Governing China’s Coal Challenge: Changing Public Policy,Debate and Advocacy

This paper examines the nexus of coal–government–society relations in present-day China using a governmentality approach to explore the interactions between policy change, “crisis” management and social action. It outlines the noticeable shift in government rationalities and communication regarding the coal industry in recent years. It then frames this shift within the broader context of government–society relations focusing on public debate regarding the calamitous nature of China’s air pollution and its filtering via the censorship apparatus of the Communist Party-state. Finally, it shows how problems relating to coal extraction and combustion have been taken up at the level of grass-roots protest and philanthropic advocacy. An examination of such activism illustrates the crucial role played by digital media networks in sparking debate on coal-related environmental and health crises, and in pushing an authoritarian government to change national coal and other policies in order to maintain social and political stability.     

地方政府生态环境治理注意力研究——基于30个省市政府工作报告(2006—2015)文本分析

注意力代表着政府决策者对特定事务的关注,注意力的变化是政府决策选择变化的直接原因。环境治理注意力是环境治理进入议程设置,进而出台政策、实施治理的前提。政府工作报告是政府进行资源配置与精力投入的指挥棒,也是"政府将重视什么、哪些领域得到更多投入资源"的通知书和承诺书,它是政府注意力分配或者变化的重要载体。本文收集了30个省市地方政府自2006年到2015年共300份工作报告,通过文本分析方法,试图发现地方政府生态环境治理注意力的变化规律。分析结果呈现:1从时间轴上看,地方政府对于生态环境的注意力强度逐渐增加;2从地域轴上看,东、中、西部政府生态环境注意力差距并不明显,相比而言,中部处于一个稍低的位次;3从生态环境的范畴看,具体领域得到进一步扩展,中央与地方对环境具体事务保持了较高的一致性,注意力的变化与决策环境和中央宏观政策有重要相关关系。尽管在某些时间点,某些地域存在离散点,但总体而言,在中央政府强调经济发展需要与当地环境资源承载能力相协调的大背景下,地方政府将注意力大幅转向民生事务和生态环境。鉴于地方领导人任期以及注意力本身的"易变性",要保持地方政府环境治理注意力的强度和持续性,1增加制度供给,使环境治理成为法治常项;2将环境治理在公共事务治理的排序中前置,将环境治理放在突出位置;3提升环境事件的信息强度,向地方政府传导积极的环境治理压力。     

Local governing of climate change in Denmark: recasting citizens as consumers

This paper is concerned with the ways in which Danish municipalities seek to mitigate climate change through a range of governance strategies. Through the analysis of ten municipal climate plans using the framework of Mitchell Dean, as well as extensive ethnographic fieldwork in two municipalities, this paper explores how local climate change mitigation is shaped by particular rationalities and technologies of government, and thus seeks to illustrate how the strategies set out in the plans construe climate change mitigation from a certain perspective, thereby rendering some solutions more likely than others and recasting citizens as passive consumers who are to be guided to consume in more climate-friendly ways in the process.     

Tackling wicked problems and tricky transitions: change and continuity in Cape Town's environmental policy landscape

This paper offers a reflection on 15 years of policy change in the City of Cape Town aimed at fostering sustainability from the perspective of a City practitioner. The persistent continuation of unsustainable outcomes, despite ongoing policy reforms, is understood as a combination of the emergence of wicked problems, within a changing local government mandate, in the absence of a transformation of institutional structures, tools and approaches. While the approach to policy reform in Cape Town has focussed on reducing substantive uncertainty through its knowledge-based approach, we show that in the context of an expanding local government mandate, sustainability becomes an aspect of many departments’ directive resulting in strategic uncertainty. The untransformed traditional line-function-based structure of local government in turn works against integration between departments (fundamental for addressing non-linear wicked problems), thus promoting institutional uncertainty. In addressing this combination of strategic and institutional uncertainty, our findings indicate that integration has to happen in the policy stage in order for sustainability principles to be implemented in relevant departments; that implementation requires resourcing across the institution, and ought to be included in departments’ targets; and that competing and conflicting rationalities underpin the policy–practice gap. It is suggested that a first step in breaking down the strategic and institutional uncertainties would be to foster shared values through creating deliberative spaces within the City in which debate, discussion and learning can occur.     

Organizational Factors of Environmental Sustainability Implementation: An Empirical Analysis of US Cities and Counties

Environmental sustainability goals are increasingly embedded in local planning, but implementation proves difficult. Using a survey of 217 planners working in a random sample of 146 small to mid-sized American cities and counties, we identify the organizational factors that support and hinder the implementation of environmentally sustainable practices. The analysis is based on a conceptual framework that encompasses organizational capacity, culture, structure, participatory decision-making, the framing of sustainability and contextual factors. We find that environmental sustainability implementation is lagging (although cities are generally ahead compared to counties) and that outcome evaluation is rare, precluding adaptive learning. The major barrier to implementation is that sustainability is low on political and managerial agendas. As expected, local public support, innovation-supportive organizational culture and the prioritization and framing of environmental sustainability support implementation. Surprisingly, innovation diffusion does not occur across neighbouring localities, local capacity and public participation are irrelevant for implementation and hierarchical rather than integrated institutional structures support implementation.     

The importance of place in early disaster recovery: a case study of the 2013 Colorado floods

Recovery is an important but understudied phase in the disaster management cycle. Researchers have identified numerous socio-demographic factors that help explain differences in recovery among households, but are less clear on the importance of place, which we define as a household's locality and local governance. In this paper, we examine the influence of place on disaster recovery through a study of the 2013 Colorado floods. Our findings are based on data collected from interviews, observation of recovery meetings, and a survey of 96 flood-affected households. We show that place shapes a household's disaster recovery by structuring: (1) physical exposure to hazards; (2) which local government has jurisdiction over recovery decisions; (3) local planning culture and its approach to citizen participation; and (4) the strength of social capital networks. Our findings expand the recovery literature and show that place-level variables should be taken into consideration when conceptualizing household recovery and resilience.     

生态文明建设评价考核的党政同责问题

党政同责是生态文明建设的关键落实手段。评价考核适用于哪些党政机关,如何针对党政机关区别设计评价考核指标,评价考核的结果如何运用等,是落实生态文明党政同责的也是相当重要的内容。中共中央和国务院联合发布生态文明建设党政同责评价考核办法,十八届三中全会文件等党的文件和《环境保护法》等国家法律成为实行党政同责的依据。在角色定位方面,党政同责作为一个保障手段比较稳妥;在指导思想方面,明确党政系统对生态文明建设的主导作用,强化党政领导干部的生态文明责任意识,健全党政领导干部的追责体制和机制;在考核对象方面,把党政系统以及相关领导作为考核对象予以明确;在评价考核指标方面,要区别设计党政两个系统的考核指标体系;在评价考核原则方面,坚持党统领生态文明建设和党政考核并重的原则。地方党政系统的评价考核应分为年度、中期和离任评价考核,评价考核结果要能引起党委特别是组织和纪检监察机关的重视。既应对成绩突出的地区和领导干部给予表彰奖励,也要建立生态补偿、区域限批等损害责任追究制度,健全党政领导干部任内考核责任制和终身责任制。     

Local economic situation,local environmental mobilization and local government environmental policy in Hungary

Studies of advanced capitalist societies have shown that relatively wealthy localities with organized environmental groups are able to avoid unattractive facilities. The aim of this article is to ask whether the same logic applies in Hungary, a middle-income ‘transition’ society. The focus is not on the formal legal powers of local governments but on some of the influences on local government environmental policy. Drawing on a survey of mayors, notaries and environmental officials in 600 local government units in Hungary (from Budapest to villages), it explores the relation between environmental group mobilization, environmental group influence and environmental policy. It is shown that there are systematic differences in environmental group mobilization between settlements of different types, and that these differences, together with differences in local economic situation, explain the differing levels of perceived influence of environmental groups on policy. The localities where perceived environmental group influence is greatest are identified and shown to be places where there are higher education institutions and a tradition of ‘civic culture’, or where the local government is using the environment as an asset as part of an economic development strategy. It is concluded that similar processes to those found in advanced capitalist societies exist in Hungary. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

安全管家服务模式探析

为进一步提高企业安全管理水平和能力,提升政府安全监管力度,本文阐释了安全管家的概念与内涵,提出了以安全管家为核心,构建"安全管家+政府"和"安全管家+企业"的双重安全管理与服务模式,探析了安全管家在以"安全管家+政府"和"安全管家+企业"为两个主线的政府和企业全生命周期中的专业技术服务内容与重点问题。该模式通过在烟台市芝罘区部分企业进行实践,收到了良好的效果,表明了安全管理服务模式的科学性,安全管家能够作为安全智库,为企业和政府提供全生命周期的专业技术服务,能够促使政府、企业、安全管家形成安全管理的合力,有助于形成良好的安全生产局面,促进经济社会和谐健康安全发展。     

Place-based local governance and sustainable communities: lessons from Canadian biosphere reserves

The quest for sustainable communities might be fostered by a new ‘place-based’ governing approach that engages civil society and other actors in local decision-making processes. In Canada, lessons can be learned from the establishment and maintenance of biosphere reserves by networks of local communities of interests and other organisations. Biosphere reserves are created to promote conservation, biodiversity and sustainable livelihoods. Municipal and public participation in these reserves can be encouraged, promoting a local sense of place as well as sustainable community and regional development. An examination of two Canadian biosphere reserves, Riding Mountain and Long Point, illustrates how local governments and these reserves might assist each other in their mutual goals of long-term sustainability while offering a worthwhile model of local collaborative, place-based governance.