Stakeholder Engagement in the Making: IPBES Legitimization Politics

Esguerra A, Beck S, Lidskog R. Stakeholder Engagement in the Making: IPBES Legitimization Politics. Global Environmental Politics. 2017;17(1):59-76

Governing Moth and Man

AbstractThis paper analyses, in southern Gotland, an island located on the southeast coast of Sweden, the political process for handling the outbreak of an insect, the moth, causing human allergic reactions. Given the human nuisance and possible long-term damage to the tourist industry, the affected populace demanded spraying to reduce and control the insect population. However, there were warnings against such a treatment because of gaps in knowledge of its wider ecological consequences, not least its effects on biodiversity. Key actors were interviewed to investigate their understanding of the problem and how they tried to make it governable. The point of departure is that regulation not only governs specific objects, but is also deeply involved in their construction. The empirical analysis investigates involved actors’ conceptualizations of the problem and the proposed remedy. Despite local residents’ demands for spraying, public agencies took no substantial action to control the insect population, but instead deliberately acted to manage the local population’s claim-making. Thus, what took place was a process of governing not just moths, but men too.RésuméCe texte analyse, dans la partie méridionale de l’île de Gotland, située sur la côte sud-est de la Suède, le traitement politique de l’invasion de la mite, un insecte provoquant des réactions allergiques chez l’homme. Compte tenu de cette nuisance et de ses effets possibles à terme sur le tourisme, la population affectée exigea l’aspersion de produits pour réduire et contrôler cet insecte. Cependant, on se prononça contre ce type de traitement, et ce en raison du manque de connaissances quant à ses répercussions écologiques, notamment sur la biodiversité. Des entretiens furent menés avec des acteurs de premier plan afin de comprendre comment ils appréhendaient ce problème et comment ils essayaient de le gérer. Le postulat de cette étude, c’est que la régulation ne porte pas seulement sur des objets spécifiques mais qu’elle contribue aussi largement à créer ces objets. L’approche empirique s’intéressera à la façon dont les acteurs perçoivent le problème et aux solutions qu’ils proposent. En dépit des demandes des résidents locaux pour que soient aspergés des insecticides, les instances publiques n’entreprirent aucune action particulière pour contrôler la population d’insectes mais choisirent délibérément de gérer les demandes formulées par la population locale. Le résultat en fut qu’on ne se contenta pas de gérer des mites mais qu’on géra aussi des hommes

Towards a reflexive turn in the governance of global environmental expertise the cases of the IPCC and the IPBES

The role and design of global expert organizations such as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) or the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) needs rethinking. Acknowledging that a one-size-fits-all model does not exist, we suggest a reflexive turn that implies treating the governance of expertise as a matter of political contestation

Who speaks for the future of Earth? How critical social science can extend the conversation on the Anthropocene

This paper asks how the social sciences can engage with the idea of the Anthropocene in productive ways. In response to this question we outline an interpretative research agenda that allows critical engagement with the Anthropocene as a socially and culturally bounded object with many possible meanings and political trajectories. In order to facilitate the kind of political mobilization required to meet the complex environmental challenges of our times, we argue that the social sciences should refrain from adjusting to standardized research agendas and templates. A more urgent analytical challenge lies in exposing, challenging and extending the ontological assumptions that inform how we make sense of and respond to a rapidly changing environment. By cultivating environmental research that opens up multiple interpretations of the Anthropocene, the social sciences can help to extend the realm of the possible for environmental politics

Pluralitas Agama dalam Keluarga Jawa

Dalam masyarakat Jawa terdapat pemahaman dan pemaknaan sendiri terhadap agama yaitu â€agami ageming ajiâ€. Artinya apa pun agama yang dipeluk sama saja karena semua agama mengajarkan keselamatan. Oleh sebab itu menjadi sebuah fenomena menarik di kalangan masyarakat Jawa karena mereka cenderung lebih toleran dalam menyikapi perbedaaan dan keragaman beragama. Salah satu contoh masyarakat yang menghargai pluralitas agama adalah masyarakat Desa Getas Kaloran Temanggung. Tujuan penelitian ini adalah untuk menjelaskan tentang sejumlah keluarga yang dapat menerima pluralitas agama dan toleransi terhadap pluralitas agama dalam keluarga Jawa. Tulisan ini merupakan hasil penelitian yang menggunakan pendekatan deskriptif kualitatif. Subyek penelitian adalah masyarakat Desa Getas yang memiliki keragaman agama dalam keluarganya. Berdasarkan hasil penelitian dapat disimpulkan bahwa masyarakat Desa Getas dapat menerima pluralitas agama karena menurut mereka agama adalah urusan pribadi seseorang jadi tidak ada pihak yang dapat memaksakan suatu keyakinan kepada individu lain. Pluralitas agama tersebut tidak menimbulkan masalah berarti karena masyarakat memiliki derajat toleransi yang tinggi antar anggota keluarga, yang ditunjukkan melalui saling menghargai dan mengormati dan tidak mencampuri urusan keagamaan orang lain, serta saling membantu antar anggota keluarga untuk memperlancar kegiatan ibadah masing – masing. In Javanese community there is a specific principle on the meaning of religion, namely â€agami ageming ajiâ€. This pilosophy means whatever religion people believe, it doesn’t matter because they all teach salvation. This is an interesting phenomenon among the Javanese community because they tend to be tolerant in dealing with differences and diversity of religion that happen in one household. The objective of this article is to discuss the practices of religious tolerance found in a rural community of Getas, Kaloran, Temanggung Central Java. Techniques of data collection is done by interviews and observation. The study subjects were villagers of Getas, which has a diversity of religion in families. Based on the research results, it can be concluded that the villagers embrace a tradition of religious pluralism because they think religion is one’s personal affairs so that no party can impose a conviction for another individual. The plurality of religion does not cause significant problems because the public has a high degree of tolerance among family members, which is demonstrated through mutual respect and attitude not to interfere in religious affairs of others, and mutual help among family members to facilitate the worship activities of their relatives

Towards evaluation criteria in participatory flood risk management

Flood risk consists of complex and dynamic problems, whose management calls for innovative ways of engaging with a wide range of local stakeholders, many of whom lack the technical expertise to engage with traditional flood risk management practices. Participatory approaches offer potential for involving these stakeholders in decision-making, yet limited advice is available to users in choosing which techniques to employ and what they might expect them to deliver. Assessing the effectiveness of participatory approaches in local flood risk management is a critical step towards better understanding how community resilience is built. This paper presents a framework for evaluating participatory approaches to flood risk management that covers four evaluation elements (context, process, substantive and social outcomes). Practical success criteria are provided for evaluation, with references indicating where further advice and guidance can be sought. Criteria are tailored to the requirements of flood risk management, and aim to be sufficiently flexible for the framework to be easily transferable

Conditions for transformative learning for sustainable development: a theoretical review and approach

Continued unsustainability and surpassed planetary boundaries require not only scientific and technological advances, but deep and enduring social and cultural changes. The purpose of this article is to contribute a theoretical approach to understand conditions and constraints for societal change towards sustainable development. In order to break with unsustainable norms, habits, practices, and structures, there is a need for learning for transformation, not only adaption. Based on a critical literature review within the field of learning for sustainable development, our approach is a development of the concept of transformative learning, by integrating three additional dimensions—Institutional Structures, Social Practices, and Conflict Perspectives. This approach acknowledges conflicts on macro, meso, and micro levels, as well as structural and cultural constraints. It contends that transformative learning is processual, interactional, long-term, and cumbersome. It takes place within existing institutions and social practices, while also transcending them. The article adopts an interdisciplinary social science perspective that acknowledges the importance of transformative learning in order for communities, organizations, and individuals to be able to deal with global sustainability problems, acknowledging the societal and personal conflicts involved in such transformation