Keep the faith

When I meet with people of diverse backgrounds and explain the rationale for my study, the majority agrees that it seems difficult to compare the situation in Sweden and Argentina since the countries are so different socially, economically and politically. How can one possibly compare the environmental activism when one group is struggling to get potable water and toilets, and the other is thinking about the survival of the polar bears? Last week I listened in to a workshop which some of the sociologists that I now consider as colleagues held. They met with different environmental neighbour groups and organizations from the poorer suburbs of Buenos Aires, and when the participants described what they are working for, the primary subject was just this – potable water that doesn’t contain heavy metals, and toilets. Some would argue that this is the responsibility of the state to support the citizens with, but due to the neoliberal policies that have implied that the water system was sold to a private a French and a Spanish company named Aguas Argentinas in 1993, the focus turns to whether the users are good consumers. And here I learned something new. It is less costly to supply people with water, than to supply the waste water system, which has given the result that less people have access to functioning toilets. However, functioning toilets are just as important for public health as potable water – or they are at least closely related.

Well, let’s get back to issue that I raised implicitly above, that people who do not have access to daily necessities, like potable water and toilets, are not interested in “wider”, common issues like the survival of animals, the conservation of biodiversity and future generations. From this perspective environmental care become a luxury good: the increased demand for environmental quality is caused by increases in income along with an assumed policy response (Pellegrini & Gerlagh 2006). Several studies have showed a connection between democracy and the level of environmental commitments (Payne, 1995; Neumayer, 2002). Environmental policies are affected by the quality of governance structures, and Pellegrini and Gerlagh conclude that “There is thus a need for high-quality institutions that put the polity’s interest in focus, and that prevent self-interested policymakers from maximizing their own benefits. … the argument [about commitment] applies both to making of environmental regulation and the enforcement of written policy” (Pellegrini & Gerlagh 2006:143; my emphasis).This is interesting, but for my study the research performed by Sandvik is more relevant since it says something about the experiences among the citizens. Through a statistical study he has showed that the population in countries with low GDP does not consider environmental problems like climate change as their responsibility (Sandvik 2008). What adds to this picture is the relationship between who is causing environmental problems, and who has to endure them. And here we are left with a complex of actors including national and multi-national companies whose production influence the environment, local, regional and national governments whose decisions and policies influence what other actors do, citizens who experience environmental problems on a daily basis and those who do not, and among them the ones who attempts to influence the situation and those who do not - to mention some. So when I get the question – what is it that you do – my answer is simply I try to understand how specific actors reason about the responsibility for the environment, and what strategies they use to have a political impact in this complex game. A part of this includes understanding how people keep the faith in the possibility to exercise a political influence when they simultaneously experience the lack of accountability from other actors – but who knows – this might be exactly what drives them!

References:
Hacher, Sebastian (2004) “Argentina Water Privatization Scheme Runs Dry”, CorpWatch. Access: http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=10088

Pellegrini, Lorenzo & Reyer Gerlagh (2006) “Corruption and Environmental Policies: What Are the Implications for the Enlarged EU?” European Environment Vol. 16, 139–154

Neumayer, Eric (2002) “Do Democracies Exhibit Stronger International Environmental Commitment? A Cross-Country Analysis”, Journal of Peace Research. Vol. 39, no. 2,, pp. 139–164.

Payne, R.A. (1995) “Freedom and the environment”, Journal of Democracy 6(3): 41–55.

Sandvik, Hanno (2008) “Public Concern over Global Warming Correlates Negatively with
National Wealth”, Climatic Change, Vol 90(3), pp. 333-341.