Integrating environmental policies into local practices: The politics of agri-environmental and energy policies in Rural Finland

Abstract

The paper focuses on the interplay between policy implementation and heterogeneous everyday social practices that, we argue, finally determine the success of environmental policies. We compare two empirical case studies to show how the targets of international climate policy and the agri-environmental policy of the EU have been achieved in energy production and agriculture in rural Finland. The focus of our analysis is on the power effects of these policies at the level of local natural resource management practices. Our analysis revealed tensions that arose during the implementation of the policies and showed that the policies modified the local actors' capacities to act. Therefore, we claim that policy practices should be analysed and appreciated as sites for the articulation of conflict and difference, as places of social and cultural contestation.