Comparative urban water governance: A research agenda on policy transfer and learning across multiple case studies

A talk presented at the Seminar on Themes, Data and Methods to Build a Research Agenda on Cities

Transcript

1. Comparative urban water governance: A research agenda on policy transfer and learning across multiple case studies SEMINARIO: TEMAS, DATOS Y MÉTODOS PARA LA CONSTRUCCIÓN DE UNA AGENDA DE INVESTIGACIÓN SOBRE CIUDADES Raul Pacheco-Vega Public Administration Division Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas (CIDE) Sede Región Centro Aguascalientes, Ags. June 23, 2016
2. Agenda  Context:  A brief summary of my research on comparative public policy  (water governance, solid waste management)  Current project(s):  The spatial, political and human dimensions of public service delivery  Future research agenda  Policy learning across different cities/metropolitan regions  (specific to the field of water governance)
3. Context: What kind of research do I do?  Wastewater governance  Scale mismatch and jurisdictional overlap in effluent management  Lerma-Chapala river basin  Challenging conventional wisdom that river basin councils as institutional reforms actually operate  Solid waste in the informal sector  The role of informal waste pickers in the governance of discards  Relationships between local governments and informal sector (confrontational – collaborative)
4. My newest project…  Essays on the global, comparative and domestic politics of bottled water (NYU Press)  Bottled water as a public policy problem  Regulatory framework  Determinants of BW consumption  A zero-sum game? Weakening municipal water utilities and enriching BW companies.  The comparative politics of domestic water consumption (BW and TW)  Ireland  Spain  Mexico  France
5. In the future… research agenda  Comparative urban water governance  Derived from (or based in) the literature on comparative urban governance (as well as comparative public policy) Pierre, J. 2005. “Comparative Urban Governance: Uncovering Complex Causalities.” Urban Affairs Review 40(4):446–62. DiGaetano, Alan and Elizabeth Strom. 2003. “Comparative Urban Governance: An Integrated Approach.” Urban Affairs Review 38(3):356–95. Guarneros-Meza, Valeria. 2009. “Mexican Urban Governance: How Old and New Institutions Coexist and Interact.” International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 33(2):463–82. Denters, B. 2006. “Building Blocks for a Methodology for Comparative Urban Political Research.” Urban Affairs Review 41(4):550–71. Ward, K. 2010. “Towards a Relational Comparative Approach to the Study of Cities.” Progress in Human Geography 34(4):471–87.
6. CUG + PT + water = a really cool project  Mukhtarov, Farhad. 2014. “Rethinking the Travel of Ideas : Policy Translation in the Water Sector.” Policy & Politics 42(1):71–88.  Dolowitz, David and David Marsh. 1996. “Who Learns What from Whom: A Review of the Policy Transfer Literature.” Political Studies 21:343–51.  Shipan, Charles R. and Craig Volden. 2012. “Policy Diffusion: Seven Lessons for Scholars and Practitioners.” Public Administration Review 72(December):788–96.  McLean, Bronwyn L. and Thomas Borén. 2014. “Barriers to Implementing Sustainability Locally: A Case Study of Policy Immobilities.” Local Environment 9839(March 2015):37–41.  Mossberger, Karen and Harold Wolman. 2003. “Policy Transfer as a Form of Prospective Policy Evaluation: Challenges and Recommendations.” Public Administration Review 63(4):428–40.
7. Comparisons can help posit/understand/resolve multicausal explanations  In the water sector  Why do some cities opt for private water supply instead of public?  What factors have driven success in adoption of private water contracts?  How does the governance of water in one city translate into another?  What lessons can we draw from the way in which water governance is done in Country A/City B/Metropolitan Zone C?
8. My current & future projects fit within the proposed programme of research  BW is definitely a city issue.  Wastewater most definitely is a city/metropolitan issue.  Water supply is obviously a city/metropolitan issue.  Maybe time to launch a comparative study across different cities?  Edited volume? Special issue?  Programme of work -> consistent with objectives of this group
9. Current project that would fit this framework…  Remunicipalization in 7 case studies  Paris and Grenoble  Berlin and Potsdam  Hamilton  Atlanta  Ramos Arizpe  Taller de Gobernanza del Agua 2014 (CIDE Santa Fe), GIGAPP 2014, MPSA 2016  Edited volume - Pacheco-Vega (Ed.) 2017
10. Thank you!  Raul Pacheco-Vega  raul.Pacheco-vega@cide.edu  http://www.raulpacheco.org  Twitter: @raulpacheco