Institutional Dynamics in Environmental Governance

Environmental policy in its broadest context has been significantly revitalized and renewed during the last two decades. That observation is nothing new, attested to by the number of publications, conferences and both private and public projects that have been initiated. However, our understanding of the dynamics of this renewal has generally been informed by studies on single policies and projects, leaving us with a limited understanding of what the 'newness' consists of in terms of an integrated perspective.

This book presents fresh analyses of a number of well-known cases, but does so from one comprehensive view, the so-called policy arrangement approach. Cases discussed range over organic farming, integrated water management, nature policy, cultural heritage policy, integrated region-oriented policy, corporate environmental management and target group policy, always in search of the commonality of experience and conclusions to be drawn in understanding the past and in formulating future perspectives.

Theoretically comprehensive, because all case studies are analysed from one comprehensive policy science perspective (namely the policy arrangement approach) Theoretically innovative, since the policy arrangement approach does justice to both institutional and discourse analyses on the one hand and to both structural and agency-oriented approaches on the other Empirically rich, since cases range over organic farming, integrated water management, nature policy, cultural heritage policy, integrated region-oriented policy, corporate environmental management and target group policy Offers a comparative perspective on countries in the context of Europeanisation processes Puts the 'governance hype' into perspective, since the analyses convincingly show that a general shift from government to governance is not to be found in environmental politics

Inhalt
Institutional Dynamics in Environmental Governance.- Political Modernisation.- The Dynamics of Policy Arrangements: Turning Round the Tetrahedron.- The Governance Capacity of (new) Policy Arrangements: A Reflexive Approach.- The Institutional Dynamics of Water Management in the Low Countries.- High Noon in the Low Countries: Recent Nature Policy Dynamics in the Netherlands and in Flanders.- Dynamics in Nature Policy Practices Across the European Union.- Diffusion or Diversity in Cultural Heritage Preservation? Comparing Policy Arrangements in Norway, Arizona and the Netherlands.- Dutch Rural Policies at a Turning Point.- Regional Environmental Planning in the Netherlands: An Unstable Settlement of Policy Arrangements.- Corporate Environmental Management in the Netherlands and in the Czech Republic.- A Target Group Approach in Flemish Environmental Policy: Establishing New Government-Industry Relations?.- Institutional Processes in Environmental Governance: Lots of Dynamics, not Much Change?.