This thesis takes the conceptualisation of Green Governmentality as “the manifestation of biopower in the environmental field” (Oels, 2005:194). Using Oel’s construction of biopower, this can be taken to mean a governmentality where the actions of individuals within a population are controlled by disciplinary means. These can include self- discipline, where the government encourages individuals to adopt state promoted codes of conduct through comparisons of behaviour, and more explicit disciplinary techniques including regulatory controls. Within a Green Governmentality framing Oels (2005:195) terms these “enviro-disciplines”, which she suggests focuses on individual environmental behaviour and global environmental limits.
Luke (1999) claims that these visibilities are a result of Geopower, a form of rationality that labels environmental harm as socially immoral behaviour. The limits of this behaviour are established through forms of eco-knowledge which include environmental science which seeks to set out the ecological boundaries of the Earth and the transposition of this knowledge to limits for individual actions.
There are clearly elements of this characterisation of governance rationale evident in the ZW policy and with the traditional state-controlled nature of waste management this might be expected. One of the key problematisations identified as driving the policy was the requirement for more sustainable resource management within Scotland. The ZW policy presents resources as limited and so encourages the use of disciplines which help explain these constraints (i.e. ecology and economics). The specific focus on Scottish resources, present in much of the policy, also supports Luke’s view (1999) that resource limits are often framed as issue of national security, linked to a specific state or population.
Scotland as a field of visibility is a clear feature of much of the discussions within this project’s data. Similarly many of the techniques used, including waste regulations and recycling targets suggest that the goal of government is to direct the behaviour of the population towards certain forms of resource use. Much of the knowledge used in promoting these goals is based on ecological consequences, resource limits and predicted growth in population. This speaks loudly to the ‘enviro-disciplines’ identified by Oels (2005) and the ecological science knowledge which Russell and Thomson (2009) link to biopower governmentality. Whilst much of the knowledge underpinning these regulations and statistics is very technical, descriptions have been largely translated into every day terminology (i.e. packaging, waste electronics, vehicles, textiles, paper) suggesting that the focus of the policy is the general population: a group who are often perceived to have a poor technical knowledge of waste.
On the other hand, other studies suggest that Green Governmentality focuses on “big science” (Bäckstrand and Lövbrand, 2006:54), “populations” (Russell and Thomson, 2009) and “global scientific assessments” (Oels, 2005) to justify behaviour controls. This is less apparent in the ZW policy, where focus on material flow and resource use continues to be centred on Scotland. Comparisons are made with other (mainly Northern European) countries on certain indicators (i.e. recycling rates and waste arisings) but specific data on key resources is very nation state focused. This could be explained by the lack of clear data on waste on a global scale. There are no waste ‘disciplines’ and universal terms are broadly defined which makes it more difficult to evaluate on a planetary scale. Equally whilst other studies have suggested that technical knowledge of experts often results in a global governing elite (Bäckstrand and Lövbrand, 2006:54), this is also less apparent in the ZW policy where the materiality and everyday ubiquity of waste enhances the importance of contextualised knowledge.
Box 6.1: Elements of Green Governmentality Identifiable in Scotland’s ZW Policy
Green Governmentality Scottish Zero Waste Policy Problematisation Failure of government to protect
citizens from environmental problems
Failure of government in the management of natural resources Visibilities Population, Earth as a system of
finite resources
Key resources, Scotland, climate change
Techniques Regulations, statistical norms, benchmarks and limits, environmental management, systems modelling
Waste regulations, policy targets, waste licences, EIA
Knowledge Natural science, environmental science
Recycling rates; resource quantities; carbon emissions; population rates
Identities Individual subjects of particular states, humankind
All stakeholders in Scotland (individuals, business, local authorities)
Utopia Individuals operating within the ecological limits of the Earth
Closing the loop on resource use (as much as possible within Scotland)
(Green Governmentality characterisations adapted from Russell and Thomson, 2009 ; Oels, 2005; Luke,1999)
within Scotland from the interviewees, there is still a recognition that local authorities have a key role to play in the interpretation and implementation of ZW policy in Scotland in that they are best placed to respond to geographic and demographic particularities.
The consequences of materiality of waste on governance rationale have been noted elsewhere. In their 2007 paper on modes of governing municipal waste, Bulkeley et al. found that the mode ‘diversion’ was the most dominant way of dealing with municipal waste in Northern England. Many of the manifestations of that mode including, its hierarchal nature, and “the use of performance targets” (p2740) encapsulate how a Green Governmentality representation of ZW policy might look. However, Bulkeley et al. (2007) note that the ambition to ‘govern at a distance’ is limited in this mode by the particularities and complications of waste in a given locale. This, they suggest, encourages the development of alternative modes of waste management including “eco- efficiency” and “waste as a resource” (p2749). They argue that eco-efficiency mode of governing has promoted the value of waste, particularly in the waste hierarchy.
This is not something that becomes apparent from Green Governmentality consideration of the ZW policy, however, this speaks to previously identified limitations of this theory which suggest it fails to capture the economic aspects of environmental governance rationale (Oels, 2005). This has, in part, contributed to the development of Ecological Modernisation as an alternative explanation of the advanced-liberal governmentality behind environmental governance practices.