Balancing informational perspectives - Environmental Reform in the Information Age - page 278

key social dynamics and processes: globalisation processes, the chang-
ing sovereignty of nation-states (both internally and externally), the
growing uncertainties connected to the disenchantment with science,
and various technological developments. This close connection to these
wider social developments makes that informational governance more
than just a voluntary choice of policy makers or governance actors. It is
structurally embedded and increasingly institutionalised within wider
developments of global modernity and, as such, has some permanency.
At the same time, informational governance is also not just a prod-
uct of a technological revolution that has been so central for some of
the Information Society scholars. Informational governance is as much
logically linked to time-space compression, decreasing state authority
and capabilities in environmental regulation, and growing complex-
ities and uncertainties, as it is to technological transformation and
change.
Although being structurally embedded in wider social develop-
ments, informational governance is not determined by these structures
and developments. As has become evident from this topic, informa-
tional governance is far from a well-crystallised uniform model, which
unfolds in a similar way at different locations around the globe and
on which governance actors can have no formative influence. Informa-
tional governance is still very much in the making; it takes different
forms and shapes in different sectors and societies; it is part of and
shaped by conflicts and struggles; and its relevance for environmental
reform is certainly not equal in every corner of the global network
society.
The focus on informational processes and informational resources
in (environmental) governance contributes to a better understanding
of the widely noticed shift in governance with respect to the diversi-
fication in steering modes, actors, and level-interdependencies. Con-
ventional (regulatory and economic) modes of governance, dominated
by state authorities, are opening up and diversifying through informa-
tional processes and resources. There is no one-to-one and/or causal
relation between the emergence of new modes of governance and the
growing centrality of informational processes and resources; but by
including these latter developments into the governance literature, we
gain insights in how and why state authorities and institutions see
their power diffusing to other actors and arrangements, and what the
(power) basis is for these new governance arrangements and actors.