Informational governance - Environmental Reform in the Information Age - page 97

environmental governance, information increasingly becomes a battle-
field in environmental struggles, with unequal positions and powers.
But the (unequal) power distribution in these informational struggles
might be spread differently compared to the old power inequalities
in conventional environmental governance. And, as has become clear
from the many ecomodernist studies, inequality does not automatically
mean environmental unsustainability. Hence, in studying informa-
tional governance on the environment, it is, on the one hand, too
simple to just extrapolate the power inequalities in conventional
environmental politics; on the other hand, we have to be aware that
informational governance does not turn into a managerial model of
environmental reform, without providing conceptual space for the
struggles and inequalities that come along these environmental power
politics. Although there is 'something new to report' in environmen-
tal governance with the emergence of informational governance, this
newness is not only or automatically a celebration in terms of better
or more effective environmental governance.
5. Governance under radical uncertainty
With informational governance questions on knowledge claims and
uncertainties emerge strongly in environmental politics. When infor-
mation becomes an essential resource and battlefield in environmental
governance and politics, the question of which and whose informa-
tion is considered reliable and valid moves to the fore. Social scien-
tists are all too aware of the multiple definitions of, and locally situ-
ated knowledge on, environmental challenges. Which, or rather whose,
definitions, knowledge claims and environmental information will con-
struct environmental agendas and govern the environment? How are
informational controversies being dealt with? Although I don't yet see
Urry's regressive uncertainty taking hold of and paralysing environ-
mental governance, it is clear that informational governance is much
more than just a managerial process of collecting and disseminating
information, followed by rational action of the addressees of informa-
tion. It is - even more than conventional environmental governance -
bound up with politics and struggles on knowledge claims, problem
definitions, trust and power, whereas the institutions of state and sci-
ence often lack the authority to unilaterally close these controversies.