A key challenge confronting modern policymakers is to ensure that economic development is both socially just and environmentally sustainable. Toward that goal, effective government regulations require the accurate quantification of their associated costs and benefits. An extensive theoretical and empirical literature in economics has shown the benefits of government policies in addressing market failures and providing public goods. But few studies have credibly identified the social costs and distributional impacts of existing policies. My dissertation integrates new data and empirical methods from economics and earth sciences to investigate the social impacts of energy infrastructure and environmental policy. Chapter 1 uses the Three Gorges Dam in China as a natural experiment to provide the first evidence of the social and economic impacts of dam-induced inundation on population displacement and labor market reallocation. Chapter 2 examines the political economy implications of wind turbine construction on United States congressional elections. Chapter 3 employs original data from a large-scale survey to study the social benefits of environmental quality improvements. Overall, results from these papers inform future research on the social impacts of energy and environmental policy and highlight the importance of unbiased policy evaluations.

The coffee trade in Chiapas, Mexico is a unique approach of sustainable development and economic integration, demonstrating that local social movements can change behaviors in international trade regimes. The Zapatista community of Chiapas, Mexico, has an impact on the global trade system, where resultant changes begin at the local level. In the southern Mexican state of Chiapas, factors contributing to the Zapatista rebellion have led actors within civil society to form new socio-political organizations capable of changing participation, norms, and economic outcomes during the post-rebellion period (1994 - present). This study explores the dilemmas facing the autonomy of actors in broadening and deepening their roles in the fair trade movement. It argues that innovative practices of fair trade coffee production, originating at the local level in Chiapas from Zapatista reform measures, has a transformative effect on international trade regimes. The Zapatista social movement has aided Mayans and other groups in establishing new linkages where the impacts of fair trade are experienced beyond the local level. Social movement theorists provide an analytical framework necessary to examine these dynamic linkages between civil society, the state, and international trade regimes. However, contemporary Latin American social movement theorists do not seem to have adequately transcended the dualism between civil society and the state. The importance of this study is that it illuminates how, although the state remains the principle actor, these linkages formed by fair trade have important repercussions for the autonomy of indigenous groups in pursuing independent economic relations. Findings illustrate that fair trade is a viable means to socially re-embed international trade relations, attributing new rules, norms, and procedures to trade regimes. Reorganization in the face of state oppression has enabled a shift from anti-globalization tendencies toward an alternative form of economic integration which has become widely legitimized through a three-way dynamic between civil society, the state, and the international community.

This thesis addresses the question “What is the essence of the Murray Darling river system conundrum that is usually posed as an issue of environmental remediation?”- following perceptions of problems in catchment strategy formulation regarding project selection and public consultation. The question is initially seen as having four facets – governance, public, participation and remediation. An initial literature review indicated that previous examination of these topics seemed insufficiently radical or comprehensive for the enquiry’s purposes, seeming not to attribute full humanness to members of the public. A fieldwork program of quasi-anthropological nature was conducted. Interpretation of the fieldwork reports focuses primarily on the lack of attribution of full humanness to members of the public. Interpretive techniques including a phenomenological-style process was applied and found that the district houses a number of unrecognised people “nexors’ occupying linking or nexus roles who exercise personal skills and initiatives to underpin effective remediation outcomes. Towards the end of the fieldwork program, further literature indicated that the initial four-facet nature of the enquiry should be reformulated, to include the overall nature of western society as it appears in the district (in place of participation), to reconstitute the concept of remediation more radically. Governance as a topic is broader than the ways in which it appears in the examined district, and suitable hybridizing of competing world view concepts remains unresolved in this thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

This work examines the ways in which the relationship between society and nature is problematic for social theory. The Frankfurt School’s notion of the dialectic of enlightenment is considered, as are the attempts by Jurgen Habermas to defend an ‘emancipatory’ theory of modernity against this. The marginalising effect Habermas’ defence of reason has had on the place of nature in his critical social theory is examined, as is the work of theorists such as Ulrich Beck and Klaus Eder. For these latter authors, unlike Habermas, the social relation to nature is at the centre of contemporary society, giving rise to new forms of modernisation and politics. ¶ Michel Foucault’s work on biopolitics and governmentality is examined against the background of his philosophical debate with Habermas on power and rationality. The growth of scientific ecology is shown to have both problematised the social relation to nature and provided the political technology for new forms of regulatory intervention in the management of the population and resources. These new forms of intervention constitute a form of ecological governmentality along the lines discussed by Foucault and others in relation to the human sciences. ¶ However, Foucault’s work is not sufficiently critical of the relationship between the natural sciences and power. Extending Foucault’s biopolitics to environmental discourse is consistent with his general approach to power, but his incomplete critique of political sovereignty meant that for him agency remained tied to an idealised notion of the autonomy of the human subject. He therefore made too strong a distinction between the human and natural sciences and between power and the capacities of non-human entities, and continued to view the natural sciences as separating themselves from power in a way that was not possible in the human sciences. ¶ A more general critique of epistemic sovereignty reveals that the natural sciences (including ecology) are subject to disciplinary and normalising practices similar to those of the human sciences. Foucault’s key inadequacy is that he linked agency to human autonomy and sovereignty. The work of Bruno Latour and other actor network theorists show that an unambiguous ontological distinction between nature, material technologies and active human subjects is highly problematic. In the place of a separate ‘society’ and ‘nature’, this thesis argues that it is preferable to see these as a single socio-nature populated by the hybrid products of translation networks. ¶ By drawing together the insights of recent governmentality studies and the approach of actor network theory to agency and translation, Foucault’s concept of biopolitics can be adapted to provide a theoretical framework for understanding the ecological programs of government that have emerged around the problem of nature in second half of the twentieth century.

After more than a decade of environmental impact assessment ( EIA ) provisions within South Australian Planning Act, 1982 it is appropriate to examine the role of the environmental impact statement ( EIS ) as a major element of EIA and an important decision making tool for major projects over this period. The thesis first provides a review of EIA from its overseas origins to its development at the Commonwealth level in Australia. This provides the context within which to examine the system of EIA for major developments or projects in South Australia, which are dealt with largely through the EIS process. The thesis examines the type of projects which, according to the discretionary criteria in the Planning Act, have attracted EIS requirements between 1982 - 1993 and uses this to determine generic groupings of projects. It is noted that marinas represent the largest group of projects with EIS requirements, although EISs have been called for power generation related projects, electricity transmission line projects, tourist related projects, industrial projects, mining projects, water management projects, transport projects and a number of other projects. The thesis examines the number of EISs that have been completed, whether or not the projects have been approved or rejected and to what extent any patterns have emerged. The thesis then focuses on all the completed EISs in terms of their content, timing of preparation, public involvement and response, associated legislative requirements, type and role of developer, type and role of EIS consultant, the assessment of the EIS, and the decision making process. The thesis notes the high approval rate for projects with completed EISs suggesting most of the environmental problems have been resolved or are capable of being resolved. It is also noted that a number of projects are abandoned before the EIS is ever completed and that the few rejected EIS proposals are associated with high numbers of public submissions. Although each of the rejected proposals has a complex history of project development, environmental assessment and negotiations, it is noted that the decision to reject the proposals was ultimately a political decision. The thesis comments on the limited role of the South Australian Planning Commission ( SAPC ) in EIS project decision making in South Australia and the increasing use of the Governor as a decision maker. Although the SAPC is the statutory planning authority it is constrained by having to have regard to the principles in the Development Plan which is geared toward development control rather than for the extraordinary major projects which become subject to EIS requirements. The thesis then examines proposed changes to EIA in the context of early attempts to initiate EIA reform in South Australia through to the current Development Bill. These proposals are placed in context with changes to EIA procedures that have taken place at the Commonwealth level, the proposed development of a national agreement on EIA, and also the implications for EIA which are likely to flow from recent Commonwealth initiatives on ecologically sustainable development strategies. In addition the implications of recently developed environment protection agencies and associated legislation are examined at both the State and Commonwealth levels. Collectively these reviews and analyses provide the context of current thinking on EIA as it is likely to affect South Australian EIA processes in the future. Finally the thesis discusses the evolving role of the South Australian EIS in the context of its evolutionary process and the proposed legislative changes in South Australia, together with other related initiatives. This discussion touches on a number of issues such as public administration, the actual practice of the EIA process as opposed to the theory of EIA and what is written into the EIA legislation. In conclusion an overview is given of the current role of the EIS with some predictions for the future of EIA in South Australia. / Thesis (M.Plan.)--Department of Architecture, 1993.

<p>From the beginning of nineties, when significant changes took place, Russia began to elaborate new environmental policy and designed new patterns for responding the environmental problems. The paper tried to make a contribution to our understanding of environmental policy and policy processes within the Russia in general terms and to the nature of environmental agenda setting in Pskov region in more specific terms. This thesis is therefore explores environmental agenda setting process in Russia taking into consideration contemporary trends in the analysis of policy- making, such as inclusion of non-state actors as well as role of ideas shaping actors attitudes and behaviour. The purpose of the thesis is to study the relationship between transnational forces and interactions, national policy and local political developments and the role of various agents and institutions in agenda setting of the regional environmental policy-making. The frame of reference is constituted by a theoretical combination of the agenda-setting model with constructivist approach in order to broaden our investigation of the implications of environmental policy-making, impact of political culture upon construction of environmental issues, and transformations in the public policy. By focusing on Pskov region case, the paper identifies and discusses a number of reasons why environmental issues are found on the margins of the political agenda. A central argument is that in the absence of effective governance in the Pskov region, international agents together with regional interest groups formulate environmental agenda. The paper concludes that, even though, the mentality of environmentalism is set through the foreign assistance, the processes of learning from international cooperation may contribute to attainment of regional environmental objectives.</p>

<p>The break-up of the Soviet Union handed down the Russian Federation a number of Soviet environmental legacies ranging from contaminated areas to the old bureaucratic procedures and outdated practices. In the post-Soviet years of transition to a free-market economy Russia began to face increasingly acute tension between environmental security and economic development, and the state’s ability to effectively pursue environmental policies deteriorated. Current environmental policy-makers are faced with a multitude of challenges that range from complicated environmental systems to the inconsistent legislative framework and resource deficiencies. Although researchers have paid some attention to these problems, environmental decision-making remains a poorly illuminated area and constitutes a theoretically challenging problem. This paper addresses the regional environmental decision-making process in the Russian Federation. Using the Pskov region on the border with Byelorussia and the two future EU members Estonia and Latvia as a case study, this paper seeks to supply a better understanding of how environmental decisions are made on the regional and local levels with a special focus on constraints affecting environmental policy-making. The study attempts to explain the environmental decision-making process in light of the two competing theories of decision- making, incrementalism and the bureaucratic politics model. It is primarily based on interviews made in the Pskov region in the autumn of 2002.</p>

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2006. / Title from first page of PDF file. Includes bibliographical references (p. 98-104).

Urban forest management is being increasingly recognized as a viable policy vehicle for improving the overall quality of life in urban regions, promoting economic well-being as well as mitigating some of the environmental impacts of urbanization. As a complex system of ecological merit, the urban forest is ultimately dependent upon community-directed efforts to protect and maintain its health, largely through tree ordinances. An understanding of how values and other social factors trigger public concern for and management of the local urban forest is important because of ramifications of community urban forestry policy on regional ecosystem functional capacity. This dissertation investigates the influence of individual experience with trees, knowledge about trees, and tree-related attitudes and beliefs on public support for management strategies to protect the urban forest. Attitude theory forms the foundation of the empirical approach used in this study. Drawing from place theory, attitudes representing Sense of Place were hypothesized to also play a role in explaining variation in homeowners’ support of urban forest protection strategies. Data were obtained from a public opinion survey of 800 homeowners living in a major urban area in Southern Appalachia and joined with measurements of tree canopy density. Geographic information systems software was used to create measures of tree canopy density from Light Detection and Ranging data for varying aerial extents around the survey respondents’ properties. Theoretical constructs were formulated and deployed in structural equation models to test the validity of the hypothesized relationships among the constructs, representing predictors of public support for urban forest protection policy. The modeling results showed that place-based contexts are significant in the prediction of community willingness to support higher levels of urban forest protection. Findings from this study suggest that although the presence of urban trees in one’s neighborhood leads a homeowner to place greater importance on various attributes of trees, this does not automatically lead to support for strong tree ordinances. One also must have a basis of attachment to tree places, which is predicted by tree knowledge and experience with caring for trees around one’s home. In conclusion, limitations and suggestions for future research are provided.

Traditional approaches to modeling environmental resources withinsecure or illdefined property rights are based on partial equilibrium models. This dissertation takes the view that since insecure tenure arrangements may be difficult to remedy, effects of national and sectoral policies should be analyzed in a general equilibrium framework in order to take unintended side effects on the the utilization of environmental resources into account. Specifically, two case studies on deforestation in Costa Rica and land degradation in Sri Lanka are developed. The main conclusions of this exercise is that although partial models may be useful in analyzing policies aimed at the environmental resource in question or reforms in the property rights system, economywide policies and sectoral policies aimed at other sectors may have large effects on environmental resource utilization. When the environmental quality is a concern, a general equilibrium framework shoul be used. In the case of Costa Rica, the results indicate that policies such as minimum wage legislation and capital taxation have significant effects on deforestation. The deforestation effects should be taken into account in policy making, and mesaures to mitigate deforestation should accompany these policies. Similar results hold for the case study of land degradation in Sri Lanka. / Diss. Stockholm : Handelshögskolan 1997