The Nordic Environments: Comparing Political, Administrative and Policy Aspects

This text brings together researchers on environmental issues from different Nordic and British universities and institutions. The Nordic social science environmental research community has several different approaches and this book focuses on one methodological approach, that of comparative studies. In a European context, especially since the 1995 EU enlargement, broad attention is paid to the environmental policy experiences of the Nordic countries. In this book, different aspects of environmental efforts in these countries are described and analyzed in terms of their political and administrative outfit and policy content. The comparative perspective opens up new aspects to this issue, as it becomes the concern of a broader audience. In order to clarify the content of different environmental issues, the book is structured into comparisons between nations and within nations, starting out with studies on how the environment is perceived and understood. Finally, conclusions are drawn on the state of contemporary developments at the threshold to ecological modernization.

Table of Contents:
Part 1 Introduction: comparisons and environments. Part 2 Creating meanings and conceptions of environments: ecological modernization capacity - finding patterns in the mosaic of case studies; constructing the north in Arctic environmental co-operation; views of nature versus policy management approaches in Nordic environmental administrations. Part 3 Comparing between nations - politics, policies and administrations: green movements and their political developments in the Nordic countries; the social paradigms of environmental performance - the Nordic countries in an international perspective; building up and splitting down - environmental policy organization in the Nordic countries; the nature of environmental policy making - a comparison of Danish and Swedish agri-environmental policy. Part 4 Comparing within nations - politics, policies and administrations: the "ifs" and "hows" of participation - NGOs and sectoral environmental politics in Norway; centralization and decentralization - the cases of health care and environmental protection in Sweden; three years' experience of EU integration - the case of the CAP and agri-environmental subsidies in Finland 1995-1997. Part 5 Conclusion: Nordic environmental policy in transition - ecological modernization and beyond.