Introduction: new frontiers of environmental governance - Environmental Reform in the Information Age - page 24

information-poor environments we will restrict ourselves in Chapter 10
to two countries - China and Vietnam - to explore how informational
peripheries are affected by the new modes of informational environ-
mental governance. We do that with the knowledge that it is only
one empirical category of informational peripheries, and that the two
countries are by no means representative for the wider set of devel-
oping countries. But by selecting these two countries we are able to
grasp at least three dimensions of information-poor environment: eco-
nomic constraints in information flows and processes, such as the dig-
ital divide (as a result of the developmental features of Vietnam and
major parts of China), political constraints in information flows and
processes (as a result of, among others, limits in the democratic char-
acter of China and Vietnam, the restricted freedom of information and
the limited possibilities of environmental NGOs) and organisational-
institutional constraints in information collection, handling, process-
ing and dissemination (to some extent related to the former two con-
straints, but also a factor on its own, certainly in Vietnam). One can
expect that China and Vietnam share with many sub-Saharan coun-
tries the economic constraints in information flows and information
processes, whereas the two countries share with several other Asian
countries the political constraints, and with many other countries the
organisational-institutional constraints. So, although the two countries
are not by themselves representative for other countries, we will most
likely find here distortions in informational processes that are typical
of many other informational peripheries. Hence, these case studies of
informational governance in informational peripheries have relevance
beyond their territorial boundaries.
8. Design and outline
Against the background, debates and developments sketched in this
chapter, it should come as no surprise that this topic is explorative
and agenda-setting, rather than evaluative and conclusive. It will not
give any final conclusions on informational governance, but, rather,
opens up a new perspective of current developments and a new research
agenda on environmental governance. With these new informational
developments just beginning and a research orientation only in the
making it is too early for any final conclusions. At the same time, with
informational governance still very much in the making, we are also