The logic of measuring, managing and governing ecosystems (EcoLogic)

The ‘ecological turn’ is the realization that ecosystems are vital for human life and subsequent public, political and scientific attention towards maintaining ecosystem 'health' at a sustainable level. The shift towards ecosystem-based management represents changes in the key principles – the logic – underpinning political, administrative and science-based processes. This change has been important to increase the capacity to take justifiable decisions, but the effects of the ecological turn for environmental governance remain open and uncertain. Rather than a shift towards a more environmentally friendly policy, our current knowledge indicates that the new logic support policy decisions that seek to maximize the benefits for humans from ecosystems. EcoLogic, sets out to analyze consequences for political, administrative and science-based processes in environmental policy. It is designed to increase our knowledge of how environmental expertise on ecosystems is formed and how it performs in national policy-formation. It seeks to deepen the understanding of processes that makes ‘nature’ governable through specific government technologies. It focuses on the processes directed towards measuring environmental impact, the establishment of new national regulations directed towards implementing new management systems and ways of justifying environmental impact. Empirically EcoLogic study and compare Norway and Sweden, two countries that have ambitious environmental policies and are at the forefront internationally. They provide institutional settings that are similar enough to allow comparison, but the two countries differ on the formal and informal structures for integration of expertise in policy formation. They also differ in patterns of interaction at the interface between science and policy. Such variance makes it possible to use the countries as “contrast fluids” for each other, to uncover and highlight distinctive traits and peculiarities. Data collection from relevant cases is ongoing in 2022 and 2023. Data are primarily documents and qualitative interviews.

The ‘ecological turn’ is the realization that ecosystems are vital for human life and subsequent public, political and scientific attention towards maintaining ecosystem 'health' at a sustainable level. The shift towards ecosystem-based management represents changes in the key principles – the logic – underpinning political, administrative and science-based processes. This change has been important to increase the capacity to take justifiable decisions, but the effects of the ecological turn for environmental governance remain open and uncertain. Rather than a shift towards a more environmentally friendly policy, our current knowledge indicates that the new logic support policy decisions that seek to maximize the benefits for humans from ecosystems. EcoLogic, sets out to analyze consequences for political, administrative and science-based processes in environmental policy. It is designed to increase our knowledge of how environmental expertise on ecosystems is formed and how it performs in national policy-formation. It seeks to deepen the understanding of processes that makes ‘nature’ governable through specific government technologies. It focuses on the processes directed towards measuring environmental impact, the establishment of new national regulations directed towards implementing new management systems and ways of justifying environmental impact. Empirically EcoLogic study and compare Norway and Sweden, two countries that have ambitious environmental policies and are at the forefront internationally. They provide institutional settings that are similar enough to allow comparison, but the two countries differ on the formal and informal structures for integration of expertise in policy formation. They also differ in patterns of interaction at the interface between science and policy. Such variance makes it possible to use the countries as “contrast fluids” for each other, to uncover and highlight distinctive traits and peculiarities.