Abstract
This paper applies an ontological politics approach for studying how complexity, uncertainty, and ignorance are being dealt with in the Netherlands by looking at how knowledges are produced and incorporated in decision-making on uncertain climate change. On the basis of work done in the Netherlands, this paper shows two things in particular. First, how decision making responses historically have been subject to change under the influence of floods and how the emergence of climate change has significantly changed these floods. Second, based on the analysis of processes dealing with a blue-green algae problem in a lake, climate change not only changed decision making responses but also changed the very reality that is being enacted. Consequently, this brings an ethical dimension to the fore, related to the intrinsic tension between the growing awareness that “all is interconnected” on the one hand and the realization we cannot take all into account.
Highlights
In September 2009, the first author of this article was present at the launch of the California wing of the Delta Alliance1 in San Francisco
The work by John Law (2004), this study aims to show the ontological politics of climate change in the context of the Dutch Delta
We have highlighted two mechanisms that we have observed through an ontological politics perspective in the Dutch attempts to deal with climate change and its related uncertainties
Summary
In September 2009, the first author of this article was present at the launch of the California wing of the Delta Alliance in San Francisco. This study builds upon the idea that visions of what the delta is and its enactment varies over time, and depends upon who envisions and for what reasons Through this analysis, this article aims to understand the emergence of particular deadlocks in the governance of complex environmental problems, that is, those deadlocks that result from colliding visions on what there is that constitutes an environmental problem. The work by John Law (2004), this study aims to show the ontological politics of climate change in the context of the Dutch Delta This means that it tries to show how in this case climate change informs and is informed by practices of delta governance, and therewith looking at the performative and discursive character of climate change and the Delta. The final section sums up the identified temporal and socio-natural particularities of ontological politics in the Dutch Delta and discusses the implications of what we label as an ontological lock-in
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
