IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/polstu/v56y2008i3p629-652.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Global–Local Linkage in the Western Balkans: The Politics of Environmental Capacity Building in Bosnia‐Herzegovina

Author

Listed:
  • Adam Fagan

Abstract

This article argues that efforts by international donors, in particular the EU, to build the capacity of environmental NGOs in Bosnia‐Herzegovina has less to do with fostering democratic stability and civil society, and more to do with establishing a new epistemic community. Among critics, the technocratic, apolitical and rather benign term ‘capacity building’ has become code for the transformation and undermining of ‘local’ knowledge, the disregard for existing ‘capacities’, the construction of new networks of experts and the importation of rationalities based on West European discourses and constructions of ecological risk, sustainable development and policy responses. Not surprisingly, the weaker the post‐socialist state – legacies of ethnic conflict, the severity of economic collapse – the greater the extent to which capacity‐building assistance seeks to transform policy communities, actors and networks. From the perspective of environmental mobilisations in Bosnia‐Herzegovina, it is argued that the limitations of environmental capacity‐building assistance are due in large part to the failure of donors to distinguish between different ‘capacities’, and their insistence on prioritising the development of project grant expertise and organisational management know‐how over and above other developmental needs. The article illustrates the extent to which environmental movement organisations either require very basic developmental assistance or need more bespoke support that will enable them to engage effectively in political and legal contestation with the state. The article concludes that while aspects of environmental capacity‐building assistance are clearly having a positive impact, the rigidity of donor aid and the framework of project grants as the mechanism for delivering assistance are limiting the impact to a narrow elite of organisations, of which some are neither non‐governmental nor linked to indigenous local environmental networks within civil society.

Suggested Citation

  • Adam Fagan, 2008. "Global–Local Linkage in the Western Balkans: The Politics of Environmental Capacity Building in Bosnia‐Herzegovina," Political Studies, Political Studies Association, vol. 56(3), pages 629-652, October.
  • Handle: RePEc:bla:polstu:v:56:y:2008:i:3:p:629-652
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9248.2007.00711.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9248.2007.00711.x
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1467-9248.2007.00711.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. Haas, Peter M., 1992. "Introduction: epistemic communities and international policy coordination," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 46(1), pages 1-35, January.
    2. Ambuj D. Sagar & Stacy D. VanDeveer, 2005. "Capacity Development for the Environment: Broadening the Scope," Global Environmental Politics, MIT Press, vol. 5(3), pages 14-22, August.
    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. Ágh Attila, 2010. "Europeanization and Democratization in ECE: Towards Multi-Level and Multi-Actor Governance," NISPAcee Journal of Public Administration and Policy, Sciendo, vol. 3(1), pages 7-29, July.
    2. Jale Tosun & Kai Schulze, 2015. "Compliance with EU biofuel targets in South-Eastern and Eastern Europe: Do interest groups matter?," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 33(5), pages 950-968, October.
    3. Adam Fagan & Indraneel Sircar, 2015. "Europeanisation and multi-level environmental governance in a post-conflict context: the gradual development of environmental impact assessment processes in Bosnia-Herzegovina," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 33(5), pages 919-934, October.

    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. JoshuaB. Horton & Barbara Koremenos, 2020. "Steering and Influence in Transnational Climate Governance: NonstateEngagement in Solar Geoengineering Research," Global Environmental Politics, MIT Press, vol. 20(3), pages 93-111, August.
    2. Claude Paraponaris, 2017. "Plateformes numériques, conception ouverte et emploi," Post-Print halshs-01614430, HAL.
    3. Andrew B. Whitford & Derrick Anderson, 2021. "Governance landscapes for emerging technologies: The case of cryptocurrencies," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 15(4), pages 1053-1070, October.
    4. Barry Eichengreen and Fabio Ghironi., 1997. "European Monetary Unification and International Monetary Cooperation," Center for International and Development Economics Research (CIDER) Working Papers C97-091, University of California at Berkeley.
    5. Jeanie Bukowski, 2017. "A “new water culture†on the Iberian Peninsula? Evaluating epistemic community impact on water resources management policy," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 35(2), pages 239-264, March.
    6. Mateos-Garcia, Juan & Steinmueller, W. Edward, 2008. "The institutions of open source software: Examining the Debian community," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 20(4), pages 333-344, December.
    7. Catherine Long, 2017. "Delegated Service Authority: Institutional Evolution of PEPFAR Health-Based Program Implementing Units in Tanzania," Global Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 8(3), pages 303-312, September.
    8. Federico Maria Ferrara & Jörg S Haas & Andrew Peterson & Thomas Sattler, 2022. "Exports vs. Investment: How Public Discourse Shapes Support for External Imbalances," Post-Print hal-02569351, HAL.
    9. Sandberg, Kristin Ingstad & Andresen, Steinar & Bjune, Gunnar, 2010. "A new approach to global health institutions? A case study of new vaccine introduction and the formation of the GAVI Alliance," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 71(7), pages 1349-1356, October.
    10. May-Britt Stumbaum, 2015. "The diffusion of norms in security-related fields: views from China, India and the EU," Asia Europe Journal, Springer, vol. 13(3), pages 331-347, September.
    11. Sosay, Gül & Zenginobuz, Unal, 2005. "Independent regulatory agencies in emerging economies," MPRA Paper 380, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    12. Muriel Figuié & Tristan Fournier, 2010. "Risques sanitaires globaux et politiques nationales : la gestion de la grippe aviaire au Vietnam," Review of Agricultural and Environmental Studies - Revue d'Etudes en Agriculture et Environnement, INRA Department of Economics, vol. 91(3), pages 327-343.
    13. Tanja A. Börzel & Thomas Risse, 2009. "Diffusing (Inter-) Regionalism - The EU as a Model of Regional Integration," KFG Working Papers p0007, Free University Berlin.
    14. Cynthia Couette, 2024. "Epistemic competition in global governance: The case of pharmaceutical patents," Global Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 15(3), pages 516-527, June.
    15. Eleanor Fisher & Jeremy D. Holland, 2003. "Social development as knowledge building: research as a sphere of policy influence," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 15(7), pages 911-924.
    16. Kovacic, Zora & Giampietro, Mario, 2015. "Empty promises or promising futures? The case of smart grids," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 93(P1), pages 67-74.
    17. Lütz, Susanne, 1998. "Wenn Banken sich vergessen ...: Risikoregulierung im internationalen Mehr-Ebenen-System," MPIfG Discussion Paper 98/5, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies.
    18. Acosta, Matias & Szlamka, Zsofia & Mostajo-Radji, Mohammed A., 2020. "Transnational youth networks: an evolving form of public diplomacy to accelerate the Sustainable Development Goals," SocArXiv 8247s, Center for Open Science.
    19. Yannis Papadopoulos, 2018. "How does knowledge circulate in a regulatory network? Observing a European Platform of Regulatory Authorities meeting," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 12(4), pages 431-450, December.
    20. Roth, Camille, 2007. "Empiricism for descriptive social network models," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 378(1), pages 53-58.

    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:bla:polstu:v:56:y:2008:i:3:p:629-652. 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: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0032-3217 .

    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.