Governance through information: environmental monitoring from a citizen-consumer perspective

The function of environmental monitoring and information in governing the environment has changed considerably in recent times. Traditionally, environmental monitoring was geared towards governments and producers; it provided them with the information required to formulate environmental policies and environmental management strategies. More recently, environmental monitoring has come to serve an additional and different function. In line with the increasing popularity of notions such as accountability, transparency and availability of information, environmental monitoring is now also used as a tool to gather information for, and disseminate it to, ordinary citizen-consumers. This is illustrated by for example the upsurge of labelling schemes and various websites on which information about the environment and risks can be retrieved.The aim of this thesis is to analyse how this change in environmental monitoring affects the role of citizen-consumers in environmental governance. To achieve this goal, I develop a theoretical framework for the analysis of new forms of environmental monitoring which is applied in three case-studies.The theoretical framework is based on ecological modernisation theory since it is one of the most influential social theories on environmental issues and because it has addressed both the importance of monitoring and the role of citizen-consumers (yet the two have never been combined). Various stages can be identified in the development of ecological modernisation theory, labelled EcoMod 1 to EcoMod 3 , in which different critical issues and concerns are discussed. The recent transformation towards EcoMod 3 is instigated by debates on the impact on globalisation and the emergent sociology of flows on ecological modernisation theory. Through this study on the changing functionality of environmental monitoring, I aim to contribute to this debate.A first issue addressed is how environmental monitoring can be analysed from a sociological perspective. Drawing upon the work of Foucault and Giddens, I argue that monitoring enables actors to watch over others and thus is an instrument to exert power. However, I also argue that it is important to recognize that the ways in which monitoring functions is not determined on forehand. Monitoring does not always lead to top-down control andsurveillance,it can also empower citizen-consumers and civil society organisation vis-à-vis large institutional actors. This is what we are witnessing in the domain of environmental governance. Because the nation-state changes shape and draws upon new policy instruments, because it becomes apparent that under conditions of reflexive modernisation some environmental issues cannot be dealt with by traditional instruments, and because citizen-consumers are increasingly considered as 'agents of change', environmental monitoring is increasingly used to provide citizen-consumers with information that enables them to exert power in informational governance arrangements.This theoretical argument on environmental monitoring brings forth four topics to be analysed in the empirical section. First, I am concerned with the question what kind of power relations emerge in relation to these informational governance arrangements. Secondly, I am concerned with the issue of access defined as the extent to which these arrangements enable or disable citizen-consumers to be involved in environmental governance. Thirdly, I discuss the role of the nation-state in developing these informational governance arrangements and making them work. Lastly, I am concerned with the role of citizen-consumers and their potential to act as 'agent of change'.In the empirical section, three relevant categories of informational governance arrangements are distinguished. Each of these is represented by a case-study. The first category consists of those monitoring arrangements which aim to provide citizen-consumers with information on domestic energy consumption levels. By means of a unique case-study, I discuss the potential of these forms of monitoring to strengthen the position of the citizen-consumer in the organization of the energy-related infrastructures of consumption. In the second category, monitoring the chain, informational governance arrangements seek to influence consumption choices by providing information about the quality and/or performance of products. The case of fuel efficiency labelling is considered a typical case here. Finally, I am concerned with those instances in which information about public space, and its environmental quality, is provided to citizen-consumers. I analyse these arrangements by means of a multiple case-study, comparing developments inNetherlandswith North-American experiences.The cases show that citizen-consumers can nowadays more easily gather information on the environmental performance of companies and governments and on the environmental quality of products and public space. Environmental monitoring is not only about top-down surveillance and control. Environmental monitoring arrangements and newly established flows of environmental information increasingly enable forms of counter-surveillance where ordinary citizen-consumers come to scrutinize corporations and governments. The cases illustrate that these forms of counter-surveillance are no formality; they are real in their existence and in their influence.When it comes to the issue of access, it is concluded that the traditional concern here (the Digital Divide) is generally considered to be of little importance. What is of greater importance is how flows of information are given shape and how they are linked to actual opportunities to take action. This is determined by the decisions made by governments, corporations and civil society actors to be (or not be) involved in the organisation of consumer-oriented information flows. The degree to which citizen-consumers can access environmental information, and act consequently, should thus not be discussed by reference to general numeric data on computer ownership and Internet connections. It is as much dependent on the decisions made by various involved actors, and on their view what kind of information citizen-consumers want to have, need to have, and can understand.This conclusion leads us to reconsider the role of the nation-state in the development of informational governance arrangements. Regulating by means of informational governance arrangements does not mean that the nation-state is rendered obsolete. By referring to the 're-invention of the nation-state' I emphasize two aspects; while nation-state can use these arrangements to achieve their formulated goals, the emergence of such arrangements also challenges the nation-state to reconsider issues of responsibility and transparency and balance different interests (such as freedom of information and homeland security).Finally, I conclude on the role of citizen-consumers as agents of change. Overall, the scope and impact of consumer-oriented informational governance arrangements does justify the claim that the citizen-consumer becomes more important in environmental governance. However, to understand this change fully, one cannot focus solely on the actual behaviour of citizen-consumers. The citizen-consumer exerts influence through multiple identities as governments and/or civil society groups seek to represent (and thus speak on behalf of) the citizen-consumers and as business leaders and politicians imagine how imaginary citizen-consumers might respond to incoming information and take action in anticipation.In the final section, I relate these conclusions to the debate on EcoMod 3 and assess what can be learnt from the case-studies, concluding with four theoretical guidelines to contribute to the development of EcoMod 3 . I argue that to analyse the impact of environmental monitoring and surveillance, the instrumental and top-down view on surveillance must be replaced by the notion of 'networked' surveillance. Since informational governance arrangements come in different configurations in which the roles played by state- and non-state actors varies, the analysis of flows of information needs to take the activities of all societal actors into account. There is thus no reason to privilege the nation-state in the analysis. To understand the role that citizen-consumers (can) play in the development and functioning of informational governance arrangements, one is required to study access to information in relation to the provisioning of opportunities to act. Finally, the influence of citizen-consumers in informational governance arrangements must be assessed by taking the various identities of the citizen-consumers into account.