Codifying and Commodifying Nature: Narratives on Forest Property Rights and the Implementation of Tenure Regularization Policies in Northwestern Argentina

Environmental resource management requires negotiation among state and non-state actors with conflicting goals and different levels of influence. In northwestern Argentina, forest policy implementation is described as weak, due to governance structure and ambiguities in the law. We studied how policy actors’ attitudes and their positions in the forest governance network relate to the implementation of land tenure regularization in a context where land tenure regularization is at the core of struggles over environmental policies. We focused on the Chaco Salteño part of the Gran Chaco ecosystem, one of the world’s major deforestation frontiers. We argue that the presence of weak advocacy coalitions requires an analysis of agency to understand this policy process. Our policy network analysis revealed a lack of clear contrasting factions, due to a core–periphery structure. The core of the network brings together all core beliefs but not all of the most influential actors. Assessing network centrality and reputational influence enabled us to identify actors with exceptional agency. We contribute to the debates on advocacy coalitions and on land tenure by distinguishing between attitudes toward tenure regularization policies and their actual implementation in a context where actors have diverging interests and objectives.

Coalition Building and Maintenance: The case of Food Secure Canada (2001-2012)

This study deals with the question of advocacy coalition formation and maintenance, in the specific case of Food Secure Canada (FSC), a pan-Canadian alliance of non-profit organizations and individuals working together to advance food security and food sovereignty in Canada. Using theoretical frameworks from literature on the Advocacy Coalition Framework and Resource Mobilization Theory, this dissertation provides a case study of FSC. Examining food civil society organizations in Canada from the 1970’s onward, this study provides insights on the social, economic and political context that surrounded the formation of FSC as an advocacy coalition. Through review of existing reports and documents produced by FSC and 21 semi-structured interviews this project provides insights into the role of coalition building and maintenance. The study provides insights on how advocacy coalitions form, maintain unity and deal with internal differences and how they utilize resources in overcoming organizational challenges. This study also explores how FSC built consensus around its three goals -zero hunger, a sustainable food system, and healthy and safe food - between 2001-2006 and how it managed to stir its Policy Framework of food security to food sovereignty between 2006-2012. This case study, will contribute to the literatures on food policy and advocacy coalitions with a focus on the role of coalition building and maintenance in the policy making process.

Coalition Building and Maintenance: The case of Food Secure Canada (2001-2012)

This study deals with the question of advocacy coalition formation and maintenance, in the specific case of Food Secure Canada (FSC), a pan-Canadian alliance of non-profit organizations and individuals working together to advance food security and food sovereignty in Canada. Using theoretical frameworks from literature on the Advocacy Coalition Framework and Resource Mobilization Theory, this dissertation provides a case study of FSC. Examining food civil society organizations in Canada from the 1970’s onward, this study provides insights on the social, economic and political context that surrounded the formation of FSC as an advocacy coalition. Through review of existing reports and documents produced by FSC and 21 semi-structured interviews this project provides insights into the role of coalition building and maintenance. The study provides insights on how advocacy coalitions form, maintain unity and deal with internal differences and how they utilize resources in overcoming organizational challenges. This study also explores how FSC built consensus around its three goals -zero hunger, a sustainable food system, and healthy and safe food - between 2001-2006 and how it managed to stir its Policy Framework of food security to food sovereignty between 2006-2012. This case study, will contribute to the literatures on food policy and advocacy coalitions with a focus on the role of coalition building and maintenance in the policy making process.

The Inconsistency of Immigration Policy: From Macro- to Micro- approaches

Weberian research has often assumed that written immigration policies reveal governments’ objectives to restrict or not restrict migration. As a result, this research struggles to make sense of the finding that immigration policies are frequently inconsistent: combining or alternating between restrictive and non-restrictive measures. This study uses global data sets to reveal what proportion of immigration policies are inconsistent and develops a measure of policy inconsistency to track how immigration policy inconsistency varies across time. We use these techniques to generate limited empirical support for macro-political explanations of policy inconsistency, which focus on variables located at the national scale such as policy-cycles, ‘grand bargains’ between advocacy coalitions, and policy-maker selectivity. We then use these findings of the limited support for macro-political explanations to argue in favour of further research into micro-political explanations, which focus on the behaviour of ordinary officials and migrants at the local scale. We then discuss the potential for improving dialogues between quantitative and qualitative research in order to further explore the impact of micro-political factors on national immigration policies.