Institutions for integrated water-resources management in river basins: A synthesis of IWMI research

River basin development / Water resource management / Poverty / Irrigation management / Farmers’ associations / Institutional development

Institutions for integrated water resources management in upland watersheds of Southeast Asia: A comparative analysis of Thailand and Lao PDR

Institutions / Decentralization / Watersheds / Food security / Domestic water / Environmental degradation / Income

Contracting out local government services: A comparative study of two New Zealand regional councils

Studies of New Zealand public sector reforms since the mid-1980s have tended to focus on the application of New Public Management principles to the central government. Yet local government in New Zealand too has experienced drastic restructuring with a view to ensuring greater rationalisation, efficiency and effectiveness. This article examines contracting out in New Zealand local government, focusing on the delivery of plant pest management by Environment Waikato(the Waikato Regional Council) and the Wellington Regional Council. The study reveals distinct differences in approach by the two councils, determined in each case by pragmatic responses to situational context rather than mere adherence to NPM principles

Denial and distancing in discourses of development: shadow of the 'Third World' in New Zealand

Anxieties about development in New Zealand show up in a deep-rooted fear of the 'Third World' in the country. We examine how the term 'Third World' is deployed in media discourses in economic, social and environmental contexts and how this deployment results in a 'discursive distancing' from anything associated with the 'Third World'. Such distancing demonstrates a fragile national identity that struggles with the contradictions between the nation's desire to be part of the 'First World' of global capitalism and the growing disparities in health and wealth within it. The shadow of the 'Third World' prevents New Zealand from confronting the realities of its own inequities, which in turn comes in the way of a sound development agenda

Science, governance, and public participation: An analysis of decision making on genetic modification in Aotearoa/New Zealand

The acceptance of public participation in science and technology governance in liberal democratic contexts is evident in the institutionalization of a variety of mechanisms for participation in recent decades. Yet questions remain about the extent to which institutions have actually transformed their policy practice to embrace democratic governance of techno-scientific decision making. A critical discourse analysis of the response to public participation by the Environmental Risk Management Authority (ERMA), the key decision-making body on genetic modification in Aotearoa/New Zealand, in a specific case demonstrates that ERMA systematically marginalized concerns raised by the public about risk management, ethics, and ecological, economic, and cultural issues in order to give primacy to a positivist, technological worldview. Such delegitimization of public perspectives pre-empts the possibility of the democratic governance of science