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

by Arthur P. J. Mol

• ISBN13: 9780521888127
• ISBN10: 0521888123
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-05-12
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

As the information revolution continues to accelerate, the environment remains high on public and political agendas around the world. These two topics are rarely connected, but information - its collection, processing, accessibility and verification - is crucial in dealing with environmental challenges such as climate change, unsustainable consumption, biodiversity conservation and waste management. The information society (encompassing entities such as the internet, satellites, interactive television and surveillance cameras) changes the conditions and resources which are involved in environmental governance: old modes and concepts are increasingly being replaced by new, informational ones. Arthur P. J. Mol explores how the information revolution is changing the way we deal with environmental issues; to what extent and where these transformations have (and have not) taken place; and what the consequences are for democracy and power relations. This book will appeal to scholars and students of environmental studies and politics, political sociology, geography and communications studies.

Table of Contents

Tables, figures and boxes	p. xiii
Preface	p. xv
Introduction: new frontiers of environmental governance	p. 1
The dawn of a new era	p. 1
Information explosions	p. 4
Conventional interpretations of environmental information	p. 7
The Information Society and the missing environment	p. 10
Environmental assessments of the information revolution	p. 12
Shifting (environmental) governance	p. 16
Information-poor environments	p. 21
Design and outline	p. 24
Theory
From Information Society to Information Age	p. 29
The transformation of modern society	p. 29
The Information Society thesis	p. 31
The Information Age	p. 42
Continuities between Information Society and Information Age	p. 52
Conclusion	p. 53
Social theories of environmental reform	p. 55
From environmental crises to environmental reform	p. 55
First-generation theories: policies and protests	p. 57
Second-generation theories: ecological modernisation	p. 60
Third-generation theories: networks and flows	p. 68
Conclusion: information flows and environmental reform	p. 77
Informational governance	p. 80
Introduction	p. 80
Informational governance and the environment	p. 82
What about ecological modernisation?	p. 91
Informational politics and power	p. 95
Governance under radical uncertainty	p. 97
State authority and postsovereignty	p. 99
Global inequalities in informational governance	p. 101
Conclusion	p. 102
Praxis
Monitoring, surveillance and empowerment	p. 107
Conventional environmental monitoring	p. 107
Innovations in monitoring arrangements	p. 110
Who monitors who?	p. 113
Questions of surveillance and countersurveillance	p. 116
Citizen-consumer empowerment	p. 122
Conclusion	p. 131
Environmental state and information politics	p. 132
Introduction	p. 132
Information politics as environmental regulation	p. 133
E[superscript 2]-governance	p. 142
The search for information quality	p. 145
Participation, trust and transparency	p. 150
Regressive information politics?	p. 153
Conclusion: continuities and discontinuities	p. 159
Greening the networked economy	p. 162
Environment in a global economy	p. 162
Informational economy	p. 163
In-company environmental management and public accountability	p. 167
Private governance in economic networks	p. 173
Monopolies, distortion and public relations	p. 184
Conclusion: stateless governance through information?	p. 187
Environmental activism and advocacy	p. 189
A natural alliance in transition	p. 189
Digitalising environmental NGOs	p. 193
Transnational spaces for environmental movements	p. 199
New strategies, new alliances	p. 205
Legitimatory capital at risk	p. 207
Conclusion	p. 210
Media monopolies, digital democracy, cultural clashes	p. 212
A New World Information and Communication Order?	p. 212
Mediated environment	p. 214
Media and mediated information	p. 217
The Fourth Estate in transition	p. 220
Environmental politics and the media	p. 228
Conclusion: media as governance, governance of the media	p. 232
Information-poor environments: Asian tigers	p. 234
China and Vietnam as information peripheries	p. 234
State monitoring: monopoly, reliability and capacity	p. 238
Transitional state-market relations	p. 251
Transitional democracy? Civil society, public space and media control	p. 257
Conclusion: informational governance in status nascendi	p. 270
Conclusion
Balancing informational perspectives	p. 275
Introduction	p. 275
Informational governance: what is it?	p. 277
Continuities and discontinuities	p. 279
Variations: regions, networks and fluids	p. 283
Assessing informational governance: environment and democracy	p. 285
New governance modes, new research agendas	p. 289
References	p. 293
Index	p. 329
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