BC political economy and the challenge of shale gas: Negotiating a post-staples trajectory

Shale gas, a type of natural gas extracted from shale rock deposits deep underground, is poised to become the latest in a long history of staples industries in the British Columbian economy. However, its development poses challenges for the future trajectory of BC’s economy and society. BC’s economy, values, and political imaginary have increasingly turned towards a post-staples trajectory based on economic diversification and a cultural shift towards environmental and cosmopolitan values. In considering what is at stake in the development of shale gas, we locate the industry in the historical context of BC’s economic, regulatory, and political transitions toward a post-staples society, and assess what political, environmental, and economic challenges arise from the disconnect between a staples industry and a post-staples society. We conclude that for shale gas development to be viable and profitable for BC’s economy, the industry must be regulated to ensure the benefits that accrue from shale gas development (in terms of revenue, sustainable employment, and stable northern development) further BC’s nascent post-staples trajectory of development

“We need more data”! The politics of scientific information for water governance in the context of hydraulic fracturing

Proposed and actual developments of hydraulic fracturing, as a high-volume water user, have proven contentious in recent years. However, one point of agreement has emerged amongst all actors with regards to water use and hydraulic fracturing: we need more data. This consensus fits with a longstanding reification of the role of data in water governance, and yet we argue it hides a politically contested terrain. Based on a literature review, an empirical Delphi study and a workshop with a diverse array of participants from across Canada, we explore the data needs related to water governance and hydraulic fracturing. We then investigate three areas of deficiency that point to a lack of trust and oversight as well as the exclusion of community and Indigenous knowledge. We argue that in an era of neoliberal approaches to water governance, issues of trust, accountability and transparency all link back to a diminished role for data management within existing water governance arrangements. The challenge is that simply collecting more data will not help decision-makers navigate the complexity of water governance. Our findings suggest a growing call by participants for greater engagement by governments in data collection and knowledge management, new funding mechanisms for data collection and rethinking how and what to monitor if including multiple ways of knowing and values

For a public international relations

The last few years have seen an opening up of what is considered to be the legitimate terrain of international relations (IR). This move is, for the most part, extremely welcome. Yet, the multiple theoretical and empirical openings in IR since the end of the Cold War have failed to elucidate many of the puzzles, questions and problems posed by the contemporary conjuncture. There are a number of reasons for this failure ranging from the stickiness of Cold War problem fields to IR’s continued attachment to systemic-level theories. However, this article focuses less on symptoms than on treatment and, in particular, on how generating a more “public” international relations enterprise might help to connect IR with the core theoretical, empirical and normative terrain of “actually existing” world politics. Taking its cue from recent debates in sociology about how to generate a “public sociology,” the article lays out three pathologies that a public IR enterprise should avoid and four ground rules—amounting to a manifesto of sorts—which sustain the case for a “public” international relations

The influence of ethical values and food choice motivations on intentions to purchase sustainably sourced foods

This study examined a three-step adaptation of the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) applied to the intention of consumers to purchase sustainably sourced food. The sample consisted of 137 participants, of which 109 were female, who were recruited through a farmers market and an organic produce outlet in an Australian capital city. Participants completed an online questionnaire containing the TPB scales of attitude, subjective norms, perceived behavioural control and intention; measures of positive moral attitude and ethical self identity; and food choice motives. Hierarchical multiple regression was used to examine the predictive utility of the TPB in isolation (step 1) and the TPB expanded to include the constructs of moral attitude and ethical self-identity (step 2). The results indicated the expansion of the TPB to include these constructs added significantly to the predictive model measuring intention to purchase sustainably sourced food. The third step in the adaptation utilised this expanded TPB model and added a measure of retail channel (where consumers reported buying fresh produce) and 9 food choice motives, in order to assess the predictive utility of the inclusion of choice motivations in this context. Of the 8 food choice motives examined, only health and ethical values significantly predicted intention to purchase sustainably sourced food. However, with the addition of food choice motives, ethical self-identity was no longer a significant predictor of intention to purchase sustainably sourced food. Overall the adapted TPB model explained 76% of the variance in intention to purchase sustainably sourced food

O local e o global na estrutura da política ambiental internacional: a construção social do acidente químico ampliado de Bhopal e da Convenção 174 da OIT The local and the global in the international environmental politics structure: the social construction of the Bhopal major chemical accident and the ILO Convention 174

Neste artigo, adota-se a abordagem construtivista das Relações Internacionais (RI) para analisar o impacto normativo internacional do acidente químico de Bhopal, privilegiando-se o papel constitutivo da ação humana na Política Ambiental Internacional (PAI). Emprega-se articulação de conceitos construtivistas, útil na visualização da estrutura em que está inserido o evento local e, também, do processo de construção social tanto do evento quanto da norma internacional que precipitou.O pressupostoéodeque prevalece a co-constituição entre estruturas e agentes - responsáveis pela construção social do evento-ede que, portanto, não se pode prescindir desses elementos, tampouco dos elos que os unem. Almeja-se, por um lado, compreender a maneira pela qual o evento local é construído socialmente, tendo por referência a estrutura de idéias e de normas, referidas à proteção ambiental e ao desenvolvimento sustentável; e, por outro, como a ocorrência local gera impactos políticos, sociais e normativos em nível global. Assim, evidenciam-se elementos de globalidade, pertencentes ao evento local, sobretudo quando se verifica um processo de amadurecimento ideacional e normativo que tem como marcos políticos a Conferência de Estocolmo sobre o Meio Ambiente Humano de 1972 e a Conferência das Nações Unidas sobre Desenvolvimento e Meio Ambiente, ocorrida no Rio de Janeiro, em 1992. Assim, destaca-se o contexto cultural e institucional da cena ambiental como um todo, evidenciando-se o veio condutor do processo de construção social enfocado: a relação local/global na área ambiental. Focaliza-se, também, o papel da Organização Internacional do Trabalho (OIT) como agência líder na discussão internacional da segurança química a fim de indicar por que a construção normativa enfocada se verifica no fórum daquela Organização Internacional (OI).<br>The present article utilizes the constructivist approach of International Relations (IR) to analyze the international normative impact of the Bhopal chemical accident, focusing on the constitutive role of the human action on the International Environmental Politics (IEP). It adopts an articulation of constructivist concepts, useful to visualize the structure in which the local event is embedded, as well as the social construction process of either the event and the international norm launched. The assumption is that a co-constitution relation between structure and agents, who are responsible for the social construction of the event, is preponderant and that, consequently, it is impossible to exclude these elements or their connecting links from the analysis. The article aims at understanding, on the one hand, the way in which the event is socially constructed, referring to the ideational and normative structure of environmental protection and sustainable development; and, on the other, how the local event produces political, social and normative impact at international level. As a result, the global features of local events become evident, specially considering the ideational and normative fulfillment of an environment consciousness, whose political milestones are the Stockholm 1972 United Nations Conference on the Human Environment and the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, held in Rio de Janeiro. Therefore, the article emphasizes the cultural and institutional environmental context as whole, pointing out the local/global relationship. It also focuses on the role of the International Labour Organization (ILO) as a leader agency in the chemical safety field, in an attempt to indicate why the normative construction process has taken place on the forum of that International Organization (IO)