The neoliberal turn in environmental governance in the Detroit River Area of Concern

Abstract

This article explores the transition from state-centric environmental governance to neoliberalization through a historical examination of environmental remediation efforts in the Detroit River. I analyze the social and environmental impacts of these governance changes through a focus on three dimensions of neoliberalization: marketization, privatization, and quantification. I find that contemporary public involvement in the Detroit River resulted in both social and environmental contradictions: a narrower band of civil society, through nongovernmental organizations, has assumed a more central role in governance and an emphasis on quantifiable progress has shifted attention away from pressing, but intractable challenges in favor of those most easily classified as remediated.

Keywords:

• environmental sociology
• nongovernmental organizations
• Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement
• neoliberalism
• environmental governance

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Andrew Van Alstyne

Andrew Van Alstyne in an Assistant Professor of Sociology in the Department of History, Sociology & Anthropology at Southern Utah University. His research interests include the political economy of the environment, water governance, and labor environmentalism.