- Room 821a, Rutherford House, Pipitea Campus | PO Box 600, Wellington 6140, New Zealand
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- The Australian National University, Regulatory Institutions Network, Faculty Memberadd
- Urban Governance, Environmental Policy and Governance, Comparative Politics, Sustainable Urban Environments, Regulation And Governance, Historical Institutionalism, and 8 moreQualitative comparative analysis (QCA), Green Building, Urban resilience, Public Governance, Public Administration and Policy, Public Administration, Regulation, and Regulatory Governanceedit
- Hi. I am Professor of Public Governance and Chair of Regulatory Practice at the School of Government, Victoria Univer... moreHi. I am Professor of Public Governance and Chair of Regulatory Practice at the School of Government, Victoria University of Wellington, and Honorary Professor at the School of Regulation and Global Governance, the Australian National University. I work at the intersection of regulation and governance, with a specific interest in regulatory stewardship and dynamic governance regimes. The Chair's research aims to help to find suitable local and (inter)national governance responses to some of the most pressing challenges of our time: urbanization, climate change, and growing inequalities.edit
Building on unique data, this book analyzes the efficacy of a prominent climate change mitigation strategy: voluntary programs for sustainable buildings and cities. It evaluates the performance of thirty-five voluntary programs from the... more
Building on unique data, this book analyzes the efficacy of a prominent climate change mitigation strategy: voluntary programs for sustainable buildings and cities. It evaluates the performance of thirty-five voluntary programs from the global North and South, including certification programs, knowledge networks, and novel forms of financing. The author examines them through the lens of club theory, urban transformation theory, and diffusion of innovations theory. Using qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) the book points out the opportunities and constraints of voluntary programs for decarbonizing the built environment, and argues for a transformation of their use in climate change mitigation. The book will appeal to readers interested in sustainable city planning, climate change mitigation, and voluntarism as an alternative governance mechanism for achieving socially and environmentally desirable outcomes. The wide diversity of cases from the global North and South generates new insights, and offers practical guidelines for designing effective programs.
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Taken together, this volume constitutes a systematic mapping, exploration, and interrogation of the nature of agency and empowerment in urban climate politics and action. It brings together contributions from scholars with different... more
Taken together, this volume constitutes a systematic mapping, exploration, and interrogation of the nature of agency and empowerment in urban climate politics and action. It brings together contributions from scholars with different disciplinary backgrounds whose research focus on a variety of geographical areas and political positions. The breadth and depth of these contributions – theoretically, conceptually, empirically, and methodologically – speak to the driving questions outlined in the introduction to the book: who are the novel agents in urban climate governance; how are they empowered; and what is the empowering effect of increased agents and agency in urban climate governance? In this brief concluding chapter, we reflect on these contributions and synthesize the main arguments presented. This leads to key lessons on agency and empowerment in urban climate politics and opens up challenging perspectives for a future research agenda on these themes in the politics of urban climate futures.
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Cities, and the built environment more broadly, are key in the global response to climate change. This groundbreaking book seeks to understand what governance tools are best suited for achieving cities that are less harmful to the natural... more
Cities, and the built environment more broadly, are key in the global response to climate change. This groundbreaking book seeks to understand what governance tools are best suited for achieving cities that are less harmful to the natural environment, are less dependent on finite resources, and can better withstand human-made hazards and climate risks.
In mapping, describing and evaluating nearly 70 traditional and highly innovative governance tools from Asia, Australia, Europe and North America, Jeroen van der Heijden uncovers the five most eminent contemporary trends in governance for urban sustainability and resilience. He also develops a series of 12 design principles that will help to develop better governance tools for improving the sustainability and resilience of today's cities and those of the future. The book is unique in drawing lessons from the theoretical literature on environmental and hazard governance into a broad empirical study.
The book will be of great interest to scholars in the field of urban governance, urban planning, sustainable development and resilience, environmental and hazard governance, and climate risk adaptation and mitigation. It will also appeal to students, policymakers and organisations involved with environmental policy and governance.
In mapping, describing and evaluating nearly 70 traditional and highly innovative governance tools from Asia, Australia, Europe and North America, Jeroen van der Heijden uncovers the five most eminent contemporary trends in governance for urban sustainability and resilience. He also develops a series of 12 design principles that will help to develop better governance tools for improving the sustainability and resilience of today's cities and those of the future. The book is unique in drawing lessons from the theoretical literature on environmental and hazard governance into a broad empirical study.
The book will be of great interest to scholars in the field of urban governance, urban planning, sustainable development and resilience, environmental and hazard governance, and climate risk adaptation and mitigation. It will also appeal to students, policymakers and organisations involved with environmental policy and governance.
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"It is often assumed that traditional regulatory regimes centered on governmental action will benefit from greater private sector involvement. And, under the catchy phrase "from government to governance" globally a wide variety of hybrid... more
"It is often assumed that traditional regulatory regimes centered on governmental action will benefit from greater private sector involvement. And, under the catchy phrase "from government to governance" globally a wide variety of hybrid forms of governance has emerged. However, little empirical insight exists in the actual effects of such hybridization. The author aims at filling up this knowledge gap.
He introduces a heuristic tool for comparative policy analysis, and applies this on a series of case studies.Following different building regulatory enforcement regimes in the Netherlands, Canada and Australia the author explains how different forms of private sector involvement play out in different settings.
The book contains a wealth of scholarly and applied findings. It is insightful in showing different regime types and in suggesting meaningful differences in implementation and potential effects. The book adds both to studies on regulation of the built environment and its enforcement, and to studies on governance reform."
He introduces a heuristic tool for comparative policy analysis, and applies this on a series of case studies.Following different building regulatory enforcement regimes in the Netherlands, Canada and Australia the author explains how different forms of private sector involvement play out in different settings.
The book contains a wealth of scholarly and applied findings. It is insightful in showing different regime types and in suggesting meaningful differences in implementation and potential effects. The book adds both to studies on regulation of the built environment and its enforcement, and to studies on governance reform."
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"Globally the private sector is becoming increasingly involved in regulation and regulatory enforcement – often mutually competing or, as a sector, competing with traditional government departments. This book provides insight into this... more
"Globally the private sector is becoming increasingly involved in regulation and regulatory enforcement – often mutually competing or, as a sector, competing with traditional government departments. This book provides insight into this trend in a specific policy area: the built environment. Building on from general notions in regulatory literature, a methodical approach is introduced for comparative analysis of such privatization.
The book then continues by an in-depth analysis of building regulatory enforcement regimes in Australia. Here private sector involvement made its entry in the early 1990s as a competitive alternative to existing public sector involvement. Yet, each Australian State and Territory introduced a slightly different regime.
The differences amongst the regimes provide an unique opportunity to gain insight into how combinations of policy instruments produce diverse policy outcomes."
The book then continues by an in-depth analysis of building regulatory enforcement regimes in Australia. Here private sector involvement made its entry in the early 1990s as a competitive alternative to existing public sector involvement. Yet, each Australian State and Territory introduced a slightly different regime.
The differences amongst the regimes provide an unique opportunity to gain insight into how combinations of policy instruments produce diverse policy outcomes."
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Dit boek richt zich specifiek op de privatisering van het bouwtoezicht, met als doel inzicht te geven in de voor en nadelen hiervan. Het boek is een bewerking van een Engelstalig proefschrift waarop ik op 9 maart 2009 Cum Laude ben... more
Dit boek richt zich specifiek op de privatisering van het bouwtoezicht, met als doel inzicht te geven in de voor en nadelen hiervan. Het boek is een bewerking van een Engelstalig proefschrift waarop ik op 9 maart 2009 Cum Laude ben gepromoveerd aan de Technische Universiteit Delft. Het boek heeft echter ook een bredere relevantie.
Dit boek schrijf ik in een bijzondere tijdsspanne: er is sprake van een ingrijpende economische crisis. Terwijl ik dit boek schrijf, wordt de impact van deze crisis steeds minder duidelijk – wat wil zeggen: steeds groter, steeds uitgebreider. Het gevolg lijkt een veroordeling van marktwerking en een roep om meer overheidsingrijpen. Sterker, waar woorden als ‘zelfregulering’ en ‘privatisering’ tot voor kort te pas en te onpas werden genoemd als oplossing voor het overheidsfalen, lijken deze woorden opeens belast met een negatieve bijklank. Er is bijvoorbeeld veel kritiek over de (mogelijke) verkoop van Nederlandse energiebedrijven aan een Duitse organisatie en er begint kritiek te komen op de privatisering binnen de gezondheidszorg.
Een mogelijk gevolg van deze economische crisis en de kritiek op marktwerking is deprivatisering en een herintredende overheid. Wederom een begrijpelijk antwoord op de recente ervaringen van marktfalen. Echter, de huidige teneur getuigt van een kort geheugen. Gewaakt moet worden dat de huidige teneur leidt tot ontwikkelingen die in weer een volgende tijdspanne vragen om privatisering en minder overheidsbemoeienis. Dit boek is juist daarom geen pleidooi voor overheidsingrijpen of marktwerking. Ik probeer inzichtelijk te maken hoe bepaalde keuzes voor overheidsingrijpen, marktwerking, of een combinatie van beide uitpakken in de beleidspraktijk. Daarmee hoop ik een geheugensteun te leveren die bij kan dragen aan verbetering van publieke dienstverlening.
Dit boek schrijf ik in een bijzondere tijdsspanne: er is sprake van een ingrijpende economische crisis. Terwijl ik dit boek schrijf, wordt de impact van deze crisis steeds minder duidelijk – wat wil zeggen: steeds groter, steeds uitgebreider. Het gevolg lijkt een veroordeling van marktwerking en een roep om meer overheidsingrijpen. Sterker, waar woorden als ‘zelfregulering’ en ‘privatisering’ tot voor kort te pas en te onpas werden genoemd als oplossing voor het overheidsfalen, lijken deze woorden opeens belast met een negatieve bijklank. Er is bijvoorbeeld veel kritiek over de (mogelijke) verkoop van Nederlandse energiebedrijven aan een Duitse organisatie en er begint kritiek te komen op de privatisering binnen de gezondheidszorg.
Een mogelijk gevolg van deze economische crisis en de kritiek op marktwerking is deprivatisering en een herintredende overheid. Wederom een begrijpelijk antwoord op de recente ervaringen van marktfalen. Echter, de huidige teneur getuigt van een kort geheugen. Gewaakt moet worden dat de huidige teneur leidt tot ontwikkelingen die in weer een volgende tijdspanne vragen om privatisering en minder overheidsbemoeienis. Dit boek is juist daarom geen pleidooi voor overheidsingrijpen of marktwerking. Ik probeer inzichtelijk te maken hoe bepaalde keuzes voor overheidsingrijpen, marktwerking, of een combinatie van beide uitpakken in de beleidspraktijk. Daarmee hoop ik een geheugensteun te leveren die bij kan dragen aan verbetering van publieke dienstverlening.
Systems thinking has often been suggested (and sometimes been applied) to improve the development and implementation of regulation ('regulatory governance'). But what are the pros and cons of this approach to regulatory governance?... more
Systems thinking has often been suggested (and sometimes been applied) to improve the development and implementation of regulation ('regulatory governance'). But what are the pros and cons of this approach to regulatory governance? Following the logic of metaresearch, a systematic and replicable process of synthesizing research findings across a body of original research, this article presents an evidence synthesis of academic literature on systems thinking for and in regulatory governance. Through a staged approach, an initial body of 757 articles are analysed. The article presents the main findings from the evidence synthesis, presents the gaps in our knowledge, and suggests a future agenda for research on systems thinking for and in regulatory governance.
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Scholars of regulation have long engaged with behavioural oriented research to assess its value for regulatory theory and practice. This book review discusses two recent publications in this area: Nudge: The Final Edition by Richard... more
Scholars of regulation have long engaged with behavioural oriented research to assess its value for regulatory theory and practice. This book review discusses two recent publications in this area: Nudge: The Final Edition by Richard Thaler and Cas Sunstein (2021) and The Behavioral Code: The Hidden Ways the Law Makes Us Better or Worse by Benjamin van Rooij and Adam Fine (2021).
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Following the traditional doctrine of the 'regulatory state', regulatory agencies should be given very focused mandates and stay away from the politicized realm of distributive policies and decisions. An opposing perspective would state... more
Following the traditional doctrine of the 'regulatory state', regulatory agencies should be given very focused mandates and stay away from the politicized realm of distributive policies and decisions. An opposing perspective would state that if regulatory agencies can contribute to economic redistribution, positive results such as network expansion, economies of scale and fiscal efficiency will ultimately lead to lower levels of regulatory failure. This article tests whether in countries of high socioeconomic inequality, such as Brazil, the active incorporation of distributive considerations by regulatory agencies leads to lower levels of failure. Through the analysis of the activities of seven Brazilian network regulatory agencies, the article develops theory-driven expectations and tests these expectations using crisp set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (csQCA). It concludes that not prioritizing redistribution is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for regulatory agencies' failure. In most types of failure, a lack of priority to redistribution leads to failure when combined with low regulatory capacity and low levels of formal independence.
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The scaling of urban climate action and its governance is rapidly becoming a central focus in the urban climate governance literature and policy debates. Building on the broader scaling literature, and inspired by related initiatives in... more
The scaling of urban climate action and its governance is rapidly becoming a central focus in the urban climate governance literature and policy debates. Building on the broader scaling literature, and inspired by related initiatives in other fields, this article calls for the development of a systematic "science of scaling" for urban climate governance. Such a science of scaling may help to give a better understanding of how well-performing urban climate action and its governance can be multiplied, accelerated and broadened (i.e., horizontal and vertical scaling, and scaling out, up and down), and it may help to uncover scaling trajectories towards systemic change in cities (i.e., deep scaling).
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Cities are key in urban climate mitigation. Since the early 2000s, a trend of urban climate governance experimentation has been observed in which cities, and especially city governments, are trialling novel governance interventions,... more
Cities are key in urban climate mitigation. Since the early 2000s, a trend of urban climate governance experimentation has been observed in which cities, and especially city governments, are trialling novel governance interventions, processes and instruments to learn from their development and implementation. This article explores the role of the government of the city of Seoul, South Korea, in a range of local experiments. It particularly focuses on the factors that contribute to the success (or lack thereof) of urban climate governance experimentation. It finds that the city's government has been successful in developing and trialling some but not all experiments and that the overall results of these are promising in certain areas of city development and use. The article also highlights some less promising results, indicating the fragile nature of urban climate governance experimentation-in both the scientific and political senses of the term.
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For many years, governments around the globe have been called on to increase the professionalism of their public services. The New Zealand Government Regulatory Practice Initiative (G-REG) is an illustrative example of a network of... more
For many years, governments around the globe have been called on to increase the professionalism of their public services. The New Zealand Government Regulatory Practice Initiative (G-REG) is an illustrative example of a network of government agencies responding to this call by providing a programme of standardised training for public servants. This article maps, explores, and interrogates this example to obtain a better understanding of whether a standardised programme can help to nurture and increase the professionalism of a community of public servants. It finds that the main challenge of such an undertaking is finding a balance between narrow professionalism (technical expertise and knowledge) and broad professionalism (acting proficiently and ethically).
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In this research paper, the idea of Regulatory Stewardship is approached as a guiding philosophy for regulatory reform and its development and current state is contrasted with other such guiding philosophies. Considering the complexities... more
In this research paper, the idea of Regulatory Stewardship is approached as a guiding philosophy for regulatory reform and its development and current state is contrasted with other such guiding philosophies. Considering the complexities of regulation, regulators should look at the performance of their regulatory systems in full rather than at the performance of parts of it when pursuing regulatory reforms. Regulatory reforms have long been approached, unintentionally, as zero-sum games in which improvements of some parts of regulatory systems would ask for sacrifices of other parts—typically, increased cost-effectiveness has been traded off against reduced accountability, transparency, equity, or certainty. When looking at the performance of regulatory systems in full, regulators are forced to think about such trade-offs early on. Arguably, the Regulatory Stewardship experience in New Zealand illustrates that changing this mindset is possible despite many challenges.
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Since the 1970s, Australian governments have sought to reduce regulatory burdens, particularly on business, subject regulation to rigorous cost-benefit analysis, and constrain both the stock and flow of new regulation. Yet however... more
Since the 1970s, Australian governments have sought to reduce regulatory burdens, particularly on business, subject regulation to rigorous cost-benefit analysis, and constrain both the stock and flow of new regulation. Yet however measured, regulation continues to grow, frequently in response to community demand. In this article we interrogate both the more extreme claims of the anti-regulation advocates and the alleged successes of anti-red tape initiatives, identifying a critical clash of values over the role of the state and the appropriate relationship between government, business and the community. We conclude by arguing that to deliver desirable societal, economic and democratic outcomes, we need to acknowledge regulation as an asset, professionalise its workforce and more actively assert its public value.
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It is often thought that cities in the global South have less influence over climate city networks than cities often from the global North. We question this by examining how different climate city networks relate and function as... more
It is often thought that cities in the global South have less influence over climate city networks than cities often from the global North. We question this by examining how different climate city networks relate and function as interconnected, yet independent, decision-making centers. We explore the extent to which this polycentric system overcomes the assumed exclusivity and inequality of these networks. We analyze 22 climate city networks using qualitative comparative analysis to classify the networks with a majority of members from either the global North or South based on conditions related to their context, diversity of members, and degree of homogeneity. We find that climate city networks overcome North-South dependencies through targeted support reflecting the local needs and conditions of city members. This diversity of tailored alternatives for cities provides equality and inclusivity at the polycentric system level, despite showing inequality and exclusivity at the network level.
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In recent decades, climate city networks, understood as formalized subnational governance networks that have climate change as their focus, have emerged, linking cities to the global climate governance regime and helping them to take... more
In recent decades, climate city networks, understood as formalized subnational governance networks that have climate change as their focus, have emerged, linking cities to the global climate governance regime and helping them to take climate action locally. Such city networks are considered an essential aspect of urban climate policy and governance. Scholarship on climate city networks has illustrated that such networks can no longer be understood as homogenous groups of organizations; rather, they show heterogeneity in how they seek to attract and engage with member cities. In this article, we unpack this heterogeneity and interrogate the various ways in which climate city networks attract and engage with their members. We are particularly interested in understanding what typifies climate city networks with an active member base. In studying 22 real-world climate city networks, we uncover five distinct types of networks with an active member base. The typology illustrates the rich, but bounded, variety of climate city networks, and helps to clarify how climate city networks can be effective in encouraging their member cities to take local climate action.
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Voluntary programmes provide city networks with a central link to their city members. These voluntary programmes provide cities with benefits (e.g. knowledge, recognition, access to resources) if they meet the city network's programme... more
Voluntary programmes provide city networks with a central link to their city members. These voluntary programmes provide cities with benefits (e.g. knowledge, recognition, access to resources) if they meet the city network's programme requirements. This article seeks to understand how city networks make trade-offs between programme benefits and requirements to attract cities to the programmes they offer. We do so by analysing 55 voluntary programmes offered by 22 climaterelated city networks using qualitative comparative analysis (QCA). We are particularly interested in the design of voluntary programmes that attract large numbers of participants. We find three main insights. First, programmes with a clear, single benefit are more attractive to city members than programmes with a broad range of benefits. Second, the combination of programme requirements and commitments allows city networks to target cohorts of cities based on their capacities and needs. Finally, cities are attracted to programmes that do not explicitly ask for direct results.
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Governments around the world have begun to develop and implement risk governance and risk-based regulation, and are often inspired by the insights from risk studies in doing so. Following these developments, scholars have begun to map,... more
Governments around the world have begun to develop and implement risk governance and risk-based regulation, and are often inspired by the insights from risk studies in doing so. Following these developments, scholars have begun to map, explore and interrogate risk governance models and strategies and risk-based regulatory approaches and instruments, and their performance. This article presents an evidence of academic literature on risk as an approach to regulatory governance. It follows the logic and applies tools of meta-research, a systematic and replicable process of synthesizing research findings across a body of original research. Following a staged approach, 135 peer-reviewed journal articles from an initial body of 1,125 articles were analysed. The article presents the main findings from the evidence synthesis, presents the gaps in our knowledge, and suggests a future agenda for research on risk as an approach to regulatory governance. The article finds that despite ongoing conceptual and normative debates about the need for risk governance and risk-based regulation, we lack a good understanding of how it operates in practice. Future scholarship is urged to be critical of the potential gap between academic and policy rhetoric on risk-based regulatory governance and the application of this approach to regulatory governance on the ground.
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When opportunity backfires: Exploring the implementation of urban climate governance alternatives in three major US cities Abstract Around the world, cities have committed themselves to urban climate action strategies with targets that go... more
When opportunity backfires: Exploring the implementation of urban climate governance alternatives in three major US cities Abstract Around the world, cities have committed themselves to urban climate action strategies with targets that go beyond those of their national governments. To implement their strategies, cities have embraced a range of alternative governance instruments and approaches ('governance alternatives'). While they have long been lauded by academics, policymakers, and practitioners for doing so, these 'frontrunner' cities are now being seen to struggle to achieve their ambitious targets when using governance alternatives. This article seeks to unpack and better understand this struggle by zooming in on the progress made in reducing (non-renewable) energy consumption in the built environment of three major cities in the United States (Chicago, New York, and San Francisco) over the last decade. Informed by interviews and supplementary data, the article uncovers a pattern across these three cities. In the early 2000s, they all set ambitious urban climate change targets, but lacked the power and capacity to achieve these. They all used a largely uncoordinated 'scattergun approach', embracing a broad set of (at best) modestly ambitious and (regularly) opportunistic governance alternatives to achieve the aims of their ambitious strategies. Whilst this approach allowed the cities to obtain quick initial results, the resulting fragmented configuration of traditional and alternative governance instruments and approaches now hinders them from meeting their targets.
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Symbolic commitment is commonly acknowledged in the literature to be important for sustainability governance. Academics express high hopes and expectations of symbolic commitment as a means to strengthen sustainability institutions.... more
Symbolic commitment is commonly acknowledged in the literature to be important for sustainability governance. Academics express high hopes and expectations of symbolic commitment as a means to strengthen sustainability institutions. Policy makers and bureaucrats see it as being necessary in order to keep an issue on the agenda. However, little is known about how symbolic commitment contributes to institutional resilience. This study examines the rise and fall of national institutions for implementing sustainability agendas in Germany, Finland, and the UK in the context of fluctuating symbolic commitment. Interviews with 56 policy actors and documentary analysis uncovered the creative role of bureaucrats in securing symbolic commitment. The risks of relying on symbolic commitment can be reduced by considering the impact of economic austerity and the loss of institutional memory.
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Since 2013, New Zealand’s regulatory agencies have had a statutory obligation to carry out regulatory stewardship. They have been expected to adopt a whole-of-system, lifecycle view of regulation, and to take a proactive and collaborative... more
Since 2013, New Zealand’s regulatory agencies have had a statutory obligation to carry out regulatory stewardship. They have been expected to adopt a whole-of-system, lifecycle view of regulation, and to take a proactive and collaborative approach to the monitoring and care of the regulatory system(s) for which they have responsibilities. In 2021, after eight years, regulatory agencies have not managed to operationalise their shared regulatory stewardship obligations in a coherent and consistent manner. This article explores the challenges they face in operationalising regulatory stewardship, and it provides some conceptual clarity that may aid these agencies in collaborating to develop and adopt the whole-of-system, lifecycle view of regulation that is envisaged.
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Voluntary environmental governance arrangements (VEGAs) have focal attention in academic and policy debates. The current literature repeatedly reports that VEGAs are unsuccessful in achieving high levels of environmental performance by... more
Voluntary environmental governance arrangements (VEGAs) have focal attention in academic and policy debates. The current literature repeatedly reports that VEGAs are unsuccessful in achieving high levels of environmental performance by their participants, but at the same time reports an ongoing use of them. Based on a study of fifteen VEGAs in the Australian buildings sector this research paper analyzes how VEGAs may assist in achieving high(er) levels of environmental performance, without showing direct measurable results. Four subtle roles of VEGAs in doing so are uncovered: transformation of norms; providing business cases; filling in voids in governmental requirements; and, facilitating the implementation of governmental requirements.
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In sum, it is now evident that urban responses to climate change involve a diverse range of actors as well as forms of agency that cross traditional boundaries, and which have diverse consequences for (dis)empowering different social... more
In sum, it is now evident that urban responses to climate change involve a diverse range of actors as well as forms of agency that cross traditional boundaries, and which have diverse consequences for (dis)empowering different social groups – helping or hampering them to increase their well-being. Friction between novel forms of agency, new agents of change and (dis)empowerment is a missing focus in existing scholarship on urban climate futures. This edited book addresses this knowledge gap and raises important issues for how we understand urban climate responses. It does so by drawing together insights from a wide range of countries, spanning the Global North to the Global South. The book is unique in its ambition and reach. It brings together 11 chapters by renowned urban climate governance scholars from around the globe. These chapters all critically assess the promises and limitations of increasing agency in urban climate governance. They build on solid empirical knowledge gained from case studies in the Global North and Global South. In doing so it sheds a much-needed critical new light on the existing literature and advances the current state of knowledge on urban climate policy and governance. In this chapter, we begin with setting out the key themes of the book – the politics of urban futures, increasing agency in urban climate policy and governance, and contested empowerment in urban transformations. We discuss some of the puzzles they raise for policy, practice, and academia, and propose a critical analysis of the heterogeneous forms of agency shaping the politics of urban futures. From here on, we briefly introduce the chapters that make up the main body of this book and how they relate to the broader ESG scholarship and other relevant communities and work in the field.
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Since 2013, New Zealand’s regulatory agencies have had a statutory obligation to carry out regulatory stewardship. They have been expected to adopt a whole-of-system, life cycle view of regulation, and to take a proactive and... more
Since 2013, New Zealand’s regulatory agencies have had a statutory obligation to carry out regulatory stewardship. They have been expected to adopt a whole-of-system, life cycle view of regulation, and to take a proactive and collaborative approach to the monitoring and care of the regulatory system(s) for which they have responsibilities. In 2021, after eight years, regulatory agencies have not managed to operationalise their shared regulatory stewardship obligations in a coherent and consistent manner. This article explores the challenges they face in operationalising regulatory stewardship, and provides some conceptual clarity that may aid these agencies in collaborating to develop and adopt the whole-of-system, life cycle view of regulation that is envisaged.
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Voluntary Environmental Programs (VEPs) have become increasingly popular in addressing environmental risks that are too complex to solve through traditional direct regulatory interventions. Whilst VEPs have attracted much scholarly... more
Voluntary Environmental Programs (VEPs) have become increasingly popular in addressing environmental risks that are too complex to solve through traditional direct regulatory interventions. Whilst VEPs have attracted much scholarly attention, still little is known how they cause their outcomes. Taking Matthew Potoski and Aseem Prakash’s (2009) ‘club theory perspective’ as a point of departure, the current article seeks to better understand whether and how the design conditions of VEPs affect their outcomes in terms of (a) attracting participants, and (b) their contribution to a desired collective end. A set of six design conditions that the current literature considers relevant for the performance of VEPs is considered. Applying fuzzy set comparative analysis (fsQCA) a series of 35 VEPs from Australia, the Netherlands, and the United States is studied. The study adds to the Potoski and Praksh (2009) framework by making clear interaction effects between VEP design conditions, and add...
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The practice of exempting existing buildings from complying with new and amended building codes and other regulatory requirements (i.e., grandfathering) poses a significant weak link in the chain of urban sustainability and resilience.... more
The practice of exempting existing buildings from complying with new and amended building codes and other regulatory requirements (i.e., grandfathering) poses a significant weak link in the chain of urban sustainability and resilience. Using fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) this article seeks to understand whether a global trend of voluntary programmes is able to overcome this problem. Such programmes built on collaboration between governments, businesses and citizens, and seek voluntary commitment from their participants to achieve outcomes that move beyond existing regulation. Building on a series of 20 of such programmes in Australia, the Netherlands and the United States it finds that the majority of these have not succeeded in incentivising their participants to take meaningful action. A major failure stands out: the arrangements ask too much of their participants and reward them with too little.
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Facing issues with regulatory enforcement through municipal agencies, governments in Australia have reformed the enforcement of public building regulations. As a result, the private sector has been introduced in building regulatory... more
Facing issues with regulatory enforcement through municipal agencies, governments in Australia have reformed the enforcement of public building regulations. As a result, the private sector has been introduced in building regulatory enforcement regimes with differences amongst jurisdictions. In this paper account is given of the present day situation in four Australian states. This by introducing both the formal structure of, and experiences with the building regulatory enforcement regimes in the states analysed. Discussion of the formal set-up is based on secondary accounts and discussion of the experiences is based upon a series of interviews with over 60 key-persons in the jurisdictions mentioned.
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Understanding the negative impact of the construction industry and the built environment on the ecological environment, the European Commission (EC) aims to harmonise and improve sustainable construction regulatory frameworks in Member... more
Understanding the negative impact of the construction industry and the built environment on the ecological environment, the European Commission (EC) aims to harmonise and improve sustainable construction regulatory frameworks in Member States of the European Union. This paper discusses the topics of sustainable construction that are currently regulated in Europe. It asks to what extent there is homogeneity among Member States in doing so; and what strategies the EC may apply in improving both the homogeneity in, and attention for sustainable construction regulation among Member States. It finds that current EC Directives have a positive effect, but may be too resource-intensive to address the ecological risks generated by the construction industry and the built environment in the EU in a timely fashion.
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Studying amoral cost benefit analysis, legitimacy and capacity to obey the law this paper seeks to understand why Chinese farmers obey or break pesticide rules. It uses data gathered through intensive local level fieldwork including... more
Studying amoral cost benefit analysis, legitimacy and capacity to obey the law this paper seeks to understand why Chinese farmers obey or break pesticide rules. It uses data gathered through intensive local level fieldwork including interviews with 31 pesticide experts and officials and 119 vegetable farmers in the central China. The paper uncovers an enforcement-compliance paradox: a situation where law enforcement is prioritized exactly on those rules least likely broken and the regulated actors most likely to comply. It finds two explanations. First, enforcement policy simply may not be aware which rules and regulated actors have more compliance even when there is limited deterrence. Second, technocratic risk-averse enforcement policy may be oriented at those rules and actors where violation (theoretically) results in the largest damages, not at those rules more likely broken and actors more likely to break them.
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Since 2013, New Zealand’s regulatory agencies have had a statutory obligation to carry out regulatory stewardship. They have been expected to adopt a whole-of-system, lifecycle view of regulation, and to take a proactive and collaborative... more
Since 2013, New Zealand’s regulatory agencies have had a statutory obligation to carry out regulatory stewardship. They have been expected to adopt a whole-of-system, lifecycle view of regulation, and to take a proactive and collaborative approach to the monitoring and care of the regulatory system(s) for which they have responsibilities. In 2021, after eight years, regulatory agencies have not managed to operationalise their shared regulatory stewardship obligations in a coherent and consistent manner. This article explores the challenges they face in operationalising regulatory stewardship, and it provides some conceptual clarity that may aid these agencies in collaborating to develop and adopt the whole-of-system, lifecycle view of regulation that is envisaged.
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New environmental governance gains momentum in the addressing of environmental risks. It is often expected that new environmental governance arrangements will achieve higher levels of effectiveness than traditional forms of environmental... more
New environmental governance gains momentum in the addressing of environmental risks. It is often expected that new environmental governance arrangements will achieve higher levels of effectiveness than traditional forms of environmental policy. The current research questions this assumption based on a series of 53 interviews with experts in fifteen new environmental governance arrangements in the Australian buildings sector. It finds that these arrangements have, so far, achieved limited success in terms of increased numbers of buildings with high levels of environmental performance. Some lessons are drawn to increase the effectiveness of (future) new environmental governance arrangements.
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Recent decades have seen urban resilience becoming a more popular term internationally both within academic and policy circles. However, relatively little attention has been paid by the literature to the policy implications of striving... more
Recent decades have seen urban resilience becoming a more popular term internationally both within academic and policy circles. However, relatively little attention has been paid by the literature to the policy implications of striving towards more resilient urban systems and the challenges introduced by the complex, multi-level and multi-actor policy network that forms their context. The central hypothesis of this research is that resilience is a long-term goal, beyond immediate disaster planning and management, and an ongoing process that requires a proactive approach (as opposed to a reactive approach). This builds on the idea that focusing only on the immediate outcomes of extreme events keeps the city on a “catch-up mode”, which is both unsustainable and inefficient in the long-term. This research proposes that in order to progress towards resilience that endures, the policies that underpin these efforts must remain effective and “survive” short-term pressures. It attempts to p...
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Voluntary urban climate programs challenge firms and citizens to reduce resource consumption and carbon emissions at city level but without the force of law. High hopes are expressed about their capacity to accelerate a transition towards... more
Voluntary urban climate programs challenge firms and citizens to reduce resource consumption and carbon emissions at city level but without the force of law. High hopes are expressed about their capacity to accelerate a transition towards low-carbon building and city (re)development. This article explores, maps, and interrogates a global trend of voluntary urban climate programs, with a specific focus on action-networks, performance recognition programs, and eco-financing for low-carbon building initiatives. It finds that, thus far and within the boundaries of the literature reviewed, voluntary programs for building initiatives have not contributed to resource consumption and carbon emissions reductions at a level that will help achieving the goals of the Paris Agreement (i.e., staying under 1.5°C). It concludes with approaches that will help to make better use of these programs.
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This article is an introduction to meta-research, a systematic and replicable process of synthesizing research findings across a body of original research. After introducing the reader to the core of meta-research methodology,... more
This article is an introduction to meta-research, a systematic and replicable process of synthesizing research findings across a body of original research. After introducing the reader to the core of meta-research methodology, meta-research logic and tools are applied to present an evidence synthesis of empirical research on responsive regulation. The article concludes with a meta-research agenda for regulation and governance scholarship, and five key lessons from the empirical responsive regulation literature.
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ABSTRACT Statutory and other forms of government-led environmental regulation (further ‘environmental regulation’) have evolved considerably since the mid-twentieth century. However, JEPP scholarship has shown little engagement with these... more
ABSTRACT Statutory and other forms of government-led environmental regulation (further ‘environmental regulation’) have evolved considerably since the mid-twentieth century. However, JEPP scholarship has shown little engagement with these developments over the last two decades. This lack of attention is unwarranted because environmental regulation is still a dominant approach to achieving the goals of environmental policy and planning. This article seeks to map, explore and evaluate current JEPP engagement with environmental regulations; explore three of the major developments in statutory and other forms of government-led regulation over the last decades relevant to environmental policy and planning; and present an environmental regulation research agenda for future JEPP scholarship.
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This research paper presents findings from a broad scoping of the international academic literature on the use of systems thinking and systems science in regulatory governance and practice. It builds on a systematic review of... more
This research paper presents findings from a broad scoping of the international academic literature on the use of systems thinking and systems science in regulatory governance and practice. It builds on a systematic review of peer-reviewed articles published in the top 15 journals for regulatory scholarship. The aim of the research paper is to introduce those working in a regulatory environment to the key concepts of systems thinking and systems science, and to discuss the state of the art of regulatory knowledge on these topics. It addresses five themes: (1) the evolution of systems thinking, (2) examples of systems thinking from the academic literature, (3) evidence of how systems thinking helps improving regulatory governance, and (4) the epistemic challenges and (5) ethical challenges that come with applying systems thinking to regulatory governance and practice.
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ABSTRACT Cities are considered key to addressing climate change. A substantial volume of scholarship is now available on urban climate transitions (focusing on social and technological change) and on the urban climate governance... more
ABSTRACT Cities are considered key to addressing climate change. A substantial volume of scholarship is now available on urban climate transitions (focusing on social and technological change) and on the urban climate governance structures that underpin those transitions. The scholarship is, however, dominated by studies from European and Anglo-Saxon cities. Seeking to add insights from a currently underexplored world-region to this literature, the current article explores urban climate governance in the Russian Federation and focuses specifically on Moscow and St. Petersburg. In doing so, the article also explores the analytical power of the dominant urban climate transitions literature for explaining urban climate transitions outside European and Anglo-Saxon countries.
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Over 30 years, several key frameworks and theories of the policy process have emerged which have guided a burgeoning empirical literature. A more recent development has been a growing interest in the application of a ‘causal mechanism’... more
Over 30 years, several key frameworks and theories of the policy process have emerged which have guided a burgeoning empirical literature. A more recent development has been a growing interest in the application of a ‘causal mechanism’ perspective to policy studies. This article reviews selected theories of the policy process (Multiple Streams Approach, Advocacy Coalition Framework, Punctuated Equilibrium Theory, Narrative Framework Theory, and Institutional Analysis and Development Framework) and reports on an exploratory meta-analysis and synthesis to gauge the take-up of causal-mechanistic approaches. The findings suggest that there has been limited application of causal mechanisms and calls for more theoretical and empirical work on that aspect. Given the overlapping frameworks exploring different aspects of the policy process, further research informed by causal-mechanism approaches points to a new generation of inquiry across these and other policy process theoretical frameworks.
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Over the past decade diverse urban governance innovations and experiments have emerged with the declared aim to foster climate change mitigation and adaptation, involving actors at multiple levels and scales. This urban turn in... more
Over the past decade diverse urban governance innovations and experiments have emerged with the declared aim to foster climate change mitigation and adaptation, involving actors at multiple levels and scales. This urban turn in environmental governance has been accompanied by normative claims and high expectations regarding a leading role of cities in coping with climate change. However, while time pressures for effective action are growing, little is known about the social learning processes involved in such urban climate governance innovations, and what they actually contribute to achieve the required transformations in urban systems. Therefore, this special issue presents eight selected papers that explore learning in urban climate governance practices in a variety of local, national and international contexts. Their findings point to a more ambiguous role of these practices as they tend to support incremental adjustments rather than deeper social learning for radical systemic ch...
Research Interests: Climate Change, Community Resilience, Climate Change Adaptation, Adaptation to Climate Change, Climate change policy, and 15 moreEnvironmental Planning and Design, Climate Change Adaptation And Mitigation Strategies, Environmental Planning, Community Participation, Collaborative Learning, Community Empowerment, City and Regional Planning, Climate Change Mitigation, Citizen participation, Adaptive learning, Energy transition, Adaptive Governance, City Networks, Climate Politics, and Double loop learning
There are various approaches to studying legal change. Systematic analysis of legal, doctrinal change as produced by courts is one of these. Whilst this approach informs us about ‘what’ has changed, it often does not inform us about ‘why’... more
There are various approaches to studying legal change. Systematic analysis of legal, doctrinal change as produced by courts is one of these. Whilst this approach informs us about ‘what’ has changed, it often does not inform us about ‘why’ or ‘how’ changes have come about. Yet, ‘why’ and ‘how’ questions are equally relevant to answer as ‘what’ question if we wish to fully comprehend legal change. Related areas of scholarship (political science, public administration, and socio-legal scholarship) are traditionally more interested in the why and how of legal change. This article seeks to introduce the readership of KJLL to a dominant heuristic applied to study legal change in other areas of scholarship: theorizing on incremental change. This article first briefly reviews the development of this theorizing, and then applies it to study the development of over a hundred years of construction regulation in the Netherlands. It concludes with a discussion on how this theorizing may complement more traditional, doctrinal legal scholarship approaches in providing a more comprehensive understanding of legal change.
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This article, in a study of amoral cost–benefit analysis, legitimacy and capacity to obey the law, seeks to understand why Chinese farmers obey or break pesticide rules. It uses data gathered through intensive fieldwork at a local level,... more
This article, in a study of amoral cost–benefit analysis, legitimacy and capacity to obey the law, seeks to understand why Chinese farmers obey or break pesticide rules. It uses data gathered through intensive fieldwork at a local level, including interviews with 31 pesticide experts and officials and 119 vegetable farmers in central China. It uncovers an enforcement–compliance paradox: a situation where law enforcement concentrates exactly on those rules that are least likely to be broken and on those regulated actors who are most likely to comply. It finds two explanations. First, enforcement policy simply may not be aware of which rules are more likely to be complied with and which regulated actors are more likely to comply even when there is limited deterrence. Second, technocratic risk-averse enforcement policy may be oriented towards those rules and actors for which violation – theoretically – results in the greatest damage, not towards those rules that are more likely to be b...
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Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Statutory and other forms of government-led environmental regulation (further ‘environmental regulation’) have evolved considerably since the mid-20th Century. However, JEPP scholarship has shown little engagement with these developments... more
Statutory and other forms of government-led environmental regulation (further ‘environmental regulation’) have evolved considerably since the mid-20th Century. However, JEPP scholarship has shown little engagement with these developments over the last two decades. This lack of attention is unwarranted because environmental regulation is still a dominant approach to achieving the goals of environmental policy and planning. This article seeks to map, explore and evaluate current JEPP engagement with environmental regulations; explore three of the major developments in statutory and other forms of government-led regulation over the last decades relevant to environmental policy and planning; and present an environmental regulation research agenda for future JEPP scholarship.
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This case explains how qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) has been used for a study of over 60 voluntary programs in urban climate governance in 13 cities in Australia, India, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Singapore and the United... more
This case explains how qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) has been used for a study of over 60 voluntary programs in urban climate governance in 13 cities in Australia, India, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Singapore and the United States. The number of cases is too small for traditional quantitative research approaches (variable or condition oriented), but too large for traditional qualitative approaches (case oriented). QCA is a configurational method, bridging the strengths of variable-oriented and case-oriented approaches, and provides a logic and tools for medium-n comparative research. This case study specifically illustrates (1) the strengths of QCA studying equifinality, conjuctural causality, and data-asymmetry; and (2) how QCA can be used, within one study, for theory testing as well as theory development. Whilst the case does not assume that readers have working experience with the method it is not meant as a first introduction to the method.
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Over 30 years, several key frameworks and theories of the policy process have emerged which have guided a burgeoning empirical literature. A more recent development has been a growing interest in the application of a ‘causal mechanism’... more
Over 30 years, several key frameworks and theories of the policy process have emerged which have guided a burgeoning empirical literature. A more recent development has been a growing interest in the application of a ‘causal mechanism’ perspective to policy studies. This paper reviews selected theories of the policy process (Multiple Streams Approach, Advocacy Coalition Framework, Punctuated Equilibrium Theory, Narrative Framework Theory, and Institutional Analysis and Development Framework) and reports on an exploratory meta-analysis and synthesis to gauge the take-up of causal-mechanistic approaches. The findings suggest that there has been limited application of causal mechanisms, and calls for more theoretical and empirical work on that aspect. Given the overlapping frameworks exploring different aspects of the policy process, further research informed by causal-mechanism approaches points to a new generation of inquiry across these and other policy process theoretical frameworks.
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Countries across the globe are likely to face significant challenges in coming years that will test the resilience of their cities. However, there is often a lack of proactive evidence-based analysis of available options and their... more
Countries across the globe are likely to face significant challenges in coming years that will test the resilience of their cities. However, there is often a lack of proactive evidence-based analysis of available options and their outcomes as well as indicators of success or progress. Without such analysis it is difficult to clearly gauge progress towards set goals, to improve effective policy development and implementation, and to create an active learning culture that can efficiently and effectively tackle future challenges. The present work offers an introduction to research being done to develop a policy evaluation and implementation framework that can help policy-makers produce more effective resilience policies which are sustainable over time. The term sustainable resilience has some usage in the literature but has had limited uptake and has not been formally characterised until now. This new concept creates a clear differentiation from reactive disaster resilience which is often the sole focus of urban policy development. This paper contributes to developing a working concept and guiding principles for urban sustainable resilience policy. This work suggests that sustainable resilience policy will need to take into account the complexity within and between the various systems that form cities, rapidly changing technologies, environmental conditions, and emerging forms of governance. This paper also briefly outlines the methodology that will be used to continue to develop a sustainable resilience policy framework and evidence-based assessment tool.
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How much politics goes into the development, implementation, evaluation, and reform of regulation? This question has been at the forefront of regulatory scholarship for over four decades. The current chapter maps how scholars of public... more
How much politics goes into the development, implementation, evaluation, and reform of regulation? This question has been at the forefront of regulatory scholarship for over four decades. The current chapter maps how scholars of public administration in general and regulatory scholars in particular have theorized the politics of regulation. It first reflects on three of the major theories about the need for regulation: economic perspectives, public interest perspectives, and institutional perspectives. In the slipstream of these theories, regulatory models have for long build on the understanding that either deterrence, intrinsic motivations, or information provision are the best way to achieve compliance with regulation. The second part of the chapter engages with more recent regulatory reforms. These have begun to mix incentives (resulting in models such as Responsive Regulation and Smart Regulation) and have started to embrace insights from behavioural economics (resulting in models such as Nudging). This all to develop regulatory interventions that are more tailored to the characteristics of the individuals and organizations they target. Recent regulatory reforms have also begun to embrace non-governmental individuals and organizations as essential parts of regulatory regimes (resulting in theorizing on co-regulation and regulatory intermediaries), as well as question the need for a (politics of) regulation of regulation (resulting in theorizing on agencification, meta-regulation, and regulatory stewardship).