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Identifying the “Usual Suspects” : Assessing Patterns of Representation in Local Environmental Initiatives

Fenton, Paul and Busch, Henner LU orcid (2016) In Challenges in Sustainability 4(2).
Abstract
An increasing body of literature explores the role of transnational municipal networks (TMNs) in governing sustainable development. As associations, one key task of TMNs is to represent their members through production and dissemination of information and knowledge concerning municipal action for sustainable development. Case studies, often emphasising best practice, are used by many TMNs to fulfil this task. Nevertheless, despite strong scrutiny concerning the use of case studies in “policy mobilities” research, there have been limited attempts to quantify the ways in which TMNs present and disseminate case studies and, by doing so, generate trends of presence and absence in literature on sustainable development. Assessing patterns of... (More)
An increasing body of literature explores the role of transnational municipal networks (TMNs) in governing sustainable development. As associations, one key task of TMNs is to represent their members through production and dissemination of information and knowledge concerning municipal action for sustainable development. Case studies, often emphasising best practice, are used by many TMNs to fulfil this task. Nevertheless, despite strong scrutiny concerning the use of case studies in “policy mobilities” research, there have been limited attempts to quantify the ways in which TMNs present and disseminate case studies and, by doing so, generate trends of presence and absence in literature on sustainable development. Assessing patterns of representation for continents, countries, municipalities and themes across nine international case study collections published by ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability since 1991, this study responds to this research gap and identifies the presence of “usual suspects” in the ICLEI case study collections, along with notable absentees. By doing so, the study contributes to policy mobilities research and literature on TMNs, by encouraging reflection and further research concerning the representation patterns influencing which municipalities and what topics are presented in discourses on sustainable development. (Less)
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author
and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
ICLEI, case studies, comparative urbanism, municipalities, TMNs, urban sustainability
in
Challenges in Sustainability
volume
4
issue
2
pages
14 pages
publisher
Librello Publishing House
external identifiers
  • wos:000408062100001
ISSN
2297-6477
DOI
10.12924/cis2016.04020001
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
5366a799-8d7a-4c88-a429-4a1488c6e9e7
date added to LUP
2016-06-29 13:42:13
date last changed
2020-04-29 17:02:31
@article{5366a799-8d7a-4c88-a429-4a1488c6e9e7,
  abstract     = {{An increasing body of literature explores the role of transnational municipal networks (TMNs) in governing sustainable development. As associations, one key task of TMNs is to represent their members through production and dissemination of information and knowledge concerning municipal action for sustainable development. Case studies, often emphasising best practice, are used by many TMNs to fulfil this task. Nevertheless, despite strong scrutiny concerning the use of case studies in “policy mobilities” research, there have been limited attempts to quantify the ways in which TMNs present and disseminate case studies and, by doing so, generate trends of presence and absence in literature on sustainable development. Assessing patterns of representation for continents, countries, municipalities and themes across nine international case study collections published by ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability since 1991, this study responds to this research gap and identifies the presence of “usual suspects” in the ICLEI case study collections, along with notable absentees. By doing so, the study contributes to policy mobilities research and literature on TMNs, by encouraging reflection and further research concerning the representation patterns influencing which municipalities and what topics are presented in discourses on sustainable development.}},
  author       = {{Fenton, Paul and Busch, Henner}},
  issn         = {{2297-6477}},
  keywords     = {{ICLEI; case studies; comparative urbanism; municipalities; TMNs; urban sustainability}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{06}},
  number       = {{2}},
  publisher    = {{Librello Publishing House}},
  series       = {{Challenges in Sustainability}},
  title        = {{Identifying the “Usual Suspects” : Assessing Patterns of Representation in Local Environmental Initiatives}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.12924/cis2016.04020001}},
  doi          = {{10.12924/cis2016.04020001}},
  volume       = {{4}},
  year         = {{2016}},
}