Dissertation Research: Social Experiments in Regulation: Pollution Prevention in the US, Germany and Britain

Harvard University, Cambridge MA

Investigators

Abstract

This dissertation investigates social learning in environmental regulation, via a case study of pollution prevention in the organic chemical industry in Britain, Germany, and the United States. Most theories of learning still reflect instrumentally rational ideas of top-down, measurable learning by technical experts and policy-makers. This project builds on existing learning approaches, and applies an interpretive viewpoint, informed by Science and Technology Studies and comparative policy scholarship, to explore how other agents participate in learning. A learning approach based on social experiments may better describe, and eventually theorize, the bottom-up and decentralized nature of much activity that occurs in the environmental arena. This dissertation defines social experiments as activities by which social actors, not simply policy-makers and regulators, develop, test, adapt, and ensure uptake of ideas, institutions, and practices of environmental protection, through experience with practical applications in their settings. To evaluate the viability of this approach, the researcher will develop and apply four indicators: frames of interpretation; agents; transparency; and uptake of results. To strengthen the conclusions, the researcher will carry out a cross-national comparative study to explore the relationships between whether or not, and what kinds of, pollution prevention experiments take place in each country, and that country's regulatory and socio-political characteristics.