Maarten A. Hajer – författare

This path-breaking study open the way for a better understanding of the environmental conflict, showing how language can be seen to shape our view of what environmental politics is really about and how those perceptions can differ between countries. The book identifies the emergence and increasing political importance of 'ecological modernization' as a new concept in the language of environmental politics. This concept, which has come to replace the antagonistic debates of the 1970s, stresses the opportunities of environmental policy for modernizing the economy and stimulating the technological innovation. Combining abstract social theory with detailed empirical analysis, the author illustrates the social and political dynamics of ecological modernization in a detailed analysis of the acid rain controversies in Great Britain and the Netherlands. The book concludes by reflecting on the institutional challenge of the environmental politics in the years to come.

Dr Hajer's path-breaking study opens the way for a better understanding of the environmental conflict, showing how language can be seen to shape our view of what environmental politics is really about and how those perceptions can differ between countries. The author identifies the emergence and increasing political importance of 'ecological modernization' as a new concept in the language of environmental politics. This concept, which has come to replace the antagonistic debates of the 1970s, stresses the opportunities of environmental policy for modernizing the economy and stimulating the technological innovation. Combining abstract social theory with detailed empirical analysis, Martin Hajer illustrates the social and political dynamics of ecological modernization in a detailed analysis of the acid rain controversies in Great Britain and the Netherlands. He concludes by reflecting on the institutional challenge of the environmental politics in the years to come.

Environmental politics 'as we know it' cannot deliver. Despite all efforts, politics is unable to bend the ecological trends. Maarten A. Hajer and Jeroen Oomen argue that this is because environmental politics is 'captured'. This capture doesn't just express itself in lobbying or a lack of political will, but in a capture of the imagination: we seem unable to imagine futures that are meaningfully different from the present. Examining environmental politics as drama reveals how all actors play their particular roles in this capture: scientists funnel narrow policy futures through their models; activists adopt politically expedient language; and policymakers look for safe, technologically-sound 'win-win' solutions. All are captured in a regime of ecological modernization that entertains too-narrow a solution space. For Hajer and Oomen, this is cause for concern: we have entered 'a radical age' in which persistent policy failure leads to increased suggestions to engage with speculative geoengineering technologies in a desperate attempt to safeguard the future. On the other hand, they point at the growing societal backlash against environmental policies.Yet in the third part of the book, discourse and dramaturgical analysis appear as a reason for hope, sketching an alternative perspective on environmental politics. It suggests that a new, more cultural approach to environmental politics could have more leverage on the societal imagination. Combining this with the formulation of new discourses and using alternative 'dramaturgies of change', Captured Futures highlights how to find more effective and more inspiring ideas about how to approach the future and, ultimately, liberate environmental politics.

The role of the media has become a central part of politics and policy in the twenty-first century. That dominance has led many to suggest a trend of 'dumbing down': the privileging of style over content. In this provocative new book, Maarten Hajer takes issue with the 'dumbing down' thesis both on theoretical and empirical grounds. He aims to show how authoritative governance remains possible in crisis-driven circumstances and a highly 'mediatised' world. The book elaborates a communicative understanding of authority, which, the author argues, can create a new basis for authoritative governance in a world marked by political and institutional fragmentation. Extending his discourse-analytical framework, Hajer uses both discursive and dramaturgical methods to study policy makers in their struggle for authority. Three detailed case studies - the plans to rebuild Ground Zero, the aftermath of the assassination of Theo Van Gogh, and the recent role of the British Food Standards Agency - provide a wealth of detail of the dynamics of authority in today's mediatised polity and bring out the peculiar role that crises now play. The argument of the book is that in the age of mediatization governance needs to be 'performed'. Hajer describes a genuinely new authoritative governance that breaks with exisiting interpretations. He demonstrates new ways in which the traditional government of standing institutions and notions of network governance can be combined in actively creating relations with a variety of publics.

The role of the media has become a central part of politics and policy in the twenty-first century. That dominance has led many to suggest a trend of 'dumbing down': the privileging of style over content. In this provocative new book, Maarten Hajer takes issue with the 'dumbing down' thesis both on theoretical and empirical grounds. He aims to show how authoritative governance remains possible in crisis driven circumstances and a highly 'mediatized' world.The book elaborates a communicative understanding of authority, which, the author argues, can create a new basis for authoritative governance in a world marked by political and institutional fragmentation. Extending his discourse-analytical framework, Hajer uses both discursive and dramaturgical methods to study policymakers in their struggle for authority. Three detailed case studies-the plans to rebuild Ground Zero, the aftermath of the assassination of Theo Van Gogh, and the recent role of the British Food Standards Agency -provide a wealth of detail of the dynamics of authority in today's mediatized polity and bring out the peculiar role that crises now play.The argument of the book is that in the age of mediatization governance needs to be 'performed'. Hajer describes a genuinely new authoritative governance that breaks with existing interpretations. He demonstrates ways in which the traditional government of standing institutions and notions of network governance can be combined in actively creating relations with a variety of publics.

What kind of policy analysis is required now that governments increasingly encounter the limits of governing? Exploring the contexts of politics and policy making, this 2003 book presents an original analysis of the relationship between state and society, and new possibilities for collective learning and conflict resolution. The key insight of the book is that democratic governance calls for a new deliberatively-oriented policy analysis. Traditionally policy analysis has been state-centered, based on the assumption that central government is self-evidently the locus of governing. Drawing on detailed empirical examples, the book examines the influence of developments such as increasing ethnic and cultural diversity, the complexity of socio-technical systems, and the impact of transnational arrangements on national policy making. This contextual approach indicates the need to rethink the relationship between social theory, policy analysis, and politics. The book is essential reading for all those involved in the study of public policy.