Environmental Reform in the Information Age: The Contours of Informational Governance

Cover......Page 1
Half-title......Page 3
Title......Page 5
Copyright......Page 6
Dedication......Page 7
Contents in Brief......Page 9
Contents......Page 11
Tables, figures and boxes......Page 15
Preface......Page 17
1. The dawn of a new era......Page 19
2. Information explosions......Page 22
3. Conventional interpretations of environmental information......Page 25
4. The Information Society and the missing environment......Page 28
5. Environmental assessments of the information revolution......Page 30
6. Shifting (environmental) governance......Page 34
Informational governance......Page 37
7. Information-poor environments......Page 39
8. Design and outline......Page 42
PART I: Theory......Page 45
1. The transformation of modern society......Page 47
2. The Information Society thesis......Page 49
The Information Society and the environment......Page 52
Assessing and debating the Information Society claims......Page 55
The backside of the Information Society......Page 58
3. The Information Age......Page 60
Castells’s network society......Page 61
Globalisation......Page 63
Knowledge and uncertainty......Page 65
Governance......Page 68
4. Continuities between Information Society and Information Age......Page 70
5. Conclusion......Page 71
1. From environmental crises to environmental reform......Page 73
2. First-generation theories: policies and protests......Page 75
3. Second-generation theories: ecological modernisation......Page 78
Fundamentals of ecological modernisation......Page 79
Ecological modernisation as environmental reform......Page 81
Ecological modernisation and its critics......Page 83
A sociology of networks and flows......Page 86
An environmental sociology of networks and flows......Page 88
Double hybridisation......Page 91
Power and inequality; inclusion and exclusion......Page 94
5 Conclusion: information flows and environmental reform......Page 95
1. Introduction......Page 98
2. Informational governance and the environment......Page 100
Constituting developments......Page 102
Informational governance and informational regulation......Page 108
3. What about ecological modernisation?......Page 109
4. Informational politics and power......Page 113
5. Governance under radical uncertainty......Page 115
6. State authority and postsovereignty......Page 117
7. Global inequalities in informational governance......Page 119
8. Conclusion......Page 120
PART II: Praxis......Page 123
1. Conventional environmental monitoring......Page 125
2. Innovations in monitoring arrangements......Page 128
3. Who monitors who?......Page 131
4. Questions of surveillance and countersurveillance......Page 134
Colonisation of the life-world?......Page 135
Countersurveillance: citizen-consumer monitoring......Page 138
Energy monitoring......Page 140
Global Action Plan for the Earth: ecoteams......Page 142
Right-to-know: http://www.scorecard.org and others......Page 144
Webloggers......Page 146
6. Conclusion......Page 149
1. Introduction......Page 150
2. Information politics as environmental regulation......Page 151
From right-to-know legislation to active information disclosure......Page 152
Regulation by information......Page 155
Data-driven regulation......Page 158
3. E 2 -governance......Page 160
4. The search for information quality......Page 163
The call for information quality: the U.S. Data Quality Act......Page 164
5. Participation, trust and transparency......Page 168
Trust and transparency......Page 170
6. Regressive information politics?......Page 171
Symbolic governance......Page 172
Information closure? Environmental governance and homeland security (post-9/11)......Page 174
7. Conclusion: continuities and discontinuities......Page 177
1. Environment in a global economy......Page 180
2. Informational economy......Page 181
3. In-company environmental management and public accountability......Page 185
Developments in company environmental information......Page 188
4. Private governance in economic networks......Page 191
Agro-food and ecolabelling......Page 196
5. Monopolies, distortion and public relations......Page 202
6. Conclusion: stateless governance through information?......Page 205
1. A natural alliance in transition......Page 207
2. Digitalising environmental NGOs......Page 211
Consequences of ICT for local environmental organisations......Page 213
3. Transnational spaces for environmental movements......Page 217
4. New strategies, new alliances......Page 223
5. Legitimatory capital at risk......Page 225
6. Conclusion......Page 228
1. A New World Information and Communication Order?......Page 230
2. Mediated environment......Page 232
3. Media and mediated information......Page 235
4. The Fourth Estate in transition......Page 238
The media as battleground......Page 243
5. Environmental politics and the media......Page 246
6. Conclusion: media as governance, governance of the media......Page 250
1. China and Vietnam as information peripheries......Page 252
2. State monitoring: monopoly, reliability and capacity......Page 256
Monitoring in Vietnam......Page 257
Monitoring in China......Page 261
E-government rather than e-governance......Page 266
3. Transitional state-market relations......Page 269
Labelling, certification and international markets......Page 272
4. Transitional democracy? Civil society, public space and media control......Page 275
Civil society and informational pressures......Page 277
Media and public space......Page 279
The new media......Page 283
5. Conclusion: informational governance in status nascendi......Page 288
PART III: Conclusion......Page 291
1. Introduction......Page 293
2. Informational governance: what is it?......Page 295
3. Continuities and discontinuities......Page 297
4. Variations: regions, networks and fluids......Page 301
5. Assessing informational governance: environment and democracy......Page 303
6. New governance modes, new research agendas......Page 307
References......Page 311
Index......Page 347