Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-j824f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-16T03:27:21.771Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

15 - Conclusions

Reflecting on the Future (Study) of Global Environmental Agreement-Making

from Part IV - Implementing and Adapting

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 August 2023

By
Alice B. M. Vadrot  and
Hannah Hughes
Edited by
Hannah Hughes  and
Alice B. M. Vadrot
Hannah Hughes
Affiliation:
Aberystwyth University
Alice B. M. Vadrot
Affiliation:
Universität Wien, Austria
Get access

Summary

This chapter brings central elements of the book to the fore, reflects the need for critical thinking, and problematizes the future of agreement-making and the study thereof. In doing so, it addresses critical questions that run through all chapters of the book: Why does it matter to “be there”? How do I navigate closeness and emotions? Is my data ever complete? What will “being there” mean in the future? Global environmental agreement-making is in constant flux, adapting to changing institutional circumstances, power relations, and new emerging environmental problems. Although the multilateral setting with its “old-fashioned” diplomatic practices and formalities creates the impression of stability, routine, and immutability, there is change and the possibility to do global environmental relations differently. We understand critical scholarship to have a vital role in illuminating enduring power relations and revealing potential openings for change and transformation to ensure agreement-making enables better collective stewardship of the Earth. This aspiration nourished the objective of this book to problematize how and why we conduct research at and on global environmental negotiations and to evaluate and expand the concepts and methods available to further this study. The chapter closes with a reflection on future research questions and themes.

Keywords

agreement-makingcritical thinkingclosenessreflexivityexperiencesemotionscollaborationstakesparticipant observationfieldwork
Type
Chapter
Information
Conducting Research on Global Environmental Agreement-Making , pp. 285 - 300
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Beaulieu, A. (2017). Vectors for fieldwork: Computational thinking and new modes of ethnography. In Hjorth, L., Horst, H., Galloway, A., and Bell, G.., eds., The Routledge Companion to Digital Ethnography. London: Routledge, pp. 29–39.Google Scholar
Betsill, M. M. and Corell, E., eds. (2008). NGO Diplomacy: The Influence of Nongovernmental Organizations in International Environmental Negotiations. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.Google Scholar
Bourdieu, P. (2004). Science of Science and Reflexivity. Oxford: Polity.Google Scholar
Burch, S., Gupta, A., Inoue, C. Y. A. et al. (2019). New directions in earth system governance research. Earth System Governance 1, 100006.Google Scholar
Campbell, L. M., Corson, C., Gray, N. J., MacDonald, K. I. and Brosius, J. P. (2014). Studying global environmental meetings to understand global environmental governance: Collaborative Event Ethnography at the tenth Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity. Global Environmental Politics, 14(3), 1–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chasek, P. (2021). Is it the end of the COP as we know it? An analysis of the first year of virtual meetings in the UN environment and sustainable development arena. International Negotiation 27, 1–32.Google Scholar
Coleman, L. M., and Hughes, H. (2014). Distance. In Aradau, C, Huysmans, J, Neal, A, and Voelkner, N, eds., Critical Security Methods: New Frameworks for Analysis. Oxon and New York; Routledge, pp. 142–158.Google Scholar
Craggs, R., and Mahony, M (2014). The geographies of the conference: Knowledge, performance and protest. Geography Compass, 8(6), 414–30Google Scholar
Death, C. (2011). Summit theatre: Exemplary governmentality and environmental diplomacy in Johannesburg and Copenhagen. Environmental Politics, 20(1), 1–19CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haraway, D. J. (1988). Situated knowledges: The science question in feminism and the privilege of partial perspective. Feminist Studies, 14(3), 575–599.Google Scholar
Hine, C. (2000). Virtual Ethnography. London: SAGE.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hine, C. (2017). From virtual ethnography to the embedded, embodied and everyday internet. In Hjorth, L., Horst, H., Galloway, A., and Bell, G., eds., The Routledge Companion to Digital Ethnography. London: Routledge, pp. 21–28.Google Scholar
Hughes, H., and Vadrot, A. B. M. (2019). Weighting the world: IPBES and the struggle over biocultural diversity. Global Environmental Politics, 19(2), 14–37.Google Scholar
Hughes, H., Vadrot, A., Allan, J. I. et al. (2021). Global environmental agreement-making: Upping the methodological and ethical stakes of studying negotiations. Earth System Governance, 10, 100121Google Scholar
Mackenzie, D. and Wajcman, J., eds. (1985). The Social Shaping of Technology. Milton Keynes: Open University Press.Google Scholar
Mitchell, R. B., Andonova, L. B., Axelrod, M. et al. (2020). What we know (and could know) about international environmental agreements. Global Environmental Politics, 20, 103–121.Google Scholar
O’Neill, K., and Haas, P. M. (2019). Being there: International negotiations as study sites in global environmental politics. Global Environmental Politics, 19(2), 4–13.Google Scholar
O’Neill, K., Weinthal, E., Marion Suiseeya, K. R. et al. (2013). Methods and global environmental governance. Annual Review of Environment and Resources, 38, 441–471.Google Scholar
Pink, S. (2013). Doing Visual Ethnography, 3rd ed. London: SAGE.Google Scholar
Suiseeya, K. R. M., and Zanotti, L. (2019). Making influence visible: Innovating ethnography at the Paris Climate Summit. Global Environmental Politics, 19(2), 38–60.Google Scholar
Tunçalp, D., and Lê, P. L. (2014). (Re)Locating boundaries: A systematic review of online ethnography. Journal of Organizational Ethnography, 3(1), 59–79.Google Scholar
Vadrot, A. B. M., and Ruiz-Rodríguez, S. C. (2022). Digital multilateralism in practice: Extending critical policy ethnography to digital negotiation sites. International Studies Quarterly, 66(3), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1093/isq/sqac051.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vadrot, A. B. M., Ruiz-Rodríguez, S. C., Brogat, E. et al. (2022). Towards a reflexive, policy-relevant and engaged ocean science for the UN decade: A social science research agenda. Earth System Governance, 14, 100150.Google Scholar
Vadrot, A. B. M., Langlet, A., Tessnow-von Wysocki, I. et al. (2021). Marine biodiversity negotiations during COVID-19: A new role for digital diplomacy? Global Environmental Politics, 21(3): 169–186.Google Scholar
Vadrot, A. B. M. (2020). Multilateralism as a ‘site’ of struggle over environmental knowledge: The North–South divide. Critical Policy Studies, 14(2), 233–245.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×