ENVIRONMENTAL ADMINISTRATION IN SIX EUROPEAN STATES: SECULAR CONVERGENCE OR NATIONAL DISTINCTIVENESS?

To what extent has environmental administration in Europe been shaped by common secular forces or by distinctive national contexts? Middle range theories of the policy process suggest competing answers to this question, with some implying the likelihood of convergence in administrative structures and others suggesting persistent national distinctiveness. Using data on Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and the UK, we construct a measure of administrative concentration in each country. From this measure we assess the extent of convergence over time among the six nations. We argue that national context is a more important influence than common secular trends, and we identify in each state the political dynamics behind the national pattern. The symbolic role of administrative reorganization is thereby highlighted in the politics of environmental policy.     

Socio-Legal Studies in 2020

This article looks back to a paper written by the author and Phil Thomas in 2000 on socio-legal studies and reflects on what has changed in the world of socio-legal studies since then. It then turns to the continued modesty of the claims that socio-legal studies researchers make for their work. The suggestion made is that socio-legal studies forms a social ecology in what is termed the ‘hyphen-space’ and that through this space social ecology theory allows much larger claims to be made about how actors and issues at different levels and scales relate to each other. To this end, the article takes an issue, an artefact, and a broad classification of ‘people’ within the sphere of international commercial law to illustrate how social ecology can be used to broaden the claims that research makes.