Embedding ecosystem services ideas into policy processes: an institutional analysis

What helps or limits the use of ecosystem services ideas in practice? In this paper we develop and test a new institutionalistbased analytical scheme to explore how ecosystem services as a “new” policy idea might interact with established policy regimes, processes, and norms. The scheme is based on three different decision-making levels: micro, meso, and macro. To test the plausibility of the scheme, it is applied to the case of the UK where a specific ecosystem services framework (ESF) was prioritized as a new way of doing environmental policy after 2011. Drawing on findings from 32 elite interviews, the paper shows how dynamics at all three levels intersect with differing institutional explanations. It helps explain important factors for embedding, or restricting embedding, of the ESF in policy making. The scheme provides a useful way to link analysis of the “lived experience” of policy actors implementing the ESF with the institutional landscape they occupy, and allows for a nuanced and integrated analysis of the potential barriers faced by ecosystem services ideas generally

Watching the Detectives: Explaining Regulators’ Roles in the Integration of Sustainable Development in UK Public Services

This article is based on research funded the Sustainable Development Commission (see Coote et al, 2009). A previous version was presented at the UACES annual conference in Bruges 5-8 September 2010. The authors are grateful to the participants of panel B208, Governance of Sustainability 1 for their constructive comments and feedback. The usual disclaimer applies. Dunlop gratefully acknowledges the support of a Sustainable Development Commission research grant.publication-status: AcceptedThis is an Author's Original Manuscript of an article submitted for consideration in Public Management Review [copyright Taylor & Francis]; Public Management Review is available online at http://www.tandfonline.com/ [DOI: 10.1080/14719037.2011.642564]This paper examines the role of regulators in the UK in integrating sustainable development into public services. In particular, how can we explain the different ways in which different regulators engage with sustainable development? Drawing on insights from rational choice and sociological institutionalism, the paper explains the responses of the three regulators operating in local government, schools and healthcare. It finds that, central government’s failure both to send out clear signals about how to promote sustainable development and to create incentives to ensure it happens has left the integration of sustainable development mediated by regulators’ organisational norms and professional identities

Implementing the water framework directive and tackling diffuse pollution from agriculture: Lessons from England and Scotland

Tackling diffuse pollution from agriculture is a key challenge for governments seeking to implement the European Union's Water Framework Directive (WFD). In the research literature, how best to integrate and align effective measures for tackling diffuse pollution, within the context of the EU's multilevel governance structure, remains an open question. This paper focuses on the first and second implementation cycles of the WFD to explore how national governance arrangements either facilitated or hindered the adoption of effective policies, especially with regards to the delivery of agricultural and water policies on the ground. It draws on data collected through systematic document analysis and interviews with key experts, policymakers and interest groups, and presents a comparative analysis of two case studies: England and Scotland. The case studies show that Scotland's joined-up governance structure, which enabled policymakers and interest groups to work together and to build trust and cooperation, facilitated the adoption of stricter measures for tackling diffuse pollution. In contrast, in England institutional fragmentation prevented a meaningful engagement of all parties and acted as a barrier. The analysis unpacks the design of policy mixes and the conditions that allow national governments to pursue more holistic and integrated governance approaches to overcome opposition from interest groups and gain their support

Harmful algal blooms: the impacts on cultural ecosystem services and human well-being in a case study setting, Cornwall, UK

© 2018 The Authors Whilst harmful algal blooms (HABs) are a natural phenomenon, the impacts of these events can have devastating impacts on human societies. To date, these have largely been studied with reference to economic and health impacts, which can be significant and have impact at both individual and community levels. This paper builds on previous work and addresses recent calls to more fully understand the nuanced human impacts of HABs. Using a framework of cultural ecosystem services, the paper explores how HABs can impact human well-being through disruptions to therapeutic and inspirational opportunities in the natural environment, opportunities for recreation, aesthetic enjoyment, and losses to traditional ways of life, sense of place and collective identity. A snapshot is gleaned into the lived realities of six local residents of St Austell bay, Cornwall, UK, an area frequently affected by HABs via interviews which illustrate how the impacts of HABs can be felt at a much deeper level than are revealed through economic and health analysis. Whilst it is acknowledged the sample size here is limited, the findings nonetheless point to some of the key impacts of HABs in this specific setting and indicate a need for continued research to incorporate local experiences into decisions about how to respond to environmental shocks and what safeguards could help to buffer against the worst of these. It is argued that locally-directed management policies can be developed at scales more appropriate to coastal communities to better respond to their specific needs when considering HAB impacts

ex ante policy assessment and the utilisation of knowledge in the policy process

Procedures for the ex ante assessment of public policies are currently in vogue across the OECD. Their design is typically informed by an instrumentally rational model of problem solving, which assumes that knowledge is collected, evaluated and then trans-lated straightforwardly into 'better policies'. This model has, it seems, been little af-fected by more than three decades of academic research which has demonstrated thathe reality of every-day policy- making is far messier. This paper analyses whether the uptake of ex ante assessment of policies is nonetheless capable of providing new op-portunities for knowledge to inform processes of policy deliberation and learning. Drawing on an analysis of policy assessment procedures in three countries and the European Commission, it finds that there are several ways in which assessment knowl-edge is used in the policy process. Moreover, its argues that policy learning occurs de-spite, rather than because of the instrumental design of the new assessment proce-dures, which tends to act as a barrier to open deliberation and knowledge utilisation

Institutional barriers to climate change adaptation in decentralised governance structures: Transport planning in England

ArticleCopyright © Urban Studies Journal Limited 2014This is the author's post print version of the article.. The final version is available from the publisher via the DOI in this record.Climate change poses governance challenges at diverse scales and across the dimensions of risk and responsibility. Local governments are central to the delivery of action on both decarbonisation and adapting to the risks of climate change. Yet there are likely to be significant differences across local governments in terms of their capacity to act on climate change. This research documents and explains differences in the capacity to act within response spaces to risks to transport infrastructure and systems. We examine 80 Transport Plans across local governments in England, specifically their efforts to incorporate climate change adaptation. Data are generated from content analysis of the 80 documents and key informant interviews in a sample of 15% of authorities. The results show significant disparities across authorities. We explain differential outcomes as dependent on internal coordination, local prioritisation processes and political opposition. The results highlight that there are significant governance barriers associated with differential response capacity in the face of climate change risks.European Union FP7-funded BASE projectNERCClimate Change and Sustainable Futures studentship (University of Exeter

Towards an understanding of when non-climate frames can generate public support for climate change policy

There is a growing tendency for policy makers to frame climate change action in terms of non-climate benefits, raising important empirical questions regarding the utility of such approaches. Across three studies we explore whether (and when) non-climate frames can lead to greater support for climate policy relative to climate frames. In Study 1 we framed a car-use reduction policy in relation to climate change or public health and showed that non-climate frames can stimulate greater support for climate policy. Study 2 explored frame relevance as a potential boundary condition to the efficacy of non-climate frames. Study 3 found that attempts to frame climate policy in relation to non-climate issues that affect participants personally can fail if that issue is not seen as being sufficiently relevant. We suggest that non-climate frames can be an effective tool in stimulating support for climate policy, however greater consideration of the key mechanisms is required. </jats:p

Community benefits or community bribes?:An experimental analysis of strategies for managing community perceptions of bribery surrounding the siting of renewable energy projects

The provision of financial incentives to local communities by energy developers has attracted cynicism across many localities, with some suggesting such community benefits are akin to “bribery.” The current study used an experimental design embedded within a community postal survey to explore whether potentially damaging effects of bribery rhetoric upon local support for a wind farm can be overcome through (a) portraying community benefits as a policy requirement (rather than a discretionary gesture by developers), and/or (b) the deployment of different discursive strategies by developers to manage their stake in the outcome of the project. Participants told about community benefits as being a policy requirement showed significantly higher support for the wind farm, an effect that was mediated by heightened perceptions of individually and collectively favorable outcomes from the development. We discuss our results in relation to their implications for government policy approaches to promoting renewable energy supply. </jats:p

Understanding policy integration in the EU—Insights from a multi-level lens on climate adaptation and the EU's coastal and marine policy

© 2017 Elsevier Ltd Integration of relatively new policy tasks like climate adaptation into established higher-level policy fields is insufficiently understood in the academic literature. This paper proposes a framework to evaluate the integration of climate adaptation into the sectoral policy-making of the European Commission, particularly following the publication of the EU Adaptation Strategy (in 2013). The paper uses a framework of micro, meso and macro-level institutional behaviour drawing strongly on new institutionalism perspectives to identify and explain factors enabling and hindering policy integration. It focuses on integration in the coastal and marine policy sector, which is expected to be particularly vulnerable to climate change impacts, and draws from data collected through a document review and interviews with key informants. The findings show that the integration of climate adaptation is still at an early stage. The integration process appears to be largely dependent on institutional dynamics at the EU-level combined with how member states and wider sectoral stakeholders engage with adaptation concerns. In particular, the ambivalence of some member states and a lack of urgency among sectoral stakeholders has hampered the integration of adaptation goals