This proposal is based on two initial observations that were corroborated in the Basque and Catalan territorial framework over the course of three research projects developed by the “Environmental Democracy” team of the PARTE HARTUZ Research Institute on Studies in Participatory Democracy (Ibarra, Bergatiños, Martínez, 2011; Barcena, 2012; Martínez, 2012).
In the first place, an increase of environmental governance strategies was verified at the municipal scale, arising in contexts where mega-structures affecting access to natural resources were being implemented. In the second place, an increase of socio-environmental conflicts was detected, resulting from the disconnection between citizens’ interests and political wills.
Both observations introduce the following idea: socio-environmental conflicts and processes of environmental governance develop in parallel. Thus, the aim of this communication is to analyze the consequences this has for power relations amongst social actors, politicians and institutions involved in agencies of governance.
To this end the communication makes a critical comparative analysis of five empirical examples of municipal environmental governance, developed between 2000 and 2010 in Catalonia and the Basque Country in situations of socio-environmental conflict. The proposal is divided into two parts.
The first part has a descriptive character. It identifies the models of agency employed in the environmental governance of the selected cases, through a comparative cartography of the latter.
The second part uses maps of relations amongst actors, or sociograms, to analyze some of the effects and political consequences those governance practices have had on power relations amongst political actors (political parties, trade unions), social actors (social movements) and institutions involved. These include, among others: the political delegitimation of the social opposition, the fusion of antagonistic actors, the conversion of a social movement into a political party or changes in the structure of municipal government.
