, and uncertainties and risks at different scales. The authors also develop proposals for integrative negotiations and new institutional designs.

In chapter 5, Lisa Norton et al. explore ways of including multiple scales in local water management in order to provide ecosystem services. The authors take into account the wider social, ecological and governance systems that are relevant to the watershed. The analysis is supported by a case study for the Loweswater watershed in the UK.

In chapter 6 Rocco Scolozzi et al. study the governance of landscapes and how to incorporate different scales therein. Their study area is the alpine cultural landscape of Val di Ledro in northern Italy. The authors observe that the governance of these landscapes has become more complex and involves more scales than decades ago when only local communities used the resources of the landscape. The authors discuss new emerging scales of governance as well as the shifting role of actors and knowledge.

In chapter 7, Philipp Späth and Harald Rohracher study energy transitions in Austria and Germany at different scales, from the scale of towns and regions to the national scale and beyond. They give special attention to the role of actors, networks, places and politics to explain how energy transitions take place over time. Such a transition is understood as a radical, systemic and transformational change toward a sustainable energy provision and consumption.

As described in chapter 8, Sylvia Karlsson-Vinkhuyzen performed case studies in Kenya and Costa Rica in order to identify what interactional, organizational and institutional factors drive pesticide use in these countries. The case studies take different scales into account, from the community to the national and beyond. The author develops a methodological framework to support scale-sensitive governance of pesticide use.

Joyeeta Gupta's chapter 9 revolves around the question of why problems related to climate change, forestry and water management are scaled up or scaled down. The author explores the related politics of, arguments of, and consequences for scale-sensitive governance of these issues. A theoretical framework is developed to understand how actors use scale strategically to reach their goals.

Daniel Compagnon, in a similar vein, in chapter 10, critically reviews the role of national politics in natural resources management in the South. The author considers the unequal distribution of power across scales and how this distribution affects efficient and fair environmental governance. He explains how institutional reforms can help overcome this problem.

Alice Cohen, in a study of Canadian watersheds in chapter 11, asks why watersheds have become such a popular unit of governance in water management and beyond over the past decades. The author discusses the roles of science, politics and social movements in order to answer this question and critically reviews the watershed scale as a unit of governance. Cohen especially criticizes the idea that one scale can encompass all of the ecological and institutional complexities inherent to environmental governance.

Sofie Bouteligier's field of inquiry is urban planning. In chapter 12, she reviews how pilot projects in cities across the world have inspired the exchange of knowledge in transnational networks and a wider transition to sustainable urban development. The dominant role of Western cities in this transition is critically discussed as well.

In chapter 13, Otto Hospes and Annemoon...