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This page intentionally left blank Environmental Reform in the Information Age As the information revolution continues to accelerate, the environment remains high on public and political agendas around the world. These two topics are rarely connected, but information – its collection, processing, accessibility and verification – is crucial in dealing with environmental challenges such as climate change, unsustainable consumption, biodiversity conservation and waste management. The information society (encompassing entities such as the Internet, satellites, interactive television and surveillance cameras) changes the conditions and resources that are involved in environmental governance: old modes and concepts are increasingly being replaced by new, informational ones. Arthur P. J. Mol explores how the information revolution is changing the way we deal with environmental issues, to what extent and where these transformations have (and have not) taken place, and what the consequences are for democracy and power relations. This book will appeal to scholars and students of environmental studies and politics, political sociology, geography and communications studies. Arthur P. J. Mol is chair and professor in environmental policy in the Department of Social Sciences at Wageningen University. He is the author of Globalization and Environmental Reform: The Ecological Modernization of the Global Economy (2001) and The Refinement of Production: Ecological Modernisation Theory and the Chemical Industry (1995). Environmental Reform in the Information Age The Contours of Informational Governance Arthur P. J. Mol Wageningen University, The Netherlands CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS Cambridge New York Melbourne Madrid Cape Town Singapore São Paulo Cambridge University Press The Edinburgh Building Cambridge CB2 8RU UK Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York www.cambridge.org © Arthur P. J. Mol 2008 This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provision of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published in print format 2008 ISBN-13 978-0-511-41395-7 ISBN-13 978-0-521-88812-7 eBook (EBL) hardback Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of urls for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. For Wilma, Kasper and Marente Contents 1 Introduction: new frontiers of environmental governance 1 Part I Theory 2 From Information Society to Information Age 29 3 Social theories of environmental reform 55 4 Informational governance 80 Part II Praxis 5 Monitoring, surveillance and empowerment 107 6 Environmental state and information politics 132 7 Greening the networked economy 162 8 Environmental activism and advocacy 189 9 Media monopolies, digital democracy, cultural clashes 212 10 Information-poor environments: Asian tigers 234 Part III Conclusion 11 Balancing informational perspectives 275 Contents Tables, figures and boxes Preface page xiii xv 1 Introduction: new frontiers of environmental governance 1 1. The dawn of a new era 1 2. Information explosions 4 3. Conventional interpretations of environmental information 7 4. The Information Society and the missing environment 10 5. Environmental assessments of the information revolution 12 6. Shifting (environmental) governance 16 7. Information-poor environments 21 8. Design and outline 24 Part I Theory 2 From Information Society to Information Age 29 1. The transformation of modern society 29 2. The Information Society thesis 31 3. The Information Age 42 4. Continuities between Information Society and Information Age 52 5. Conclusion 53 3 Social theories of environmental reform 55 1. From environmental crises to environmental reform 55 2. First-generation theories: policies and protests 57 3. Second-generation theories: ecological modernisation 60 4. Third-generation theories: networks and flows 68 5. Conclusion: information flows and environmental reform 77 ix x Contents Part I Theory 4 Informational governance 80 1. Introduction 80 2. Informational governance and the environment 82 3. What about ecological modernisation? 91 4. Informational politics and power 95 5. Governance under radical uncertainty 97 6. State authority and postsovereignty 99 7. Global inequalities in informational governance 101 8. Conclusion 102 Part II Praxis 5 Monitoring, surveillance and empowerment 107 1. Conventional environmental monitoring 107 2. Innovations in monitoring arrangements 110 3. Who monitors who? 113 4. Questions of surveillance and countersurveillance 116 5. Citizen-consumer empowerment 122 6. Conclusion 131 6 Environmental state and information politics 132 1. Introduction 132 2. Information politics as environmental regulation 133 3. E2-governance 142 4. The search for information quality 145 5. Participation, trust and transparency 150 6. Regressive information politics? 153 7. Conclusion: continuities and discontinuities 159 7 Greening the networked economy 162 1. Environment in a global economy 162 2. 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