W orlds Apart

256 Pages·2008·1.65 MB·English

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Worlds Apart

Interactions between Local Initiatives

and Established Policy

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MISSION: Alterra is the main centre of expertise on rural
areas and water management in the Netherlands. It was
founded 1 January 2000. Alterra combines a huge range of
expertise on rural areas and their sustainable use, including

aspects such as water, wildlife, forests, the environment,

soils, landscape, climate and recreation, as well as various
other aspects relevant to the development and management of
the environment we live in. Alterra engages in strategic and
applied research to support design processes, policymaking
and management at the local, national and international

level. This includes not only innovative, interdisciplinary

research on complex problems relating to rural areas, but also
the production of readily applicable knowledge and expertise
enabling rapid and adequate solutions to practical problems.
The many themes of Alterra's research effort include relations
between cities and their surrounding countryside, multiple

use of rural areas, economy and ecology, integrated water

management, sustainable agricultural systems, planning for
the future, expert systems and modelling, biodiversity,
landscape planning and landscape perception, integrated
forest management, geo-information and remote sensing,
spatial planning of leisure activities, habitat creation in
marine and estuarine waters, green belt development and

ecological webs, and pollution risk assessment.

Alterra is part of Wageningen University Research Centre
(Wageningen UR) and includes two research sites, one in
Wageningen and one on the island of Texel.

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Worlds Apart

Interactions between Local Initiatives
and Established Policy

Marleen Buizer

ALTERRA SCIENTIFIC CONTRIBUTIONS 22

ALTERRA, WAGENINGEN UR

2008

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The PhD research presented in this thesis was conducted at Alterra in
Wageningen, The Netherlands

ISBN 978-90-327-0359-2
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Abstract
I.M. Buizer, 2008. Worlds Apart; Interactions between Local Initiatives and
Established Policy. PhD thesis Wageningen University and Research; 252 pp.

This thesis presents three case studies about private actors aspiring to realize
their innovative ideas on land management and design in three different areas
in the Netherlands. In appearance, these three areas are very different but
they are all dynamic and are all located near cities. In size, the areas range
from seventy to a few hundred hectares. Socially, they are highly dynamic as
well, with various groups and organizations seeking either to make changes or
to conserve what they value, and taking action to promote their ideas.
However, it was clear from the start that the ways in which the initiators of
these ideas gave meaning to the three areas differed from the ideas enshrined
in existing policies. It is argued that the initiatives must be looked at in the
context of various pleas for ‘interactive policy making’, since these generate
expectations about the scope for initiatives to come from private actors. The
question is whether these pleas really imply scope for two-way traffic, allowing
‘space for policy innovation’ through local initiatives which do not originate
from government actors. Indeed, the three case studies show that there is
ample innovative potential at the local level and that ideas do get implemented
after considerable efforts. The fact that these initiatives were implemented was
also due to other factors, such as the personal zeal and perseverance, trust and
empathy that could develop among people involved ‘in the field’. However, the
cases also show that there is only limited politicized discussion about the
possible wider policy implications of these local innovations.

This study revealed this asymmetry between local innovative potential and a
seeming lack of responsiveness on the part of established policy by means of an
analysis of 1) the relationships between discourses, actor coalitions, rules and
resources at the level of day-to-day interactions between the initiatives and
established policy, and 2) the influence of structural forces such as
Europeanization, distantiation, juridification and sectoralization on these
everyday practices. The study explored how these structural forces contributed
to a form of depoliticization in the case study areas.

Keywords: local initiatives, policy arrangements, participation, sub-
politicization, depoliticization, discourse, duality of agency and structure, space
for policy innovation, interpretive analysis, urban-rural relationships

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For Pim

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Contents

Acknowledgements 1
Chapter 1: Introduction 5
1.1 Three social spatial situations 5
1.2 Involving private actors 9
1.3 Positioning the researcher 12
1.4 Initial questions 14
1.5 Reading this book 15
Chapter 2: Conceptual framework 17
2.1 Introduction 17
2.2 Local initiatives and existing policy: dualities of agency and structure 18
2.3 Further conceptualizing the interplay of local initiatives and existing policy 20
2.3.1 Introduction 20
2.3.2 Policy arrangements 22
2.3.3 Institutionalization of policy arrangements 28
2.3.4 The influence of sub-politics, political modernization 29
2.3.5 Dualities and dualism: introducing the time dimension 33
2.4 Space for policy innovation 37
2.4.1 Looking for non-institutionalized initiatives 37
2.4.2 Discretionary space 38
2.4.3 ‘ Innovation’, a growth industry 40
2.5 “Sensitizing devices, nothing more” 42
2.6 Research Questions 43
Chapter 3: Methodological Account 45
3.1 Introduction 45
3.2 Three different cases 47
3.3 Three different roles 48
3.4 Interpretive inquiry 53
3.5 Action Research 54
3.6 In the name of ‘trustworthiness’: criteria and techniques 57
3.7 Progressive refinement of sensitizing concepts by action and reflection 60
Chapter 4: From Biesland to Brussels 63
4.1 Introduction 63
4.2 The area 66
4.3 Operative policy: “Every city needs a forest” 67
4.4 A long story 71
4.5 Interpretation 97
4.5.1 Origin of the initiative in the context of existing policy 97
4.5.2 Discourse, actors, rules and resources 98
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4.5.3 Structural transformations; depoliticization rather than sub
-politicization 105
4.5.4 Space for policy innovation: selective elasticity 107
4.6 The relational dimension and my own positionality 109
4.6.1 The relational dimension 109
4.6.2 Positioning the researcher 111
Chapter 5: Transcending boundaries at the Dutch-Belgian border 113
5.1 Introduction 113
5.2 The area 117
5.3 Operative policy: economic opportunities beat the drum 117
5.4 A story 118
5.5 Interpretation 135
5.5.1 Origin of initiative in the context of the existing policy
arrangement 135
5.5.2 Discourse, actors, rules and resources 136
5.5.3 Structural transformations; depoliticization 141
5.5.4 Space for policy innovation 143
5.6 The relational dimension and my own positionality 145
5.6.1 The relational dimension 145
5.6.2 Positionality 147
Chapter 6: From opposition to collaboration in the Loonsche Land 149
6.1 Introduction 149
6.2 The area 150
6.3 Operative policy 154
6.4 A story 155
6.5 Interpretation 169
6.5.1 The origin of the initiative 169
6.5.2 Discourse, actors, rules and resources 170
6.5.3 Sub-politicization 173
6.5.4 Space for policy innovation 174
6.6 The relational dimension and my own positionality 175
6.6.1 Socio-relational factors 175
6.6.2 Positionality 176
7. Comparison of the cases 179
7.1 Introduction 179
7.2 Origins of the initiatives 181
7.3 Stability and dynamics 184
7.4 Sub-politicization and other structural processes 187
7.5 Space for policy innovation 196
7.6 Other explanatory factors 197
7.7 Conditions impeding or enabling space for policy innovation 198
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