Worlds apart : interactions between local initiatives and established policy

This thesis presents three case studies about private actors aspiring to realize their innovative ideas on land management and design in three different areas in the Netherlands. In appearance, these three areas are very different but they are all dynamic and are all located near cities. In size, the areas range from seventy to a few hundred hectares. Socially, they are highly dynamic as well, with various groups and organizations seeking either to make changes or to conserve what they value, and taking action to promote their ideas. However, it was clear from the start that the ways in which the initiators of these ideas gave meaning to the three areas differed from the ideas enshrined in existing policies. It is argued that the initiatives must be looked at in the context of various pleas for ‘interactive policy making’, since these generate expectations about the scope for initiatives to come from private actors. The question is whether these pleas really imply scope for two-way traffic, allowing ‘space for policy innovation’ through local initiatives which do not originate from government actors. Indeed, the three case studies show that there is ample innovative potential at the local level and that ideas do get implemented after considerable efforts. The fact that these initiatives were implemented was also due to other factors, such as the personal zeal and perseverance, trust and empathy that could develop among people involved ‘in the field’. However, the cases also show that there is only limited politicized discussion about the possible wider policy implications of these local innovations. This study revealed this asymmetry between local innovative potential and a seeming lack of responsiveness on the part of established policy by means of an analysis of 1) the relationships between discourses, actor coalitions, rules and resources at the level of day-to-day interactions between the initiatives and established policy, and 2) the influence of structural forces such as Europeanization, distantiation, juridification and sectoralization on these everyday practices. The study explored how these structural forces contributed to a form of depoliticization in the case study areas

Governance, scale and the environment: the importance of recognizing knowledge claims in transdisciplinary arenas

Any present day approach of the world’s most pressing environmental problems involves both scale and governance issues. After all, current local events might have long-term global consequences (the scale issue) and solving complex environmental problems requires policy makers to think and govern beyond generally used time-space scales (the governance issue). To an increasing extent, the various scientists in these fields have used concepts like social-ecological systems, hierarchies, scales and levels to understand and explain the “complex cross-scale dynamics” of issues like climate change. A large part of this work manifests a realist paradigm: the scales and levels, either in ecological processes or in governance systems, are considered as “real”. However, various scholars question this position and claim that scales and levels are continuously (re)constructed in the interfaces of science, society, politics and nature. Some of these critics even prefer to adopt a non-scalar approach, doing away with notions such as hierarchy, scale and level. Here we take another route, however. We try to overcome the realist-constructionist dualism by advocating a dialogue between them on the basis of exchanging and reflecting on different knowledge claims in transdisciplinary arenas. We describe two important developments, one in the ecological scaling literature and the other in the governance literature, which we consider to provide a basis for such a dialogue. We will argue that scale issues, governance practices as well as their mutual interdependencies should be considered as human constructs, although dialectically related to nature’s materiality, and therefore as contested processes, requiring intensive and continuous dialogue and cooperation among natural scientists, social scientists, policy makers and citizens alike. They also require critical reflection on scientists’ roles and on academic practices in general. Acknowledging knowledge claims provides a common ground and point of departure for such cooperation, something we think is not yet sufficiently happening, but which is essential in addressing today’s environmental problems

European lessons for Green and Blue Services in The Netherlands

Green and Blue Services were developed in The Netherlands to reward farmers for the environmental services they provide to society. Especially the first initiatives were area specific, developed together with farmers and different from the national Agri-environmental scheme. In the PLUREL case study region Haaglanden, Green and Blue Services are seen as a strategy to strengthen agriculture in the urban fringe

Improving the Use of Monitoring & Evaluation Processes and Findings : Conference report

This report summarises discussions and presentations of the Conference ‘Improving the Use of Monitoring & Evaluation Processes and Findings’, which took place on March 20 and 21, 2014. This conference is part of our series of yearly ‘M&E on the cutting edge’ events. This conference particularly looked at under what conditions the use of M&E processes and findings can be improved. Report CDI-14-01

The governance of urban green spaces in selected EU-cities : Policies, Practices, Actors, Topics

In a time of continuing urbanization, there is an increasing focus on developing attractive and healthy urban environments. Green spaces, ranging from woodlands and parks to allotment gardens and green roofs, provide a range of ecosystem services that contribute to better cities (Lovell and Taylor, 2013). The Green Infrastructure and Urban Biodiversity for Sustainable Urban Development and the Green Economy project (GREEN SURGE in brief), funded under the EU’s 7th Framework Programme for research, will identify, develop and test ways of linking green spaces, biodiversity, people and the green economy in order to meet the major urban challenges related to land use conflicts, climate change adaptation, demographic changes and human health and well being. The contents of this report are based on work conducted in Work Package 6, one of the eight Work Packages of GREEN SURGE. Work Package 6 focuses on governance arrangements for urban green spaces. In this report, we discuss the findings of the GREEN SURGE Work Package 6 Tier 1 research on identifying and conceptualising innovative participatory governance arrangements in regards to the management of urban green infrastructure

Green-Blue infrastructure for a resilient and healthy city

This book, Atelier 2014-Utrecht, is a perspective on sensible use and optimisation of the green-blue structures in the City of Utrecht

Bridging a divide? Local initiatives in a multi-level policy context

This paper presents two case studies about private actors aspiring to realize their innovative ideas on land management and design in two small areas in the Netherlands. One case involves an area that is to be partly forested in line with operative policies to establish a large urban green structure; the second case is an area that is part of a national ecological structure and already primarily consists of forest. However, in both areas various groups and organizations were seeking to implement alternative land uses and taking action to promote their ideas. It was clear from the start that the ways in which the initiators of these ideas gave meaning to the areas differed from the ideas enshrined in existing policies. The case studies show that there was ample innovative potential at the local level and that ideas do get implemented with considerable effort, due to factors such as personal zeal, perseverance, trust and empathy that developed in people “in the field.” However, an analysis of the cases also shows that there has been only limited discussion about the possible wider policy implications of these local innovations. Thus, the study revealed an asymmetry between local innovative potential and an apparent lack of responsiveness on the part of established policy. The study used the policy arrangements approach, consisting of 1) an analysis of the relationships between discourses, actor coalitions, rules and resources at the level of day-to-day interactions between the initiatives and established policy, and 2) an analysis of the relationship between these day-to-day interactions and an assumed more general, structural process of sub-politicization. The study concludes that there was a simultaneous occurrence of sub-politicization and depoliticization which both have significant impacts on the direction of green space policies and determining who can participate in them

Wanted: a little more of Jane

Jane Jacobs schroomde het conflict niet als het ging om het centraal stellen van de menselijke maat in de planvorming. Gepassioneerd streed ze voor haar ideaalbeeld van buurten met ruimte voor sociaal contact en lokaal initiatief. Tegenwoordig zien we minder activisme, burgerparticipatie in verschillende vormen kwam hiervoor in de plaats. Vaak veranderen deze trajecten van burgerparticipatie niet veel meer aan het plan of de ideeën erachter. De vraag rijst: zijn we toe aan meer ‘Janes’

Bestuurskundige kijk op verantwoordelijkheid voor natuur

In dit essay besteedt Marleen (voorheen) Van den Top aandacht aan bestuurskundige aspecte