Our interdisciplinary
research project focuses on the formulation and implementation
process of the EU Habitats Directive – one of the core pieces
of European nature conservation legislation. Intended to protect
specific habitats and species on a transboundary European scale
the directive directly bears manifold references to ‘Nature’
and ‘Space’. These spatial aspects and the multi-level
character of the policy makes an interdisciplinary investigation
from the perspective of Geographers and Political Scientists particularly
promising.
The understanding of
‘Space’ and ‘Nature’ - two traditionally
important concepts within Geography - has undergone profound changes
in recent years. Human action in ‘Space’ and the human
exposure to ‘Nature’ is no longer limited to physical-material
components. Instead, the subjective perception, ‘construction’
and communication of ‘Nature’ and ‘Space’
play an important role. Similarly, the existence of objectively
given (material) interests in political decision making processes
has been questioned after the “constructivist turn”
in political science. The impact of cognitive and normative ideas
on political discourse and decision-making has increasingly been
studied. The combination of these two constructivist perspectives
and their deployment for the analysis of political decision-making
structures in the European multi-level system are the main targets
of this research project.
The implementation
of the Habitats Directive and especially the selection of potential
sites of protection have triggered a multitude of conflicts among
the actors concerned. They include governmental actors reaching
from national ministries to local land use planning authorities
as well as stakeholders, such as nature conservation associations,
farmers, land owners or outdoor sports representatives. The process
of implementing the directive over several political levels, shall
be reconstructed and analysed with a main emphasis on North Rhine-Westphalia.
On the one hand we will reveal interaction patterns of the actors
involved in the respective policy networks. On the other hand
we will search for discursive patterns, which are used unconsciously,
deliberately or even strategically. It will thereby be important
to ask, which constructions of ‘Nature’ and ‘Space’
are used in the political discourse, which story lines have been
established and which effect this has on the implementation process
of the directive. Additionally it will be explored to what extent
constructions of ‘Nature’ and ‘Space’
are dependent on periodic developments in terms of ‘life
cycles’.
Thus this project follows
two objectives: At first, the existence and relevance of the discursive
categories ‘Nature’ and ‘Space’ in the
political decision-making process shall be reconstructed. Apart
from this conceptual interest, the project aims on an applied
level to complement EU-oriented implementation studies by proposing
constructions of ‘Nature’ and ‘Space’
as factors that help to better understand policy implementation
within the multi-level system of governance in the EU.