Introduction: new frontiers of environmental governance - Environmental Reform in the Information Age - page 25

able to (re)direct these new developments, caution for the unwanted
(side) effects, warn against the losses of the conventional environmental
governance systems, point at the inequities and inequalities that (can)
come along with such a new governance mode and call for change.
As introduced earlier, the topic is organised in two main parts. Chap-
ters 2 to 4 make up the theoretical part of this topic, whereas the
Chapters 5 to 10 deal with different substantive aspects of informa-
tional governance.
Chapters 2 and 3 are complementary theoretical chapters. In Chap-
ter 2 ,Ireview the literature on the Information Society and the Infor-
mation Age in search for their contribution to understanding how
information, information processes and information technologies (can)
impact environmental governance and reform. In Chapter 3 ,Iwork in a
reversed way: by reviewing the literature on environmental governance
and reform in three consecutive phases, I search for its contribution
to understanding the role of informational processes in dealing with
environmental challenges. These two theoretical traditions are brought
together in Chapter 4 ,inwhich the key idea of informational gover-
nance of the environment is formulated, elaborated on and debated.
Chapters 5 to 10 investigate different aspects of what I will from
then onwards label informational governance. Chapter 5 especially
looks into the developments in environmental monitoring and surveil-
lance under conditions of the Information Age. How has environ-
mental monitoring developed and what are the key innovations that
contribute to informational governance? To what extent do enhanced
monitoring and information collection possibilities result in larger
surveillance, with all the teething troubles coming along with that?
Special attention is paid to the globalisation of environmental mon-
itoring and to the expanded role of citizen-consumers in counter-
surveillance. Chapters 6 , 7 and 8 focus on how respectively states,
businesses and NGOs reorganise and redefine their role, position
and strategies in environmental struggles and reforms, following the
expanded practices and possibilities of informational governance. How
do developments in information technologies, informational processes
and information disclosures reconstitute the practices and institutions
of environmental reform in which these actors are engaged? Chap-
ter 9 specifically focuses on the major developments in the media and
their role in informational governance of the environment. Are the
media becoming the new major force and power in environmental