The Contours of State Retreat from Collaborative Environmental Governance under Austerity

Nick Kirsop-Taylor,Michael Winter,Duncan Russel

doi:10.3390/su12072761

Nick Kirsop-Taylor, Michael Winter + Show 1 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/su12072761

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Journal: Sustainability	Publication Date: Apr 1, 2020
Citations: 8	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: University of Exeter

Abstract

Although the effects of public austerity have been the subject of a significant literature in recent years, the changing role of the state as a partner in collaborative environmental governance under austerity has received less attention. By employing theories of collaborative governance and state retreat, this paper used a qualitative research design comprised of thirty-two semi-structured interviews within the case study UNESCO Biosphere Reserve in the United Kingdom to address this lacuna. Participants perceived that the austerity period has precipitated negative changes to their extant state-orientated funding regime, which had compelled changes to their organisational structure. Austerity damaged their relationships with the state and perceptions of state legitimacy whilst simultaneously strengthening and straining the relationships between intra-partnership non-state governance actors. This case offers a critical contemporary reflection on normative collaborative environmental governance theory under austerity programmes. These open up questions about the role of the state in wider sustainability transitions.

Highlights

The global financial crisis of 2008 was one of the most profound global economic shocks of the last century
Whilst there have been many scholarly contributions seeking to understand national-scale austerity programmes [1,2,3] and their effects on discrete policy fields [11,12,13,14], there have been fewer investigations into its impacts on public provision for the environment. Though this limited environment/austerity literature has tended to focus on how austerity programmes affect the role of the state in environmental policy making [15,17,18,19], none have yet investigated how austerity programmes have affected the role of the state in environmental governance activities
This paper addresses this lacuna by examining the impacts of austerity on environmental governance through the lens of state retreat theory and the normative logic of collaborative governance theory

Summary

Introduction

The global financial crisis of 2008 was one of the most profound global economic shocks of the last century. Whilst there have been many scholarly contributions seeking to understand national-scale austerity programmes [1,2,3] and their effects on discrete policy fields [11,12,13,14], there have been fewer investigations into its impacts on public provision for the environment (but see [15,16,17]) Though this limited environment/austerity literature has tended to focus on how austerity programmes affect the role of the state in environmental policy making [15,17,18,19], none have yet investigated how austerity programmes have affected the role of the state in environmental governance activities.

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