Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Global Environmental Networks and Flows Addressing Global Environmental Change

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Environment and Society

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Environmental Sociology and Policy ((PASTESP))

Abstract

Globalization and its sustainability implications create considerable governance challenges. The global and complex stretch of commodity chains imply innovative governance arrangements because the spatially bounded conventional governance management practices do no longer suffice. Environmental networks and flows studied in environmental social sciences provide a basis for connecting material and non-material flows and social actors in their social networks. Innovative environmental governance arrangements building on this framework offer opportunities for dealing with environmental challenges but also creates challenges with regard to its legitimacy. This perspective is applied in the case of the global palm oil network. This results in some potentially useful conclusions for social sciences more generally: the relevance of including material dimensions, bringing in time and space, using a global perspective, and recognising complexity.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 79.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 99.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 99.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    See: http://www.milanurbanfoodpolicypact.org/.

References

  • Alexander, S. M., Andrachuk, M., & Armitage, D. (2016). Navigating Governance Networks for Community-Based Conservation. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, 14, 155–164.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Appadurai, A. (1996). Modernity at Large. Cultural Dimensions of Globalization (Vol. 1). Minneapolis and London: University of Minnesota Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bair, J. (2009). Frontiers of Commodity Chain Research. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bair, J., Berndt, C., Boeckler, M., & Werner, M. (2013). Dis/articulating Producers, Markets, and Regions: New Directions in Critical Studies of Commodity Chains. Environment and Planning A, 45, 2544–2552.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Beck, U. (2005). Power in the Global Age; A New Global Political Economy. Cambridge: Polity Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Belton, B., Murray, F., Young, J., Telfer, T., & Little, D. (2010). Passing the Panda Standard: A TAD Off the Mark? AMBIO: A Journal of the Human Environment, 39, 2–13.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Boström, M., Jönsson, A. M., Lockie, S., Mol, A. P. J., & Oosterveer, P. (2015). Sustainable and Responsible Supply Chain Governance: Challenges and Opportunities. Journal of Cleaner Production, 107, 1–7.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bush, S. R., Oosterveer, P., Bailey, M., & Mol, A. P. J. (2015). Sustainability Governance of Chains and Networks: A Review and Future Outlook. Journal of Cleaner Production, 107, 8–19.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carlsson, L., & Sandström, A. (2008). Network Governance of the Commons. International Journal of the Commons, 2, 33–54.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Castells, M. (1996). The Rise of the Network Society. Volume I of The Information Age: Economy, Society and Culture (Vol. 1). Malden (MA) and Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Castells, M. (1999). Grasssrooting the Space of Flows. Urban Geography, 20(4), 294–302.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Castells, M. (2005). The Network Society: From Knowledge to Policy. In M. Castells & G. Cardoso (Eds.), The Network Society: From Knowledge to Policy (pp. 3–21). Washington: Center for Transatlantic Relations.

    Google Scholar 

  • Castells, M. (2009). Communication Power. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Castells, M. (2016). A Sociology of Power: My Intellectual Journey. Annual Review of Sociology, 42, 1–19.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cheyns, E. (2011). Multi-stakeholder Initiatives for Sustainable Agriculture: Limits of the ‘Inclusiveness’ Paradigm. In S. Ponte, P. Gibbon, & J. Vestergaard (Eds.), Governing Through Standards; Origins, Drivers and Limitations (pp. 210–235). Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Daugbjerg, C., & Fawcett, P. (2017). Metagovernance, Network Structure, and Legitimacy: Developing a Heuristic for Comparative Governance Analysis. Administration & Society, 49(9), 1223–1245.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Elder-Vass, D. (2010). The Causal Power of Social Structures. Emergence, Structure and Agency. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Evans, D., Campbell, H., & Murcott, A. (2012). A Brief Pre-history of Food Waste and the Social Sciences. The Sociological Review, 60, 5–26.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fuchs, S. (2001). Against Essentialism. A Theory of Culture and Society. Cambridge (MA) and London: Harvard University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Fuchs, D., Kalfagianni, A., & Havinga, T. (2011). Actors in Private Food Governance: The Legitimacy of Retail Standards and Multistakeholder Initiatives with Civil Society Participation. Agriculture and Human Values, 28, 353–367.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gereffi, G., Humphrey, J., & Sturgeon, T. (2005). The Governance of Global Value Chains. Review of International Political Economy, 12, 78–104.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Giddens, A. (1984). The Constitution of Society. Outline of the Theory of Structuration. Cambridge: Polity Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Giddens, A. (1990). The Consequences of Modernity. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Glin, L., Mol, A. P. J., & Oosterveer, P. (2013). Conventionalization of the Organic Sesame Network from Burkina Faso: Shrinking into Mainstream. Agriculture and Human Values, 30, 539–554.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gomber, P., Arndt, B., Lutat, M., & Uhle, T. (2011). High Frequency Trading. Policy Platform White Paper. Frankfurt: Frankfurt University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hatanaka, M., Bain, C., & Busch, L. (2005). Third-party Certification in the Global Agrifood System. Food Policy, 30, 354–369.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Henderson, J., Dicken, P., Hess, M., Coe, N., & Yeung, H. W.-C. (2002). Global Production Networks and the Analysis of Economic Development. Review of International Political Economy, 9, 436–464.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Heyman, J. M., & Campbell, H. (2009). The Anthropology of Global Flows: A Critical Reading of Appadurai’s ‘Disjuncture and Difference in the Global Cultural Economy’. Anthropological Theory, 9, 131–148.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kahler, M. (2009). Networked Politics: Agency, Power, and Governance. In M. Kahler (Ed.), Networked Politics: Agency, Power, and Governance (pp. 1–20). Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • King, A. (2010). The Odd Couple: Margaret Archer, Anthony Giddens and British Social Theory. The British Journal of Sociology, 61, 253–260.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kneafsey, M., Cox, R., Holloway, L., Dowler, E., Venn, L., & Tuomainen, H. (2008). Reconnecting Consumers, Producers and Food. Exploring Alternatives. Oxford and New York: Berg.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Koh, L. P., & Wilcove, D. S. (2008). Is Oil Palm Agriculture Really Destroying Tropical Biodiversity? Conservation Letters, 1(2), 60–64.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Latour, B. (2005). Reassembling the Social; An Introduction to Actor-Network-Theory. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lenschow, A., Newig, J., & Challies, E. (2016). Globalization’s Limits to the Environmental State? Integrating Telecoupling into Global Environmental Governance. Environmental Politics, 25, 136–159.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Massey, D. (2004). Geographies of Responsibility. Geografiska Annaler, 86 B, 5–18.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McCarthy, J. F. (2012). Certifying in Contested Spaces: Private Regulation in Indonesian Forestry and Palm Oil. Third World Quarterly, 33(10), 1871–1888.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Micheletti, M. (2003). Political Virtue and Shopping. Individuals, Consumerism, and Collective Action. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mol, A. P. J. (2007). Boundless Biofuels? Between Environmental Sustainability and Vulnerability. Sociologia Ruralis, 47, 297–315.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mol, A. P. J. (2010). Social Theories of Environmental Reform: Towards a Third Generation. In M. Gross & H. Heinrichs (Eds.), Environmental Sociology: European Perspectives and Interdisciplinary Challenges (pp. 19–38). Dordrecht: Springer.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Mol, A. P. J. (2015). The Environmental Nation State in Decline. Environmental Politics, 25(1), 1–21.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mol, A. P. J., & Spaargaren, G. (2006). Toward a Sociology of Environmental Flows: A New Agenda for Twenty-First Century Environmental Sociology. In G. Spaargaren, A. P. J. Mol, & F. H. Buttel (Eds.), Governing Environmental Flows. Global Challenges to Social Theory (pp. 39–82). Cambridge and London: The MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Oosterveer, P. (2009). Governing Environmental Flows: Ecological Modernization in Technonatural Time/Spaces. In D. F. White & C. Wilbert (Eds.), Technonatures; Environments, Technologies, Spaces, and Places in the Twenty-first Century (pp. 35–62). Waterloo: Wilfried Laurier University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Oosterveer, P. (2015a). Authority and Legitimacy in Governing Global Food Chains. In T. Havinga, F. v. Waarden, & D. Casey (Eds.), The Changing Landscape of Food Governance. Public and Private Encounters (pp. 117–133). Cheltenham and Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar.

    Google Scholar 

  • Oosterveer, P. (2015b). Promoting Sustainable Palm Oil: Viewed from a Global Networks and Flows Perspective. Journal of Cleaner Production, 107, 146–153.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Oosterveer, P., & Sonnenfeld, D. A. (2012). Food, Globalization and Sustainability. London and New York: Earthscan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Oosterveer, P., & Spaargaren, G. (2011). Organising Consumer Involvement in the Greening of Global Food Flows: The Role of Environmental NGOs in the Case of Marine Fish. Environmental Politics, 20, 97–114.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ponte, S., & Sturgeon, T. (2013). Explaining Governance in Global Value Chains: A Modular Theory-Building Effort. Review of International Political Economy, 21(1), 195–223.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sassen, S. (2006). Territory, Authority, Rights: From Medieval to Global Assemblages. Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schatzki, T. R. (1996). Social Practices; A Wittgensteinian Approach to Human Activity and the Social. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Schatzki, T. R. (2002). The Site of the Social: A Philosophical Account of the Constitution of Social Life and Change. Pennsylvania: The Pennsylvania State University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schatzki, T. (2011). Where the Action Is (On Large Social Phenomena Such as Sociotechnical Regimes. In Working Paper 1, Manchester: Sustainable Practices Research Group.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schleifer, P. (2016). Private Governance Undermined: India and the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil. Global Environmental Politics, 16(1), 38–58.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schouten, G., & Glasbergen, P. (2011). Creating Legitimacy in Global Private Governance: The Case of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil. Ecological Economics, 70(11), 1891–1899.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shove, E., Pantzar, M., & Watson, M. (2012). The Dynamics of Social Practice. Everyday Life and How It Changes. London: Sage.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Sonnenfeld, D. A., & Mol, A. P. J. (2002). Globalization and the Transformation of Environmental Governance: An Introduction. American Behavorial Scientist, 45, 1318–1339.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Spaargaren, G., Mol, A. P. J., & Bruyninckx, H. (2006a). Introduction: Governing Environmental Flows in Global Modernity. In G. Spaargaren, A. P. J. Mol, & F. H. Buttel (Eds.), Governing Environmental Flows. Global Challenges to Social Theory (pp. 1–36). Cambridge, MA and London: The MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Spaargaren, G., Mol, A. P. J., & Buttel, F. H. (2006b). Governing Environmental Flows. Global Challenges to Social Theory. Cambridge, MA and London: The MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Spaargaren, G., Weenink, D., & Lamers, M. (2016). Practice Theory and Research: Exploring the Dynamics of Social Life. New York and London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sriwichailamphan, T. (2007). Global Food Chains and Environment; Agro-Food Production and Processing in Thailand. Wageningen: Wageningen University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stolle, D., & Micheletti, M. (2013). Political Consumerism. Global Responsibility in Action. Cambrudge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Suchman, M. C. (1995). Managing Legitimacy: Strategic and Institutional Approaches. Academy of Management Review, 20(3), 571–610.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tallontire, A., Opondo, M., Nelson, V., & Martin, A. (2011). Beyond the Vertical? Using Value Chains and Governance as a Framework to Analyse Private Standards Initiatives in Agri-Food Chains. Agriculture and Human Values, 28, 427–441.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Thoenes, P. (2006). Biofuels and Commodity Markets—Palm Oil Focus. Rome: FAO.

    Google Scholar 

  • Urry, J. (2003). Global Complexity. Cambridge: Polity Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Welch, D., & Warde, A. (2015). Theories of Practice and Sustainable Consumption. In L. A. Reisch & J. Thogersen (Eds.), Handbook of Research on Sustainable Consumption (pp. 84–100). Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wijaya, A., & Glasbergen, P. (2016). Toward a New Scenario in Agricultural Sustainability Certification? The Response of the Indonesian National Government to Private Certification. The Journal of Environment & Development, 25(2), 219–246.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Environmental Policy Group, Wageningen University, Wageningen, Netherlands

    Peter Oosterveer

Authors
  1. Peter Oosterveer
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Peter Oosterveer .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Humanities Education and Social Sciences, Örebro University, Örebro, Sweden

    Magnus Boström

  2. Department of Resource Economics and Environmental Sociology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada

    Debra J. Davidson

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2018 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Oosterveer, P. (2018). Global Environmental Networks and Flows Addressing Global Environmental Change. In: Boström, M., Davidson, D. (eds) Environment and Society. Palgrave Studies in Environmental Sociology and Policy. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-76415-3_5

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-76415-3_5

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-76414-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-76415-3

  • eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation