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Scalar Strategies in Climate-Change Politics: Debating the Environmental Consequences of a Natural Gas Project

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  • Gard Lindseth

    (Western Norway Research Institute, PO Box 163, N-6551 Sogndal, Norway and Centre for Development and the Environment, University of Oslo)

Abstract

In this paper I argue that environmental policy research could benefit from developing an understanding of how the concepts of ‘scale’, ‘scalar strategies’, and ‘struggles over scale’ play out empirically in processes of environmental policymaking and planning. I emphasise how scale, as an issue in environmental governance, is not merely an independent variable causing specific outcomes; rather, it is negotiable, allowing actors to adopt different strategies in order to pursue their varying agendas. I show how a local struggle can be represented as a global struggle: a case study concerning the domestic use of natural gas in the Norwegian city of Stavanger, and how this metamorphosed into a struggle about what was the appropriate geographical scale at which the environmental and climatic consequences of a natural gas project should be assessed, is described. By framing climate change as a global issue, local actors were able to portray the natural gas project as environmentally friendly. I argue that the realisation of this natural gas project should be seen in light of how strategies over scale—which were developed in the debate—fitted with climate discourses institutionalised in national policy and politics.

Suggested Citation

  • Gard Lindseth, 2006. "Scalar Strategies in Climate-Change Politics: Debating the Environmental Consequences of a Natural Gas Project," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 24(5), pages 739-754, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:envirc:v:24:y:2006:i:5:p:739-754
    DOI: 10.1068/c0513j
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Eivind Hovden & Gard Lindseth, 2004. "Discourses in Norwegian Climate Policy: National Action or Thinking Globally?," Political Studies, Political Studies Association, vol. 52(1), pages 63-81, March.
    2. Fox Z Y Hu, 2005. "Deconstructing State-Owned Enterprises in Socialist China under Reform: A Scalar Examination," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 37(4), pages 703-722, April.
    3. Eivind Hovden & Gard Lindseth, 2004. "Discourses in Norwegian Climate Policy: National Action or Thinking Globally?," Political Studies, Political Studies Association, vol. 52, pages 63-81, March.
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