Steve Yearley and Eugénia Rodrigues ISSTI Retreat 2013

1. Ensuring and evaluating compliance with policy: politics and the monitoring of climate emissions and climate change in the UK Steve Yearley and Eugénia Rodrigues ISSTI Retreat 2013

2. The Menu On the sociology of monitoring The Politics of Monitoring project Monitoring climate emissions and climate change The Politics of Monitoring

3. On the Sociology of Monitoring This section has two aims: a) to highlight how central environmental monitoring in fact is to many forms of environmental activity and intervention and b) to indicate how the practice and role of monitoring can be beneficially understood in STS terms. The Politics of Monitoring

4. The Centrality of Monitoring Consider the case of risks. All social scientists are now familiar with the notion of environmental risk and risk management. But the establishing and management of risks is always tied to practices of monitoring. Without environmental monitoring there can be no risk calculations. The irony is that nearly all the sociological attention has focused on the risks and none on the monitoring. The Politics of Monitoring

5. The Meaning of Monitoring’s Centrality So far we have argued that monitoring is conceptually and empirically key to environmental practice and policy. And that it has been overlooked. But is that because it is so straightforward as to be trivial? Is there anything sociologically interesting about monitoring? The Politics of Monitoring

6. Understanding Monitoring from STS Monitoring is a form of observation and thus subject to all the complexities celebrated in the science studies literature and the philosophy of science: For example monitoring (like observation) is theory laden ~ see the example of the early “correction” of detection of the Antarctic ozone “hole”. The Politics of Monitoring

7. STS and Monitoring: Interpretability and Corrigibility Because monitoring consists of observations, these observations may appear democratic in the sense that “anyone” could do it. Scope for “upstreaming” But people’s observations are widely known to be corrigible: for example, what colour are rivers and lakes … blue? The Politics of Monitoring

8. Corrigibility and Interpretability Monitoring is also surrounded by routines and protocols. Rivers have to be sampled in a particular way since contamination of the container or prolonged storage can itself affect water quality. Legal provisions typically state that the significance of contamination depends on how long it lasts, so the availability of one polluted sample is of limited value. The Politics of Monitoring

9. Interpretability, Corrigibility & Controversy One might expect direct monitoring to resolve issues, but for the reasons given above (theory laden-ness, interpretability and corrigibility) it commonly does not. Instead, environmental disputes can turn into disputes over the observations used in monitoring. This may occur too in cases of citizen-monitoring. The Politics of Monitoring

10. Monitoring and the Senses Beck and others assert that there has been an “alienation” of the senses: radioactive hazards cannot be felt; the senses are devalued. But the senses are still very much in play: disputes over monitoring observations would not matter if the senses had become obsolete. Even their obsolescence can be disputed in specific cases. The Politics of Monitoring

11. Monitoring: between Observation and Surveillance Thus, one part of what makes monitoring interesting for sociologists arises from its links to observation. But we should not neglect the connection to another topic of current sociological and political-science concern: surveillance. As Lyon and others have reminded us, monitoring is a key aspect of the surveillance which is today pervasive. The Politics of Monitoring

12. Discipline and Monitor Monitoring as the state’s gaze, though ironically the call is frequently for more (and more extensive) monitoring. Monitoring as self-disciplining: the availability of on-line carbon footprints and other daily ways to monitor your “performance”. The Politics of Monitoring

13. Disciplining and Self-Monitoring Monitoring promotes self-conscious awareness; but it may generate a form of obligation to use self-disciplining techniques … and even come to be resisted, in line with ideas about reflexive selves. The Politics of Monitoring

14. Monitoring’s Unintended Consequences Self-disciplining may not work out as intended; people may follow disciplines erratically. Firms and agencies are driven to follow mandated monitoring but they may follow the letter of the law, not the “spirit” (collecting material for recycling but not actually recycling it; importing biofuels and ignoring local production). The Politics of Monitoring

15. The Politics of Monitoring Project For us, monitoring is the practice of gathering and analysing information in order to track policy problems, and to measure the impact of policy interventions on such problems. Monitoring is central to the policy process: policy makers need to gather information in order to chart the nature and scale of policy problems, to assess the impact of policy interventions, and to respond to others’ claims about the issues at stake. The Politics of Monitoring

16. Monitoring Project Team The Politics of Monitoring: Information, Indicators and Targets in Climate Change, Defence and Immigration Policy. Christina Boswell + Graham Spinardi & Colin Fleming + Eugénia Rodrigues & Steve Yearley The Politics of Monitoring

17. Politics and Immigration Monitoring An odd kind of social fact. Who is monitoring this and doing claims-making: Home Office, UKBA, Daily Mail, UKIP … Consequentialist vs. rights-based arguments. The Politics of Monitoring

18. A Typology of Policy Monitoring The Politics of Monitoring

19. The Politics of Monitoring Project Framed in terms of hypotheses: Politicisation & public opinion: salience & outputs; Political economy and interests; International diffusion of norms and standards; The quality of the ‘information environment’ – availability of information, secrecy and so on; The nature of the ‘organisational environment’ – who holds one to account. The Politics of Monitoring

20. The UK’s Monitoring of Climate Emissions and Climate Change The Politics of Monitoring: Information, Indicators and Targets in Climate Change. Emissions and impacts. Emissions largely delegated to CCC, now chaired by John Selwyn Gummer, Baron Deben. The Politics of Monitoring

21. Monitoring Climate Emissions Tying to the mast … The Politics of Monitoring

22. Climate Emissions and Climate Change Emissions and treaties vs. emissions and targets vs. emissions and consequences. What counts as the UK’s emissions? If emissions are centralised, the monitoring of effects is much more open. The Politics of Monitoring

23. Monitoring Climate Change Dispersed and multi-agency. Attribution can be contentious. Geographical and temporal separation of emissions and impacts. The Politics of Monitoring

24. Conclusion On the sociology of monitoring The Politics of Monitoring project Monitoring climate emissions and climate change The Politics of Monitoring