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
   

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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)
   

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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)
   

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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
   

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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.
   

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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.
   

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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?
   

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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
   

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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
   

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10. Thank you!
     Raul Pacheco-Vega
     raul.Pacheco-vega@cide.edu
     http://www.raulpacheco.org
     Twitter: @raulpacheco
    

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