Environmental Governance

'With Environmental Governance Arild Vatn succeeds in building a bridge between textbook, reference work and an original contribution to public debate. The various uses find support through the index and clear structure. The book is thus unconditionally recommended to every interested institutional and ecological economist. In addition, readers with other disciplinary backgrounds will find an easily accessible work that deals with socio-ecological and governance research.' --Okologisches Wirtschaften'Arild Vatn, the leading classical institutional economist, adopts a novel critical realist perspective and brings insights from a lifetime of work to bear on our social ecological economic crises. In a balanced guide through the diverse interdisciplinary literature, markets are explained as contested socially created governance structures. Mainstream economists and pragmatic environmentalists will discover why their favoured market concepts and solutions are flawed. The environmental crisis requires a fundamental restructuring of the economy and new institutions. Vatn helps us understand the dilemmas and ways forward.' --Clive L. Spash, WU Vienna University of Economics and Business, Austria 'The sweep, clarity, and elegance of Arild Vatn's treatment of institutions and governance is unrivaled. His focus on profound environmental threats-in this era of unbridled self-interest and income inequality-is both a moral triumph and a robust challenge to the hegemony of economistic justificationism in our daily life. Vatn shows that facile application of individualistic models of choice will always fail to reveal what ought to be done. Here we find a comprehensive treatment of all the difficulties-and possibilities-in crafting social rules to live by.' --Daniel W. Bromley, University of Wisconsin-Madison, US

Arild Vatn, Professor of Environmental Sciences, Department of International Environment and Development Studies, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, As, Norway

Contents: 1. Introduction PART I: HUMAN ACTION AND THE ENVIRONMENT 2. The Environment 3. The Environment - An Arena for Conflict and Coordination PART II: THE THEORY OF INSTITUTIONS AND HUMAN ACTION 4. What are Institutions? 5. Theories of Motivation and Human Action PART III: THE THEORY OF ENVIRONMENTAL GOVERNANCE 6. A Framework for Analyzing Environmental Governance Systems 7. Evaluating and Changing Governance Structures PART IV: MARKETS AND GOVERNANCE 8. The Market 9. A Brief History of Markets and T heir Actors PART V: ENVIRONMENTAL GOVERNANCE IN PRACTICE 10. The Policy Process 11. Evaluating What is Better to Do 12. Policy Instruments - Institutions for Environmental Governance 13. The Turn to the Market 14. Environmental Governance - The Need for New Institutions Index