C ONCEPTUAL  FRAMEWORK  AND  RESEARCH  DESIGN

The conceptual framework is based on combining concepts drawn from the science studies and policy studies literatures. Science studies perspectives have been drawn upon to shed light on the relevance of social values as an independent variable for shaping science and technology (Jasanoff, 1987, Latour, 1987, Pickering, 1992, Wynne, 1992). Communities of scientists mobilise their own skills and knowledge for putting forward credible arguments about identifying, selecting and evaluating different policy

options, thus contributing to the framing of water quality in the early stages of the policy process. By contrast, theoretical perspectives of policy studies have helped to trace the translation of formal policies in peri-urban areas. The roles of

knowledge/discourse formation, actors/interfaces, and politics/interests are important considerations for presenting a more complete picture of how policies are implemented in local situations (Hajer, 1995, Apthorpe and Gasper, 1996, Shore and Wright, 1997, Keeley and Scoones, 1999). Referring to these two different strands of theory has therefore been useful for creatively expanding what is ethnographically ‘in the picture’

and for examining the reasons why policies are formulated and designed in particular ways, and then their actual implementation on the ground.

Figure 1: Conceptual framework, own illustration

The research design emanates directly from the conceptual framework and focuses on analysing the two-way interaction between problem-framing and peri-urban policy translations (see also, Figure 1). The use of case studies for exploring this interaction was considered the most appropriate method for focusing the empirical enquiry on a contemporary phenomenon in its real-life context, (Yin, 1994). Case studies are often used to meet different research objectives such as the testing of theory or the

development of new theoretical insights (ibid). In this thesis, a selection of multiple case studies was considered the most appropriate research approach for strengthening the generalisability of the overall findings. Firstly, by developing a sense of the patterns of decision-making occurring at different levels of the policy process, discussed separately in Chapter 4 and Chapter 5. Secondly, by examining the complex interactions that take place between the two case studies, the thesis’ critique of expert knowledge in relation to water quality is validated (in Chapter 6).

The examination of the case studies is discursive and aims to outline the influence of competing drivers influencing policy processes at each level. The conceptual framework is meant to capture the influence of both ‘formal’ and ‘unarticulated¹⁶’ policy drivers.

The relationship between formal and unarticulated drivers is dynamic and their

interaction is understood as having the potential to strengthen the institutionalisation of specific priorities and policy commitments regarding water quality management. In the first case study, formal drivers influencing the Board’s functioning are defined as those that are ‘officially’ recognised and tend to be clearly articulated in policy texts, norms and procedures, such as the Water Act, which stipulates many of the official functions and responsibilities of the Board. ‘Unarticulated’ drivers influencing the functioning of the Board are less clearly defined and are mostly played out in the discursive realm. For instance, the use of particular discourses to defend the status quo of the organisation, or discursive strategies used to ‘play down’ uncertainties associated with the approach adopted to monitor water quality can generally be understood as unarticulated drivers that are interpreted by the researcher on the basis of the interviews, discussions and fieldwork observations that inform this case study.

The second case study takes a close-up view of the translation and implementation of expert-driven policies in peri-urban Ghaziabad district. Here the emphasis is on the interaction of formal and unarticulated drivers that influence how policies are executed, contested or re-configured in a local context. It attempts to compare the perspectives of those citizens whose voice is rarely considered in expert assessments of science and technology (Leach and Scoones, 2006, Mehta, 2008) with the ‘official knowledge’

16 ‘Unarticulated’ drivers refer to those that are part of the policy process yet are not immediately recognisable by reference to policy documents alone. Unarticulated drivers can be distinguished through an analysis of the discursive process influencing policy, as well as by following closely the interactions between different stakeholders involved in both the policy problem formulation and implementation.

associated with water engineers, planners and other actors that constitute the

administrative system in Ghaziabad. The aim here is a more careful examination of the nature of policy implementation. For instance, the ‘infrastructure’ (such as STPs, drains and sewerage networks), which is installed to treat excess wastewater discharged from the district, is a formal policy driver that has an influence in achieving certain water quality objectives (such as improved river water quality). But the installation of this infrastructure can be further influenced by unarticulated policy drivers, regarding for instance the type of residential settlements that are regarded as ‘eligible’ to be

connected to an STP facility. Political influence in the policy process can further play a role in policy implementation by means of encouraging an exercise of ‘cherry picking’

locations where it is deemed desirable to minimise pollution (i.e. in the affluent

residential colonies of the district), versus those locations where policy implementation appears to have little practical impact.

The choice of case studies has been made with the aim of highlighting the contrast that exists between ‘peri-urban’ policy negotiations and the negotiations that tend to take place at the national level within institutions such as the Board. These can also be described as ‘policy spaces’¹⁷ that are contrasting in several ways. At one level, the Board represents a policy space where expert knowledge plays an important role;

decision making is highly technocratic and appears to be driven almost exclusively by a model of negotiation based on rationalisation and bureaucratisation; a model which is very much in line for instance with Weber’s ‘iron cage’ portrayal of bureaucracy (Weber, 2002:121). This policy space, one could argue, is of a type that is normally found to exist at a ‘macro’ policy level and is explored with a view to providing insights as to why even though there is an abundance of regulatory mandates for water quality protection in India, the implementation of these mandates remains problematic, and can be heavily influenced by competing state interests and priorities. For example, the continuation of policies that foster industrial growth with minimum environmental restrictions is often a more dominant state priority, yet is clearly in opposition to the

17This is a concept used to suggest that there are specific entry-points or policy spaces that can be identified in the policy process; a deeper examination of these policy spaces can be used to map relevant actor networks, as well as the strategies which are commonly used by key actors to influence decision-making (Keeley and Scoones, 1999).

regulatory mandate to protect water quality in the first place. In this case, Board scientists evidently have to play the role of ‘knowledge brokers’, having to balance wider state interests with the mandate of environmental protection entrusted to them as pollution control agents.

This ‘macro’ policy space contrasts with the peri-urban policy space, yet is by no means unrelated. The peri-urban case study is used to demonstrate that there is a unique ‘socio-spatial’ dimension that influences policy negotiations. The peri-urban case illustrates, for instance, that deeper causes of the deterioration of water quality in a peri-urban setting are not just a matter of straightforward bureaucratic inefficiency. The

perpetuation of existing problems is also related to wider urban transformations taking place under the changing urban political economy in India. It is because of the changing political economy that some polluting activities are shifted to the peri-urban space while environmental regulation remains relatively weak. During this process, negotiations take place, and the politicised nature of these negotiations becomes much more visible in this policy space than at the macro level. It is also in peri-urban spaces that variations in exposure based on ‘social indicators’ (such as class, ethnicity and location within a peri-urban locality) are more clearly visible than from the macro level standpoint. In other words, there is little known about the geography of water pollution and whether it affects mostly middle class or low-income settlements. Given also the diversity of occupations, residential locations and spatial movements within the group of the ‘urban poor’ and that of the ‘middle class’, understanding exposure to water pollution becomes even more complicated (Veron, 2006:2100). Exposing this complex and inherently diverse picture of exposure to pollution at the micro level is therefore central for building on this understanding of the policy process, as opposed to the linear ‘top-down’ perspective of policy procedures. It is also important for broadening the scope of expert-scientific policy frameworks, a subject to which the thesis will turn in Chapter 6.

However, anticipating two likely objections from a cautious reader, I will explain briefly here some of the limitations and biases in selecting the cases to be studied.

Firstly, the focus in the selection of cases has been on breadth as opposed to depth in explaining policy processes influencing water quality. That means that in writing up the case studies, I have explored the contrasting accounts which exist on the subject of water quality, as this is the crucial subject that links the cases together. This was a

strategic choice that arose from the research questions. However, the case study selection also has some limitations. For example, in Chapter 4 it could perhaps have been particularly insightful to explore the underlying politics of corruption and particularly to assess to what extent ‘agenda setting’ can be dominated by political influence or the influence of powerful industrial lobbies. This is an important point especially because lack of transparency is often the one key point of criticism of the Board emerging from environmental NGOs and civil society (CSE, 2009). However, at the same time political influence can be notoriously difficult to assess, given the

problems encountered in trying to access sensitive information from environmental regulatory institutions in India (Jasanoff, 1993). As a result, in this research much of the focus in discussion of the Board is on the ‘expertise’ of the scientists, and how this is shaped by the wider political economy of environmental management. To assess

whether the Board scientists themselves are indeed ‘corruptible’ requires a different line of inquiry, which, despite its relative merits for understanding policy failure, it has not been possible to explore, primarily because of the problems of accessing sensitive information mentioned earlier.

Secondly, the research approach might have benefited from including international policy agenda-setting institutions (e.g. understanding the role of the World Health Organisation in setting water quality standards would make a very interesting line of inquiry). The exclusion of the international level has partly been due to time constraints and also to the inevitable logistical difficulties that limit carrying out research in India and Europe or the United States where the headquarters of international policy agencies are based. Nonetheless, given the depth and complexity of the issues at national and regional levels, and the fact that these are still relatively under-researched, a focus on these two sites was deemed to be the most appropriate research strategy.