IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/natres/v36y2012i1p28-37.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Trivializing sustainability: Environmental governance and rhetorical free‐riders in the Brazilian Amazon

Author

Listed:
  • Igor Ferraz da Fonseca
  • Marcel Bursztyn
  • Benjamin S. Allen

Abstract

Interventions focused on sustainability at a local level tend to employ practices according to criteria that are widely accepted in the international development community. These practices constitute an informal “handbook,” establishing general rules for sustainable development to be applied to any situation. In response, local communities endeavor to formally meet these procedural criteria regardless of whether or not the desired end — sustainable development — can be achieved through them. The aim of this study is to demonstrate how the factors that are regarded as necessary for good governance affected the implementation of Agenda 21 programs in three Amazonian municipalities in the state of Mato Grosso, Brazil. We find that, contrary to expectations among international development practitioners, preoccupation with a formal adherence to good governance criteria is associated with the opening of a gap between the discourse of sustainable development and the actual results of the Agenda 21 processes. This paper stresses the need to avoid overtaking the rationale of ends by the discourse concerning means.

Suggested Citation

  • Igor Ferraz da Fonseca & Marcel Bursztyn & Benjamin S. Allen, 2012. "Trivializing sustainability: Environmental governance and rhetorical free‐riders in the Brazilian Amazon," Natural Resources Forum, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 36(1), pages 28-37, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:natres:v:36:y:2012:i:1:p:28-37
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1477-8947.2012.01441.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1477-8947.2012.01441.x
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1477-8947.2012.01441.x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Cleaver, Frances, 2005. "The inequality of social capital and the reproduction of chronic poverty," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 33(6), pages 893-906, June.
    2. Ben Fine, 1999. "The Developmental State Is Dead—Long Live Social Capital?," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 30(1), pages 1-19, January.
    3. Jesse C Ribot, 2007. "Representation, Citizenship and the Public Domain in Democratic Decentralization," Development, Palgrave Macmillan;Society for International Deveopment, vol. 50(1), pages 43-49, March.
    4. Blair, Harry, 2000. "Participation and Accountability at the Periphery: Democratic Local Governance in Six Countries," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 28(1), pages 21-39, January.
    5. Merilee S. Grindle, 2007. "Good Enough Governance Revisited," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 25(5), pages 533-574, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Gabriela Litre & Fabrice Hirsch & Patrick Caron & Alexander Andrason & Nathalie Bonnardel & Valerie Fointiat & Wilhelmina Onyothi Nekoto & Jade Abbott & Cristiana Dobre & Juliana Dalboni & Agnès Steuc, 2022. "Participatory Detection of Language Barriers towards Multilingual Sustainability(ies) in Africa," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(13), pages 1-15, July.
    2. Carmen Echebarria & Jose M. Barrutia & Itziar Aguado & Vanessa Apaolaza & Patrick Hartmann, 2016. "Capturing the benefits that emerge from regional sustainability networks: The Castile–La Mancha network of sustainable cities and towns," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 95, pages 27-49, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Nicola Banks, 2016. "Livelihoods Limitations: The Political Economy of Urban Poverty in Dhaka, Bangladesh," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 47(2), pages 266-292, March.
    2. Nicola Banks, 2014. "Livelihoods Limitations: The Political Economy of Urban Poverty in Bangladesh," Global Development Institute Working Paper Series 19914, GDI, The University of Manchester.
    3. Brinkerhoff, Derick W. & Johnson, Ronald W., 2009. "Decentralized Local Governance In Fragile States: Learning From Iraq," MPRA Paper 21505, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Lund, Jens Friis & Saito-Jensen, Moeko, 2013. "Revisiting the Issue of Elite Capture of Participatory Initiatives," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 104-112.
    5. Alejandro Jiménez & Agustí Pérez‐Foguet, 2010. "Building the role of local government authorities towards the achievement of the human right to water in rural Tanzania," Natural Resources Forum, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 34(2), pages 93-105, May.
    6. Jung, Woojin, 2020. "Two models of community-centered development in Myanmar," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 136(C).
    7. Manila Khisa, 2020. "Decentralization of Public Services and the Role of Local Government in Rural Development: Findings From Bangladesh," Journal of Public Administration and Governance, Macrothink Institute, vol. 10(1), pages 249261-2492, December.
    8. Peter R Wilshusen, 2009. "Shades of Social Capital: Elite Persistence and the Everyday Politics of Community Forestry in Southeastern Mexico," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 41(2), pages 389-406, February.
    9. Kelly Krawczyk & Raymond Muhula, 2018. "Engaging decentralization in an uncertain political context: Lessons from Liberia," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 36(3), pages 369-386, May.
    10. Abu Elias Sarker & Faraha Nawaz, 2019. "Clientelism, Partyarchy and Democratic Backsliding: A Case Study of Local Government Elections in Bangladesh," South Asian Survey, , vol. 26(1), pages 70-91, March.
    11. Misra, Jaydev, 2008. "Centralization of Decentralized Governance - Evidence from West Bengal Panchayat," MPRA Paper 15718, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised Jun 2009.
    12. Levien, Michael, 2015. "Social Capital as Obstacle to Development: Brokering Land, Norms, and Trust in Rural India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 77-92.
    13. Nichols, Carly, 2021. "Self-help groups as platforms for development: The role of social capital," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 146(C).
    14. Pratyusna Patnaik, 2005. "Affirmative Action and Political Participation: Elected Representatives in the Panchayats of Orissa," Working Papers 166, Institute for Social and Economic Change, Bangalore.
    15. Hong Sun & Valentina Hartarska & Lezhu Zhang & Denis Nadolnyak, 2018. "The Influence of Social Capital on Farm Household’s Borrowing Behavior in Rural China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(12), pages 1-20, November.
    16. Dufhues, Thomas & Buchenrieder, Gertrud & Munkung, Nuchanata, 2012. "Individual social capital and access to formal credit in Thailand," 2012 Conference, August 18-24, 2012, Foz do Iguacu, Brazil 123401, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    17. Artur José Sitoe & Seunghoo Lim, 2024. "Understanding citizens' perception of channels for participating in administration based on their motivation in an authoritarian regime: The case of Gaza Province, Mozambique," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 36(1), pages 606-625, January.
    18. Shannon Sutton, 2012. "Add Producers and Stir? (Re) politicizing Fairtrade participation," Working Papers 38, Queen Mary, University of London, School of Business and Management, Centre for Globalisation Research.
    19. Mayka, Lindsay & Abbott, Jared, 2023. "Varieties of participatory institutions and interest intermediation," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 171(C).
    20. Diana Escandon-Barbosa & David Urbano-Pulido & Andrea Hurtado-Ayala, 2019. "Exploring the Relationship between Formal and Informal Institutions, Social Capital, and Entrepreneurial Activity in Developing and Developed Countries," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(2), pages 1-20, January.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wly:natres:v:36:y:2012:i:1:p:28-37. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://doi.org/10.1111/(ISSN)1477-8947 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.