Local Action, Bioregional Politics, and Transnational Collaborative Networks in Policy Responses to Global Environmental Change

Abstract

"The purpose of this paper is to look more closely at three sets of related questions. First, what exactly is the nature of the complex linkages between sociosphere and biosphere and how do these relate to the ways in which we usually 'construct' our understandings of the global environment. Second, how might we go think about the architecture of a sustainable social choice mechanism and addresses the problems raised by the complex linkages. And, third, are there any examples of such praxis to which we might turn for insights? In what follows, I shall argue that the literature as well as a growing body of empirical data provide strong reasons to think that emerging networks, linking local practices to national governments and international regimes, may be an important strategy for coping with global environmental change. This is a conclusion that goes somewhat against the grain of much of the literature and activity currently underway around the issue of global environmental change, but is very much in line with the bioregional strategy described above."