The Discourse of Sustainable Development: Business Groups, Local Government and Ngos In
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
London School of Economics and Political Sciences The discourse of sustainable development: business groups, local government and NGOs in Juarez (Mexico) and El Paso (USA) PhD Thesis Claudia Granados Sociology Department December 2003 UMI Number: U222167 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Dissertation Publishing UMI U222167 Published by ProQuest LLC 2014. Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 I H S £ S F For F.G. and my pa ABSTRACT The thesis proposes and develops a threefold categorisation as a framework for the analysis of the sustainable development (SD) discourse of business groups, local government and NGOs in the Mexico-US border region and specifically in the border cities of Juarez (Chihuahua, Mexico) and El Paso (Texas, US). The SD categorisation proposed in this thesis consists of three schools of thought, namely, Ecologism, Ecologically-sustainable-Development (EsD) and Corporate-Environmentalism. The thesis investigates how and why Corporate- Environmentalism came to dominate sustainable development discourse in the 1990s? Based on data collected in the border region of Juarez and El Paso, this thesis argues that Corporate-Environmentalism strongly influenced the sustainable development discourse of business groups, local government and NGOs and became the prevailing orthodoxy in the sustainable development discourse of the region during the 1990s. In the course of the same decade, ideas of Ecologism and Ecologically-sustainable-Development were marginalised and lost significant support, whilst Corporate-Environmentalism shaped the majority of respondents’ sustainable development discourse and practices. The complex interrelations between the sustainable development discourse of the 1990s and the views of business environmental managers, local government officers, and NGO members/leaders in the region of Juarez/El Paso are discussed. Career mobility of personnel of the three groups (business groups, local government and NGOs), and other factors such as their different educational and professional background, and training shed light on how and why Corporate-Environmentalism became the dominant view within the sustainable development discourse of the 1990s. This research is grounded on the qualitative analysis of semi-structured interviews carried out with business environmental managers, local government officers and NGO members/leaders. The interviews were conducted with those responsible for the implementation and promotion of SD policies that embroil mid-level and senior environmental professionals. The analysis in this thesis is comparative in as much as it analyses the differences and similarities of the SD discourse and practices within and between business groups, local government and NGOs. Finally, the thesis analyses the extent to which SD discourse affected approaches to the natural environment of the region of Juarez/El Paso, as well as in other regions in developing and developed countries during the 1990s. ii Acknowledgements This thesis has been a long haul; and I am fortunate to have had Professor Leslie Sklair as my supervisor. I am grateful to him for his invaluable guidance, intellectual stimulation and his consistent belief in me and this project. The fieldwork and data collection for this research was a trying process and would have been impossible without the assistance of a range of people and institutions. I specially thank the Instituto Municipal de Planeacion (IMIP) of Ciudad Juarez for providing data, access to cross-sectoral meetings, and physical space to work in. Among the many people at the IMIP I specifically mention Pedro Cital, Jose Maria Fernandez Sigala, and Luis Felipe Siqueiros. Francisco Alfaro, from FEMAP, and the Olivos family were instrumental in making my fieldwork a success. The time and insight offered by the interviewees is gratefully acknowledged. Financial support has been critical in enabling my research. I primarily acknowledge the National Council for Science and Technology (CONACYT) for my scholarship. Equally indispensable has been the financial support of the Fundacion Granados - founded by my dear parents to fund my PhD - which, despite speculation about the long duration of this project, has maintained its unconditional support. My gratitude goes to my dear family and friends here and abroad with whom I have had the good fortune to share and discuss my ideas; these have inspired my thinking, reflections and ‘rethinking’. They always encouraged me when things got fiddly, provided me with advice, and helped maintain a sense of humour through the ups-and-downs of the PhD. It is difficult to adequately express my appreciation to those friends who opened their family homes and provided the nicest environment a PhD student can ever dream of to work and live in. In no specific order I mention the following: Nan-Yeong and Stephen Mathews, Amparo and Max Lasen- Diaz, Dwich Rangnekar, Ivan Pliego, Alejandra Granados-Russell, Robert B. Russell, Anthony Hall, Patrick Tomlin, Luzma Diaz-Garduno, Caroline Schenck, Sukti Dasgupta, Ryme Seferdjeli, Nattu, Jules Catchick, Hector Mijangos, Ramiro Valenzuela, Violeta Alvarez, Bernardo Katz, Matsu, Genoveva Tousaint, Fabiola Gonzalez, Sor Monique, Cecilia Granados, ‘Los Pacos’, ‘Los Yedid’, 'Los Asali’, ‘Los Granados’ and Charles Peattie. Finally, I want to thank Francisco Mendoza-Granados and Bobby Russell-Granados who, along with their peers, became the greatest source of hope and inspiration. Table of Contents Abstract ii Acknowledgements iii Table of Contents V List Tables v iii List of Figures ix List of Maps X Acronyms and Abbreviations xi Chapter 1 The discourse of sustainable development: business groups, local governments and NGOs in the region of Juarez/El Paso Section 1. Introduction 1 Section 2. Theoretical considerations on the categorisation of SD discourse 8 Section 3. Research Aims 10 Section 4. Methodological Strategy 11 Section 5. Structure of the thesis 23 Chapter 2 The historical context of the SD discourse: 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. Section 1. The roots of the SD discourse 30 Section 2. SD discourse of the 1970s and the 1980s 42 Section 3. SD discourse of the 1990s 53 Section 4. Summary and Conclusions 60 V Chapter 3 Categorising SD discourse: Ecologism, Ecologically-sustainable-Development, and Corporate-Environmentalism _______________________________________________ Section 1. Categorisations of SD discourse 63 Section 2. Ecologism 67 Section 3. Ecologically-sustainable-Development 70 Section 4. Corporate-Environmentalism 77 Section 5. Summary and Conclusions 83 Chapter 4 Environmental policy and SD discourse in the Mexico-US border region ___________ Section 1. US and Mexico: The growth of SD and environmental policy 87 Section 2. The Mexico-US border: SD discourse and bi-lateral co-operation 100 Section 3. NAFTA and the environment 106 Section 4. Summary and Conclusions 117 Chapter 5 Environmental policy and SD discourse in the region of Juarez/El Paso ____________ Section 1. The region of Juarez/El Paso: geographic, environmental, political and socio-economic dynamics 120 Section 2. Business groups in the region of Juarez/El Paso 132 Section 3. Local governments in the region of Juarez/El Paso 145 Section 4. NGOs in the region of Juarez/El Paso 163 Section 5. Summary and Conclusions 167 Chapter 6 Business groups and the SD discourse in the region of Juarez/El Paso _____________ Section 1. Definition and analysis of BGs in the region of Juarez/El Paso 170 Section 2. The SD discourse and practices of BGs in the region of Juarez/El Paso 173 Section 3. Mobility of environmental managers 195 Section 4. BG’s categorisation of the state of environment in Juarez/El Paso 201 Section 5. Summary and Conclusions 204 Chapter 7 Local governments and the SD discourse in the region of Juarez/El Paso Section 1. Definition and analysis of government officers in the region of Juarez/El Paso 207 Section 2. The SD discourse and practices LGs in the region of Juarez/El Paso 209 Section 3. Mobility of government officers 223 Section 4. LG’s categorisation of the state of the environment in Juarez/El Paso 233 Section 5. Summary and Conclusions 236 Chapter 8 NGOs and the SD discourse in the region of Juarez/El Paso Section 1. Definition and Analysis NGO members in the region of Juarez/El Paso 239 Section 2. The SD discourse and practices of NGOs in the region of Juarez/El Paso 247 Section 3. Mobility of NGOs members/leaders 260 Section 4. NGOs categorisation of the state of the environment in the region of Juarez/El Paso 264 Section 5. Summary and Conclusions 267 Chapter 9 Conclusions Section 1. Conclusions 269 Section 2. Methodological limitations 275 Section 3. Future research proposals 276 Bibliography 279 Section 1. Internet sources 299 Appendixes Appendix I Business Groups (BGs): List of Interviews 302 Appendix II Local Governments (LGs): List of Interviews 304 Appendix III Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs): List of Interviews 305 Appendix IV Fieldwork guide 306 Appendix V US executive branch agencies