In recent decades, struggles for recognition have increasingly dominated the political landscape.1 Recognition theorists such as Charles Taylor (1994) and Axel Honneth (1995) seek to interpret and justify these struggles through the idea that our identity is shaped, at least partly, by our relations with other people. Because our identity is shaped in this way, it is alleged that feelings of self-worth, self-respect and self-esteem are possible only if we are positively recognised for who we are. Consequently, for many political theorists, recognition is an integral component of a satisfactory modern theory of justice, as well as the means by which both historical and contemporary political struggles can be understood and justified.

The Politics of Recognition

Justice and the Politics of Difference

Twenty-five years ago, Paul Taylor probed principles for giving “wildlife...a chance to survive alongside the works of human culture” (299) and bringing “human civilization...into harmony with natu...

Respect for Nature: A Theory of Environmental Ethics

1. Rationalizing Politics The Rise of Social Regulation Science and Policymaking Expertise and Trust The Contingency of Knowledge The Reform Debate An Alternative Approach 2. Flawed Decisions Nitrites 2,4,5-T Love Canal Estimates of Occupational Cancer The Technocratic Response A Critical Counterpoint 3. Science for the People The Rationale for Public Science The "New" Expert Agency Scientific Advice and Open Government Judicial Review of Science Policy The Weakening of the Paradigm 4. Peer Review and Regulatory Science The Traditions of Peer Review Peer Review in Practice Instructive Failures Regulatory Science: Content and Context Implications for Regulatory Peer Review 5. EPA and the Science Advisory Board Early Political Challenges A New Cooperation Boundary Exercises SAB's Impact on Policy Conclusion 6. The Science and Policy of Clean Air CASAC and the NAAQS Process Science and Standards Redefining CASAC's Role The Carbon Monoxide Controversy CASAC's Effectiveness: Bridging Science and Policy 7. Advisers as Adversaries The Scientific Advisory Panel Implementing the Impossible Ethylene Dibromide Dicofol Alar A Fragmentation of Authority 8. FDA's Advisory Network The Scientific Evaluation of Drugs Expertise and Food Safety Advice and Decision 9. Coping with New Knowledge The Quest for Principled Risk Assessment Formaldehyde: An Uncertain Carcinogen Conclusion 10. Technocracy Revisited A Public-Private Partnership for Science Risk Assessment without Politics The Public Board of Inquiry Wider Applications 11. The Political Function of Good Science From Advice to Policy Acceptable Risk Scientific Advice as Legitimation: Negotiation and Boundary Work Defining "Good Science" Normative Implications Conclusion Notes Index

The fifth branch. Science advisers as policymakers

Paths to a Green World: The Political Economy of the Global Environment. By Jennifer Clapp and Peter Dauvergne. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2005. 327p. 25.00 paper.This book is a welcome addition to the literature on global environmental politics. Research on global environmental politics is well established, and within this branch of political science a number of excellent overview texts have been written on the politics of the global environment. However, students of the global political economy of the environment have lacked a comprehensive and accessible text until the publication of this book. Furthermore, many chapters on this subject in textbooks have narrowed the field to discussion of regime formation and the salience of institutional structures. While Jennifer Clapp and Peter Dauvergne recognize the importance of institutional arrangements, their focus is on the intersection between economic process and environmental problems. The book consists essentially of three main sections. The first section provides the theoretical framework, the second investigates the relationship between globalization and the environment, and the final section provides a number of case studies of the political economy of environmental change.

Paths to a Green World: The Political Economy of the Global Environment

Major urban projects associated with sporting mega-events have set the tone for the urban agenda of local governments in Brazil since the country was announced as the host of FIFA’s Football World Cup 2014 and the Olympics 2016. Development consent for these projects is at the core of rising urban-environmental conflicts over development goals and the uneven distribution of costs and benefits of urbanization. Environmental assessment (EA) operating within this political and developmental agenda plays a central role. EA governs the gathering of information, predicting impacts, defining and calculating mitigating and compensatory measures and engaging publics in decision-making, and in carrying out each of these aspects it may produce or reinforce distributional effects. In light of this, this thesis explores the extent to which the regulatory regime and practice of project-level EA can assist in securing environmental justice, particularly when operating within the planning control process for major urban projects in specific and local socio-political contexts. The thesis offers insights into both theory (Part I) and practice (Part II) of EA in terms of the degree to which it is able to incorporate the different dimensions of environmental justice. Part I focuses on developing a theoretically-informed framework of project-level EA in the context of urban-environmental decisionmaking by integrating social justice, environmental justice and urban-spatial justice as key elements of law and policy in the consent regime for major urban projects. In Part II, this is explored empirically by employing socio-legal methodology (comprised of qualitative research based on case study analysis) in the examination of Brazil’s EA regime. The cases selected involve two major urban developments (the redevelopment and expansion of an avenue as part of the improvement of key transport links and the construction of a football arena, supported by the building of real estate) in one specific city in Brazil (Porto Alegre). Both developments took place in the context of preparations for hosting the World Cup. The empirical research comprised gathering and analysing qualitative data on the development consent and environmental licensing procedures documentation, in particular the content of environmental impact reports. Drawing on empirical and qualitative research methods used to compile the case studies, the key conclusion is that EA offers a central and critical stage for voicing urban-environmental conflicts: how the benefits and burdens of a development endeavour – economic, social, environmental, and cultural – are unevenly shared among different population groups in the cities. I argue that if EA, operating within development consent for urban development, is to incorporate urban-environmental justice concerns, distributional aspects, land rights, participation and just distribution of benefits and burdens of urbanization have to be taken into consideration. The case studies indicate that problems arise in this regard when the practice of EA fails to take such information into account, or when the EA process is embedded in the use of development consent arrangements in order to ensure predictability for developers and speed up decision-making, even though this is to the detriment of a thorough impact assessment and consistent public participation. Specific issues highlighted by examining the case study developments include the partial nature of participation requirements and the timing upon the calculation of mitigation and compensatory measures. In summary, the EA procedures researched show up that although socialeconomic and environmental impacts were capable of forming part of the process, these issues were not well studied in terms of how the impacts are felt differently amongst particular groups, particularly those most vulnerable to socio-environmental impacts.

L Verri Boratti

Papers

Environmental assessment from an environmental justice perspective: analysing the impacts of major urban projects in Brazil