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This article puts forward the notion of socio-technical resistance with an application to the regulation through performance indicators in the water sector. Governance failures are mainly explained by concentrating on governance design, considering regulation as a set of control mechanisms. We propose an alternative perspective by putting the emphasis on socio-technical resistance to take into account both human and non-human actors in the governance process. We observe the misuse of performance indicators by local actors in urban water systems in Europe to highlight the empirical significance of socio-technical resistance. Results support that socio-technical resistance is frequent and reduces significantly the reliability of the information gathered through performance indicators. Drawing on a new typology of resistance, we show socio-technical resistance is a dynamic combination of cognitive, interpretative, territorial, strategic, technical and structural factors. These results and the proposed notion underline a crucial limitation of public policies and regulation in the process of policy-instruments implementation and compliance. Empirically, it reveals particularly relevant to provide new insights on New public management and performance-based regulation, where measurement are crucial.
Thomas Bolognesi; Antoine Brochet; Yvan Renou. Assessing socio-technical resistance to public policy instruments: Insights from water performance indicators in the Grenoble area (France). Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space 2021, 1 .
AMA StyleThomas Bolognesi, Antoine Brochet, Yvan Renou. Assessing socio-technical resistance to public policy instruments: Insights from water performance indicators in the Grenoble area (France). Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space. 2021; ():1.
Chicago/Turabian StyleThomas Bolognesi; Antoine Brochet; Yvan Renou. 2021. "Assessing socio-technical resistance to public policy instruments: Insights from water performance indicators in the Grenoble area (France)." Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space , no. : 1.
The Institutional Collective Action (ICA) framework has contributed to understanding collective action problems in fragmented governance and identified mechanisms for overcoming them. Participation in collaboration is risky––even if it has the potential to make all parties better off. This framework has uniquely shown how collaboration risk and other transaction costs can be overcome to create effective collaborations for addressing complex policy issues. However, after over a decade of use, the framework is due for critical evaluation and articulation of its state of the art and science to better inform future scholarship. For this purpose, this article defines key concepts and formulates assumptions, as well as reviews the empirical contributions and longstanding limitations of the ICA framework. A robust agenda for future research is also outlined. To move forward, we believe ICA research should focus on the foundational core of the ICA framework, maintain flexibility in explanatory models, and expand the scope beyond the collective action problems at the local level.
Serena Y. Kim; William L. Swann; Christopher M. Weible; Thomas Bolognesi; Rachel M. Krause; Angela Y.S. Park; Tian Tang; Kiernan Maletsky; Richard C. Feiock. Updating the Institutional Collective Action Framework. Policy Studies Journal 2020, 1 .
AMA StyleSerena Y. Kim, William L. Swann, Christopher M. Weible, Thomas Bolognesi, Rachel M. Krause, Angela Y.S. Park, Tian Tang, Kiernan Maletsky, Richard C. Feiock. Updating the Institutional Collective Action Framework. Policy Studies Journal. 2020; ():1.
Chicago/Turabian StyleSerena Y. Kim; William L. Swann; Christopher M. Weible; Thomas Bolognesi; Rachel M. Krause; Angela Y.S. Park; Tian Tang; Kiernan Maletsky; Richard C. Feiock. 2020. "Updating the Institutional Collective Action Framework." Policy Studies Journal , no. : 1.
Coordinating and integrating different policies and public sector organizations is a major challenge for practitioners and a continuing topic of interest for researchers. This Viewpoint essay argues that research on this topic needs reorientation to provide better insights for practice and theory of policy making, as well as policy implementation. The authors offer four suggestions on how future research could advance: (1) combining existing conceptual and epistemological approaches more systematically; (2) complementing case studies and surveys with large‐N analyses and novel research tools and methods; (3) more systematic analysis of the causal mechanisms in policy coordination and integration; and (4) more thorough study of the real‐world impact of policy coordination and integration.
Philipp Trein; Robbert Biesbroek; Thomas Bolognesi; Guillermo M. Cejudo; Robert Duffy; Thurid Hustedt; Iris Meyer. Policy Coordination and Integration: A Research Agenda. Public Administration Review 2020, 1 .
AMA StylePhilipp Trein, Robbert Biesbroek, Thomas Bolognesi, Guillermo M. Cejudo, Robert Duffy, Thurid Hustedt, Iris Meyer. Policy Coordination and Integration: A Research Agenda. Public Administration Review. 2020; ():1.
Chicago/Turabian StylePhilipp Trein; Robbert Biesbroek; Thomas Bolognesi; Guillermo M. Cejudo; Robert Duffy; Thurid Hustedt; Iris Meyer. 2020. "Policy Coordination and Integration: A Research Agenda." Public Administration Review , no. : 1.
Cities face the risk of water deficits. This risk involves substantial costs and damages that impair water access, biodiversity, public health, education and business. Consequently, comparative research is growing to understand urban water deficit risks and to derive policy lessons that can limit the vulnerability of large population centres. So far, this body of the literature has mostly focused on short term analysis (<10 years) and emphasized particular policy instruments to cope with shocks while neglecting the role of socio-economic contexts. We intend to fill this gap by questioning how current urban structural characteristics affect future urban water deficits. We combine indicators of cities’ centrality and maturity in 2010 with the likelihood and magnitude of cities’ water deficits between 2050 and 2070. The dataset covers 235 of the 595 cities over 750 000 inhabitants in 2010. We show that urban centrality and maturity are negatively associated with future urban deficit, as these two characteristics enable cities to attract political, technical, and economic resources to fuel their development. Further, we depict the non-linearity of these relationships. Whereas management responses and strategies may impact short-term water deficits in cities, we argue for the role of urban structural factors in shaping future water deficits.
Thomas Bolognesi; Laura Turley; Tanya Heikkila. Current urban development and future urban water deficit: How centrality and maturity affect predicted droughts? 2020, 1 .
AMA StyleThomas Bolognesi, Laura Turley, Tanya Heikkila. Current urban development and future urban water deficit: How centrality and maturity affect predicted droughts? . 2020; ():1.
Chicago/Turabian StyleThomas Bolognesi; Laura Turley; Tanya Heikkila. 2020. "Current urban development and future urban water deficit: How centrality and maturity affect predicted droughts?" , no. : 1.
This article proposes a new theoretical explanation to the question of environmental governance failures, combining micro and macro explanations in the long run. We put forward the concept of Transversal Transaction Costs (TTCs) as a critical source of governance failures. TTCs are transaction costs induced by interlinkages between public policies and property rights, an area under-investigated by the natural resources governance literature. We emphasise that TTCs are consequential in limiting the ability of environmental governance to coordinate natural resource uses. Drawing on institutional complementary and cluster literature, we argue that TTCs increased significantly over the years shaping governance evolution at the macro level in the long run. We show that institutional resource regimes tend to get locked into an Institutional Complexity Trap (ICT), which prevents improvement in coordination capacity and explains the persistence of environmental governance failures. Four cases substantiate our conceptual proposition of transversal transaction costs. In addition, the process-tracing of six water governance cases in Europe from 1750 to 2004 provides empirical support to the macro dynamics of institutional complexity trap.
Thomas Bolognesi; Stephane Nahrath. Environmental Governance Dynamics: Some Micro Foundations of Macro Failures. Ecological Economics 2020, 170, 106555 .
AMA StyleThomas Bolognesi, Stephane Nahrath. Environmental Governance Dynamics: Some Micro Foundations of Macro Failures. Ecological Economics. 2020; 170 ():106555.
Chicago/Turabian StyleThomas Bolognesi; Stephane Nahrath. 2020. "Environmental Governance Dynamics: Some Micro Foundations of Macro Failures." Ecological Economics 170, no. : 106555.
Performance reporting in sunshine regulation is subjected to disclosure biases, because agents may game the regulation or encounter difficulties in complying. These biases limit the appraisal of the impact of sunshine regulation on performance. We investigate the behavioral causes of such disclosure biases by focusing on transaction cost economizing and opportunism. We provide an original methodology to take into account information asymmetries in principal–agent relationships. We focus on water utilities management in France. Our data set includes 795 observations covering water utilities and performance indicators characteristics. It allows for comparisons of revealed and observed performances and identifies different types of disclosure biases. Findings indicate that opportunism is a significant motivation for disclosure biases, while, unexpectedly, transaction costs are not a direct trigger of disclosure biases.
Thomas Bolognesi; Géraldine Pflieger. In the shadow of sunshine regulation: Explaining disclosure biases. Regulation & Governance 2019, 15, 200 -225.
AMA StyleThomas Bolognesi, Géraldine Pflieger. In the shadow of sunshine regulation: Explaining disclosure biases. Regulation & Governance. 2019; 15 (1):200-225.
Chicago/Turabian StyleThomas Bolognesi; Géraldine Pflieger. 2019. "In the shadow of sunshine regulation: Explaining disclosure biases." Regulation & Governance 15, no. 1: 200-225.
Gouvernance de l’eau : un mouvement de réforme perpétuelle ? est un ouvrage collectif qui surprend en bien. En effet, les éditeurs visent et atteignent deux objectifs qui ne convergent pas naturellement. D’une part, l’ouvrage vise à donner voix aux participantes et participants des Doctoriales en Sciences sociales de l’eau (édition Montpelliéraine de 2016). D’autre part, l’ambition analytique de l’ouvrage comme un tout est réelle. La compilation offre une perspective compréhensive des levier...
Thomas Bolognesi. Sylvain Barone, Rémi Barbier, François Destandau, Patrice Garin (eds.), 2018, Gouvernance de l’eau : un mouvement de réforme perpétuelle ? Paris, L’Harmattan, 260 pages. Développement durable et territoires 2019, 1 .
AMA StyleThomas Bolognesi. Sylvain Barone, Rémi Barbier, François Destandau, Patrice Garin (eds.), 2018, Gouvernance de l’eau : un mouvement de réforme perpétuelle ? Paris, L’Harmattan, 260 pages. Développement durable et territoires. 2019; (Vol. 10, n):1.
Chicago/Turabian StyleThomas Bolognesi. 2019. "Sylvain Barone, Rémi Barbier, François Destandau, Patrice Garin (eds.), 2018, Gouvernance de l’eau : un mouvement de réforme perpétuelle ? Paris, L’Harmattan, 260 pages." Développement durable et territoires , no. Vol. 10, n: 1.
Coherence is pivotal to integrate governance and, presumably, to improve sustainability because of more coordination efficiency. The coherence of governance refers to the clarity and the compatibility of public policies and property rights. The institutional resource regimes framework put forward that integration also depends on the scope of uses regulated (extent). Coherence has been under-investigated in comparison to extent. Notably, there is no common avenue of appraising it. In this paper, we propose a typology of coherence and assess it through an operationalisation in the Swiss water supply sector. It offers methodological tools and theoretical developments contributing to the comparative analysis of these policy studies central aspects. The typology stands on the IRR definition of integration, and we introduce the relation of coherence to extent, which emphasises the impact of polycentricity and transaction costs. To put into practice the typology and assess the different types of coherence, we gathered data from 96 water utility managers in French-speaking Switzerland. Results indicate that extent-related coherence is troublesome while the discrete coherence of each public policy and property right reveal satisfying. Despite an increasing focus on horizontal issues (siloisation, intersectoral), we observe more coherence issues related to vertical aspects of the governance.
Thomas Bolognesi; Geraldine Pflieger. The coherence(s) of institutional resource regimes: Typology and assessments from the case of water supply management. Environmental Science & Policy 2019, 99, 17 -28.
AMA StyleThomas Bolognesi, Geraldine Pflieger. The coherence(s) of institutional resource regimes: Typology and assessments from the case of water supply management. Environmental Science & Policy. 2019; 99 ():17-28.
Chicago/Turabian StyleThomas Bolognesi; Geraldine Pflieger. 2019. "The coherence(s) of institutional resource regimes: Typology and assessments from the case of water supply management." Environmental Science & Policy 99, no. : 17-28.
The Social-Ecological Systems framework serves as a valuable framework to explore and understand social and ecological interactions, and pathways in water governance. However, it lacks a robust understanding of change. We argue an analytical and methodological approach to engaging global changes in SES is critical to strengthening the scope and relevance of the SES framework. Relying on SES and resilience thinking, we propose an institutional and cognitive model of change where institutions and natural resources systems co-evolve. Our model of change provides a dynamic understanding of SES that stands on three causal mechanisms: institutional complexity trap, rigidity trap, and learning processes. We illustrate how data cube technology could overcome current limitations and offer reliable avenues for testing hypotheses about the dynamics of Social-Ecological Systems and water security by offering to combine spatial and time data with no major technical requirements for users.
Thomas Bolognesi; Andrea K. Gerlak; Gregory Giuliani. Explaining and Measuring Social-Ecological Pathways: The Case of Global Changes and Water Security. Sustainability 2018, 10, 4378 .
AMA StyleThomas Bolognesi, Andrea K. Gerlak, Gregory Giuliani. Explaining and Measuring Social-Ecological Pathways: The Case of Global Changes and Water Security. Sustainability. 2018; 10 (12):4378.
Chicago/Turabian StyleThomas Bolognesi; Andrea K. Gerlak; Gregory Giuliani. 2018. "Explaining and Measuring Social-Ecological Pathways: The Case of Global Changes and Water Security." Sustainability 10, no. 12: 4378.
Understanding the diversity of urban water regimes in Europe require dealing with governance instruments, actors strategies and institutional environment. To embrace it, we propose a typology of synchronous urban water regimes delineating four ideal forms. We highlight how actors strategies are embedded in institutional regimes and how sustainability perspectives depend on this urban configuration. It gives insights on sustainable transitions: their feasibility, constraints and opportunities.
Yvan Renou; Thomas Bolognesi. Governing urban water services in Europe: Towards sustainable synchronous regimes. Journal of Hydrology 2018, 573, 994 -1006.
AMA StyleYvan Renou, Thomas Bolognesi. Governing urban water services in Europe: Towards sustainable synchronous regimes. Journal of Hydrology. 2018; 573 ():994-1006.
Chicago/Turabian StyleYvan Renou; Thomas Bolognesi. 2018. "Governing urban water services in Europe: Towards sustainable synchronous regimes." Journal of Hydrology 573, no. : 994-1006.
This book describes the impact of modernization on the organization and sustainability of Urban Water Systems in Europe (UWSEs). Bolognesi explains that the modernization of UWSEs was a regulatory shock that began in the 1990s and was put into action with the EU Water Framework Directive in the year 2000. This process sought to reorganize water governance in order to achieve certain sustainability goals, but it fell short of expectations.Modernization and Urban Water Governance provides an update on the organization and sustainability of UWSEs, while drawing from a comparative analysis of German, French, and English water models and an institutionalist explanation of the current situation. With a focus on transaction costs, property rights allocation and institutional environments, this book argues that the modernization of UWSEs tends to depoliticize these systems and make them more resilient but also limits their potential for sustainable management.This book will be relevant to those wishing to understand the real impacts of water reform in Europe according to national contingencies.
Thomas Bolognesi. Modernization and Urban Water Governance. Modernization and Urban Water Governance 2018, 1 .
AMA StyleThomas Bolognesi. Modernization and Urban Water Governance. Modernization and Urban Water Governance. 2018; ():1.
Chicago/Turabian StyleThomas Bolognesi. 2018. "Modernization and Urban Water Governance." Modernization and Urban Water Governance , no. : 1.
Disclosure biases come up in sunshine regulation of public utilities. These biases limit the appraisal of the impact of sunshine regulation on performance. We investigate the behavioral causes of such disclosure biases by focusing on transaction costs economizing and opportunism. We provide an original methodology to take into account information asymmetries in principal-agent relationship. Our dataset allows to compare revealed and current performance and identify different types of disclosure biases. Findings indicate that opportunism is a significant motivation for disclosure biases while, unexpectedly, transaction costs are not a direct trigger of disclosure biases.
Thomas Bolognesi; Ggraldine Pflieger. In the Shadow of Sunshine Regulation: Considering Disclosure Biases. SSRN Electronic Journal 2017, 1 .
AMA StyleThomas Bolognesi, Ggraldine Pflieger. In the Shadow of Sunshine Regulation: Considering Disclosure Biases. SSRN Electronic Journal. 2017; ():1.
Chicago/Turabian StyleThomas Bolognesi; Ggraldine Pflieger. 2017. "In the Shadow of Sunshine Regulation: Considering Disclosure Biases." SSRN Electronic Journal , no. : 1.
Thomas Bolognesi; Stéphane Kluser. Water Security as a Normative Goal or as a Structural Principle for Water Governance. A Critical Approach to International Water Management Trends 2017, 201 -231.
AMA StyleThomas Bolognesi, Stéphane Kluser. Water Security as a Normative Goal or as a Structural Principle for Water Governance. A Critical Approach to International Water Management Trends. 2017; ():201-231.
Chicago/Turabian StyleThomas Bolognesi; Stéphane Kluser. 2017. "Water Security as a Normative Goal or as a Structural Principle for Water Governance." A Critical Approach to International Water Management Trends , no. : 201-231.
This chapter highlights how modernization has had an impact on the structure of urban water systems in Europe (UWSE) by depicting a European model and comparing its German, French and English variations. It provides empirical clues which indicate that the ongoing regulatory changes are contributing to reducing the role of the state in the governance of UWSEs in favour of new actors (private operators, civil society or third-party regulatory agencies). Similarly, it appears that the polymorphic character of UWSEs varies according to how far modernization has taken hold and that new contractual forms tend to increase flexibility in UWSEs.
Thomas Bolognesi. UWSEs’ Organization and Modernization: Similarities and Variations. Modernization and Urban Water Governance 2017, 25 -111.
AMA StyleThomas Bolognesi. UWSEs’ Organization and Modernization: Similarities and Variations. Modernization and Urban Water Governance. 2017; ():25-111.
Chicago/Turabian StyleThomas Bolognesi. 2017. "UWSEs’ Organization and Modernization: Similarities and Variations." Modernization and Urban Water Governance , no. : 25-111.
This chapter highlights the impact of modernization on the sustainability of urban water systems in Europe and what the remaining challenges are, comparing the cases of Germany, France and England. It shows how economic and environmental aspects of sustainability fall short of expectations while social dimensions have a better outcome. Then the chapter shifts its emphasis to the economic mechanisms used for coordinating the modernization process. These mechanisms improve the ability to adapt in the face of new problems, but also increase uncertainty about future trajectories. The chapter also critically discusses price incentive mechanisms as a means of dealing with resource management and the social dimensions of sustainability.
Thomas Bolognesi. UWSEs Sustainability and Modernization: Achievements and Main Challenges. Modernization and Urban Water Governance 2017, 113 -197.
AMA StyleThomas Bolognesi. UWSEs Sustainability and Modernization: Achievements and Main Challenges. Modernization and Urban Water Governance. 2017; ():113-197.
Chicago/Turabian StyleThomas Bolognesi. 2017. "UWSEs Sustainability and Modernization: Achievements and Main Challenges." Modernization and Urban Water Governance , no. : 113-197.
This chapter presents the approach adopted in the book and its contribution to the field. It defines notions of urban water services in Europe and modernization. To place our contribution within the research areas of the regulation of utilities and water (sustainable) governance, we review challenges that water services face nowadays, especially in Europe. Existing literature emphasizes the crucial role of institutions, focusing mainly on micro-institutions. Consequently, we expose how we study institutions to produce additional knowledge on the governance of urban water services as well as deepening our understanding of those institutions.
Thomas Bolognesi. General Introduction. Modernization and Urban Water Governance 2017, 1 -17.
AMA StyleThomas Bolognesi. General Introduction. Modernization and Urban Water Governance. 2017; ():1-17.
Chicago/Turabian StyleThomas Bolognesi. 2017. "General Introduction." Modernization and Urban Water Governance , no. : 1-17.
This chapter explores the reasons why modernization of urban water systems in Europe (UWSE) brings about the process of their depoliticization and shows how modernization implementation goes with a resilient dynamic of water systems. We use transaction cost economics to argue that the modernization process hybridizes governance structures, favouring institutional arrangements that increasingly integrate the characteristics of the specialist market. Modernization is a regulatory shock that modifies the structure of transaction costs into a form whereby coordination through autonomy and the adaptability of key players is favoured. At the same time, modernization empowers stakeholders and increases the possibility of organizational change, helping to increase UWSEs’ resilience.
Thomas Bolognesi. The Micro-institutional Determinants of Depoliticization and Resilience in UWSEs. Modernization and Urban Water Governance 2017, 203 -262.
AMA StyleThomas Bolognesi. The Micro-institutional Determinants of Depoliticization and Resilience in UWSEs. Modernization and Urban Water Governance. 2017; ():203-262.
Chicago/Turabian StyleThomas Bolognesi. 2017. "The Micro-institutional Determinants of Depoliticization and Resilience in UWSEs." Modernization and Urban Water Governance , no. : 203-262.
This chapter explores why the modernization of urban water systems in Europe (UWSEs) brings about the process of their depoliticization. Furthermore, it investigates why modernization implementation goes with a resilient dynamic of water systems. It appears that modernization renders the structure of property rights within the UWSEs more complex, expanding the distribution of associated rights of control. This mechanism is central to the depoliticization process. Institutional arrangements reflecting the organizational principles of modernization emerge more easily when institutional matrices give credibility to impersonal commitments and reflect a preference for flexibility. The diversity of capitalism allows these elements and their dynamics to be observed while explaining the variety of ideal-types of UWSEs.
Thomas Bolognesi. The Macro-institutional Determinants of Depoliticization and Resilience in UWSEs. Modernization and Urban Water Governance 2017, 263 -306.
AMA StyleThomas Bolognesi. The Macro-institutional Determinants of Depoliticization and Resilience in UWSEs. Modernization and Urban Water Governance. 2017; ():263-306.
Chicago/Turabian StyleThomas Bolognesi. 2017. "The Macro-institutional Determinants of Depoliticization and Resilience in UWSEs." Modernization and Urban Water Governance , no. : 263-306.
This chapter explores how the institutional dynamic of modernization limits the potential for the sustainability of urban water systems in Europe (UWSEs), revealing a paradox. Modernization brings with it an increased number of rules intended to regulate UWSEs in a harmonious and sustainable way. However, it appears inherently unable to bring about such a development. This failure comes from the ambivalent effect of the increase in the number of rules in UWSEs, which both generate regulations and inconsistencies. This multiplication of the number of rules stems from two different mechanisms of UWSEs’ expansion (expansion by means of control, and expansion by means of self-organization), which can conflict and impede high coherence of governance.
Thomas Bolognesi. Institutional Dynamics and Sustainability: The Trade-Off Between Broader Regulation and Consistent Regulation. Modernization and Urban Water Governance 2017, 307 -387.
AMA StyleThomas Bolognesi. Institutional Dynamics and Sustainability: The Trade-Off Between Broader Regulation and Consistent Regulation. Modernization and Urban Water Governance. 2017; ():307-387.
Chicago/Turabian StyleThomas Bolognesi. 2017. "Institutional Dynamics and Sustainability: The Trade-Off Between Broader Regulation and Consistent Regulation." Modernization and Urban Water Governance , no. : 307-387.
This chapter puts together the main conclusions of the book and discusses its contribution to the literature. On the empirical side, the urban water system framework could be usefully reused and adapted to other utilities to enable simultaneous analysis of their institutional, economic and technological aspects. On the theoretical side, the book provides original insights on institutional embeddedness through the lens of a complex system approach. As an illustration, interlinkages between property rights and public policies or micro- and macro-institutions are investigated. Finally, we underline two ways of going further in the analysis by taking into account actors’ strategies toward depoliticization, or the impact of resilience and resistance on sustainability according to different time frames.
Thomas Bolognesi. General Conclusion. Modernization and Urban Water Governance 2017, 389 -400.
AMA StyleThomas Bolognesi. General Conclusion. Modernization and Urban Water Governance. 2017; ():389-400.
Chicago/Turabian StyleThomas Bolognesi. 2017. "General Conclusion." Modernization and Urban Water Governance , no. : 389-400.