Ohmage to Resistance

2001 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 18-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ronnie D. Lipschutz
Keyword(s):  
International Institutions ◽  
Democratic Deficit ◽  
Governmental Organizations ◽  
Forestry Practices ◽  
Global Environmental Politics ◽  
Institutional Frameworks ◽  
Non Governmental Organizations ◽  
Long Run ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
Global And Local

This essay disputes the arguments made by Robert Paehlke and John Dryzek in their contributions to this issue of Global Environmental Politics. Both reform and resistance are necessary, but not sufficient, elements in collective efforts to facilitating global and local environmental protection and sustainable development. What is essential, as well, are campaigns to establish alternative institutional frameworks for the fulfillment of these goals. This essay suggests that initiatives such as those found around the issue of sustainable forestry practices might be the basis for such frameworks and, in the long run, could pressure both capital and governments to agree on strengthened and effective systems of public environmental regulation. The essay also notes the so-called democratic deficit among non-governmental organizations and movements, but questions whether there is any democracy among capitals and international institutions.

COP-15 in Copenhagen: How the Merging of Movements Left Civil Society Out in the Cold

2010 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 11-17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dana R. Fisher
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Environmental Politics ◽  
Climate Regime ◽  
Climate Negotiations ◽  
Governmental Organizations ◽  
Global Environmental Politics ◽  
Non Governmental Organizations ◽  
Global Environmental

What happened to non-governmental organizations' participation at the COP-15 round of climate negotiations in Copenhagen? Although the climate regime has been seen as relatively open to civil society, everything changed in Copenhagen and civil society became increasingly disenfranchised. This article discusses the three main forces that led to civil society's disenfranchisement at this round of the climate negotiations: increased registration, poor planning by the Danish organizers and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Secretariat, and the merging of movements. I conclude by discussing implications of the increase in civil society disenfranchisement to the climate regime and to the study of global environmental politics more broadly.

scholarly journals Going 'Beyond Microfinance': Enhancing Islamic Microfinance Programmes in Bangladesh

ICR Journal ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 111-121
Author(s):  
Tawfique Al-Mubarak
Keyword(s):  
High Rate ◽  
Poverty Eradication ◽  
Grameen Bank ◽  
Poverty Level ◽  
Banking Services ◽  
Governmental Organizations ◽  
Non Governmental Organizations ◽  
Long Run ◽  
Islamic Microfinance

Microfinance programmes have been operating in Bangladesh since the early seventies. With the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC) and the Grameen Bank (GB) as the pioneers, many other Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and Microfinance Institutes (MFIs) have grown up to provide banking services to the ‘bankless’ poor of the society. Most of these MFIs disburse cash loans, and in most cases at a high rate of interest. Of course, interest as riba is among the gravest of prohibitions in Islam. Besides, a majority of the clients who take such microfinance loans often live below the poverty level, and have their own priorities to meet before investing the loan in a profit-bearing investment. As a result, the loans turn out to be consumption loans without resulting in any profit to pay the interest therefrom. In the long run, the clients fall into the ‘debt-trap’ and get poorer. This paper suggests that if instead of disbursing cash facilities, the clients were provided with employment under specific projects of which some portions could also be sold to them after the project has recovered its capital, poverty eradication ought to become an easier task. This then goes ‘beyond microfinance’ facilities.  

Empty Institutions in Global Environmental Politics

2019 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 626-650 ◽  
Author(s):  
Radoslav S Dimitrov
Keyword(s):  
International Institutions ◽  
Environmental Politics ◽  
Policy Formulation ◽  
Development Research ◽  
Global Environmental Politics ◽  
Issue Area ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
Copenhagen Accord ◽  
Public Scrutiny ◽  
Institutional Space

AbstractWhy are some institutions without any policy powers or output? This study documents the efforts by governments to create empty international institutions whose mandates deprive them of any capacity for policy formulation or implementation. Examples include the United Nations Forum on Forests, the Copenhagen Accord on Climate Change, and the UN Commission on Sustainable Development. Research is based on participation in twenty-one rounds of negotiations over ten years and interviews with diplomats, policymakers, and observers. The article introduces the concept of empty institutions, provides evidence from three empirical cases, theorizes their political functions, and discusses theoretical implications and policy ramifications. Empty institutions are deliberately designed not to deliver and serve two purposes. First, they are political tools for hiding failure at negotiations, by creating a public impression of policy progress. Second, empty institutions are “decoys” that distract public scrutiny and legitimize collective inaction, by filling the institutional space in a given issue area and by neutralizing pressures for genuine policy. Contrary to conventional academic wisdom, institutions can be raised as obstacles that preempt governance rather than facilitate it.

The Emerging Debate on the Need for a World Environment Organization: A Commentary

2001 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-55 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frank Biermann
Keyword(s):  
Current System ◽  
Trade Agreements ◽  
United Nations Environment Programme ◽  
Environmental Regimes ◽  
Global Environmental Politics ◽  
Long Run ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
World Environment ◽  
Nations Environment ◽  
Environment Programme

The debate on institutional reform of international environmental policy-making has gained momentum. This article discusses whether the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) should be replaced with a stronger world environment organization. First, it outlines different models of a world environment organization. It argues that the best option for the next decade would be to upgrade UNEP to a full-fledged international organization while maintaining the current system of decentralized, issue-specific international environmental regimes. In the long run, however, a world environment organization should lead to a closer integration and coordination of the myriad environmental treaties in the same manner in which the World Trade Organization has integrated the major trade agreements. Second, the article comments on the writings of both advocates and opponents of a world environment organization, with a focus on the contributions to this inaugural issue of Global Environmental Politics.

Return to Chittagong: ten years since the “postcard”

2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 340-348 ◽  
Author(s):  
George M. Cairns
Keyword(s):  
Design Methodology ◽  
Local Source ◽  
Global Supply Chains ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Past ◽  
Governmental Organizations ◽  
Non Governmental Organizations ◽  
Ship Breaking ◽  
Media Reports ◽  
Global And Local

Purpose This paper aims to revisit the author’s 2007 “Postcard from Chittagong” to reprise the past decade of activity related to the ship breaking industry of Bangladesh. Design/methodology/approach The study is based on content analysis of global and local source documentation. This includes academic works, research reports from non-governmental organizations and general and specialist media reports. Findings Over the past decade, there have been a number of international initiatives that seek to control the disposal and dismantling of redundant ships. However, based on evidence of ongoing environmental and health impacts in Bangladesh, the effectiveness of these is questioned. Research limitations/implications The paper is intended to prompt debate on the ship breaking industry in Bangladesh and on the nature of global supply chains and logistics in the consumption society. Originality/value The paper revisits and updates a 2007 study that has been referred to and cited in a range of outlets. It is intended to continue and enhance discussion.

New Responses to the Legitimacy Crisis of International Institutions: The Role of ‘Civil Society’ and the Rise of the Principle of Participation of ‘The Most Affected’ in International Institutional Law

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jochen von Bernstorff
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
International Law ◽  
International Institutions ◽  
Discursive Strategies ◽  
Governmental Organizations ◽  
Theoretical Approaches ◽  
Civil Society Participation ◽  
Non Governmental Organizations ◽  
Legitimacy Crisis

Abstract The article offers a description and assessment of the most important discursive strategies used to enhance and justify various models of ‘civil-society participation’ in international institutions since the late 19th century. It starts from the assumption that the two main rationales for, or concepts of, ‘civil-society’ participation are functionalism and democratization. The article also notes that, as an offshoot of the democratization rationale, a new empirical and discursive 21st-century trend has partially replaced classic non-governmental organizations (NGOs) with so-called ‘affected person’s organizations’ in international institutions. In this context, the article claims that the field of international institutional law is currently witnessing the rise of a principle of participation of ‘the most affected’. This shift arguably is an institutional strategy to respond to a profound legitimacy crisis of both international NGOs and the so-called ‘global governance’ structures shaped over the last 30 years. Against the backdrop of various theoretical approaches to the problem of representation and affectedness in political philosophy and international law, the article critically assesses if, and to what extent, the involvement of ‘the most affected’ in international organizations can alter the legitimacy resources of international law and its institutions.

Regulating Under Constraints

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Ovodenko
Keyword(s):  
International Institutions ◽  
Institutional Design ◽  
Environmental Politics ◽  
Explanatory Power ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Market Structures ◽  
Global Environmental Politics ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
Global Regime ◽  
The Many

This chapter concludes the book by summarizing the validity of the hypotheses tested in the empirical chapters, assessing the overall explanatory power of the markets theory, identifying the theoretical and empirical contributions of the book, and outlining specific avenues for future research on international institutions and global environmental politics. It situates the theoretical and empirical contributions in the literatures on environmental regulation and collective action, reiterating the many impacts of market structures on global regime design. Scholars of global environmental politics should draw from research on American politics to understand institutional design and should focus on policy schemes that would mitigate pollution from competitive sectors, especially in developing countries.

"Jobs Talk": Retreating from the social sustainability of forestry communities

1999 ◽  
Vol 75 (5) ◽  
pp. 755-763 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maureen G. Reed
Keyword(s):  
Economic Transition ◽  
Social Sustainability ◽  
Governmental Organizations ◽  
Forestry Practices ◽  
Forestry Workers ◽  
Non Governmental Organizations ◽  
The Social ◽  
Transition Strategies ◽  
Primary Focus ◽  
Coastal British Columbia

Changes in land use and forestry practices in coastal British Columbia have resulted in a period of "transition" for forestry communities. Here I examine proposals by environmental non-governmental organizations and transition strategies developed by government to maintain the social sustainability of forestry communities during economic transition. This examination reveals that the primary focus of transition is a concern for jobs, primarily jobs of "displaced forestry workers." I argue that this focus on jobs is unnecessarily narrow and is insufficient in promoting the social sustainability of these places. Key words: social sustainability, forestry communities, transition

scholarly journals Environmental non-governmental organizations and global environmental discourse

PLoS ONE ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (5) ◽  
pp. e0232945
Author(s):  
Stefan Partelow ◽  
Klara Johanna Winkler ◽  
Gregory M. Thaler
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Discourse ◽  
Governmental Organizations ◽  
Non Governmental Organizations ◽  
Global Environmental

scholarly journals Protests, Regulations, and Environmental Accountability in Cambodia

2019 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-54 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sokphea Young
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Governance ◽  
Agricultural Land ◽  
Protest Movements ◽  
Grass Roots ◽  
Governmental Organizations ◽  
Environmental Deterioration ◽  
Non Governmental Organizations ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
Foreign Corporations ◽  
Perceived Challenge

In the realm of global environmental governance, accountability has been key to the debate concerning pervasive environmental deterioration. Among the factors underlying this deterioration, a perceived challenge is the lack of clear mechanisms for identifying to whom the actors in environmental governance in general, and in other sectors, for example, hydropower, agricultural land, mining, and infrastructure in particular, are accountable to for their actions. To investigate the challenge of this situation, this article explores the ways in which the protest movements of grass-roots communities and non-governmental organizations endeavour to hold government and foreign corporations accountable for the actions they have taken which have contributed to environmental degradation in Cambodia. Drawing on two case studies, this article argues that these protest movements have played an increasing role in requiring environmental accountability from both government and corporations.

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