School of Geography - Theses
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ItemEnvironmental policy and orthodox economics: a case study of Victorian solid waste( 2007)In this thesis I use the idea of 'rational ideologies' to investigate the value and role of orthodox economics in solid waste policy in Victoria, and its relationship with a dominant set of policy ideas that I call industrial ecology. I show that many orthodox economists criticise industrial ecology and prescribe alternative policies based principally on market-based instruments (MBIs) and cost-benefit analysis (CBA) with environmental valuation. They largely ignore the economic underpinnings of industrial ecology. I report on four empirical research projects. Firstly, I investigate the influence of unit-based pricing of domestic garbage in Melbourne on garbage quantities. I find its effects trivial except where rates were set at levels higher than orthodox economic theory would suggest is appropriate. Home owners have reduced garbage for non-economic reasons. Secondly, I compare 37 cost-benefit studies of recycling, revealing enormously varied approaches and results that are often apparently infused by analyst ideology or sponsor interests. Rather than the hard rationality it seems to promise, CBA with environmental externality valuation diverts debate into complexities that are the preserve of experts. The ideological foundations of some orthodox economic interpretations of environmental issues are shown to be weakly supported by theory or logic. Thirdly, I review the history of Victorian solid waste policy since 1970. As an early pollution crisis was overcome, the agenda shifted to waste minimisation. Regulation, corporatist agreements, targets and strategies have helped to level off the quantity of waste to landfill and grow post-consumption recycling into a major industrial operation. Costs have risen substantially but public support remains strong. Industry, local government and environment groups have competed for influence in the policy arena. While waste management has been transformed into a competitive market structure, orthodox economics has played only a small role in the policy history. Where CBAs have not be desultory they have failed to resolve policy disputes. Use of MBIs has been beset by administrative and sunk-cost concerns. Finally, I report on a survey of 46 members of the solid waste policy community on the economics of solid waste. There is a surprisingly high degree of in-principle acceptance of orthodox economics conceptions of the environment, such as CBA, environmental valuation and MBIs. There is more disagreement over resource efficiency,, recycling targets and interpretation of the value of economic tools in practice. Variation in views is linked with professional grouping more than economics education. There is strong support for the economic underpinnings of industrial ecology. I suggest that environmentalists' simultaneous acceptance of orthodox economists' intellectual framework yet rejection of their prescriptions demonstrates the practical weakness of that framework but also represents a latent danger to environmentalism. In concluding, I interpret orthodox economics as a rational ideology that is blind to its ideological content. I argue that this blindness has led to overconfidence, inflexibility and overambition, and that these characteristics have marginalised orthodox economics in Victorian solid waste policy. I argue for analytical plurality and the supremacy of political judgement.
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ItemBeyond red and gold: environmental governance in China( 2004)This thesis is concerned with the question as to how China governs its environment. It focuses on the process and manner of managing the country's environmental affairs in which the actors include but transcend government, encompassing the whole of society. The study offers a pragmatic diagnosis of environmental governance (EG) within the Chinese context, giving unique insights to the EG problem with an in-depth analysis of its root causes, and hence devising alternative ways for endeavours to protect the environment to be assessed and thought about. Due to the nature of the research question and the reality of EG in China, the research methodology is based on a case study, associated with documentary and interview approaches. To conduct the research diagnosing Chinese EG status, three concrete steps were taken, comprising an initial theoretical framework and finally an analysis of a case study and its ongoing activities and subsequent outcomes. In between, an elaboration of the multiple Chinese contexts for EG are presented, i.e., key political, social and economic aspects, and institutional and administrative developments for governing the environment in China together with non-state variables in relation to governance practice. At the theoretical level, this thesis is informed by the academic literature of contemporary studies on governance in terms of conceptualising EG. A new EG theorisation is constructed, which converts the holistic nature of EG research into a conceptualisation including seven key elements, namely: accommodation, predictability, accountability, participation, communication, transparency, and specialisation (scientific expertise), all in combination with country-specific considerations of political, administrative and socio-economic contexts. Through a case study, the EG process is revealed through newspaper reports, wenjian (official documents) and interviews. The case study is based on a landmark January 2000 event in relation to the Nanjiang Industrial Park in Sihui, a county city located in the Pearl River Delta Region of the Chinese Province of Guangdong. The Sihui case, which provided an example of 'one step ahead of the whole country' in terms of publicity through news media reporting, suggests that some progress has been made in certain aspects of China's environmental governance, albeit without a guarantee of everlasting duration. However, the overall result of the Sihui case sends discordant and mixed signals for diagnosing the status of environmental governance in China. Of equal importance, as shown in the Sihui case, is that the process between the hierarchical government and the rest of society was far from being interactive, but highlights too great a reliance on the government. Considered together, the thesis concludes that there are strong indications that complications exist within China's environmental governance. EG practice in China appears to be mired in political constraints, social dysfunction and exclusion, and is too rigidly driven by the obsessive consideration of economic imperatives.