Limits to change – institutional dynamics of Dutch flood risk governance
Publication year
2018Author(s)
Source
Journal of Flood Risk Management, 11, 3, (2018), pp. 250-260ISSN
Publication type
Article / Letter to editor

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Organization
Milieu maatschappijwetenschappen
Journal title
Journal of Flood Risk Management
Volume
vol. 11
Issue
iss. 3
Languages used
English (eng)
Page start
p. 250
Page end
p. 260
Subject
Institute for Management ResearchAbstract
Despite several stimuli for change, flood risk management (FRM) in the Netherlands remains dominated by a probability-reducing flood defence approach. The aim of this article is to analyse, empirically, the institutional forces for change and stability that explain particular institutional dynamics. The qualitative research revealed that even though a combination of forces for change (in the realm of discourses, actors, resources and rules) is present, their influence is partly neutralised by forces for stability. These forces for stability became incrementally and iteratively more and more institutionalised and mutually reinforced each other, thus stabilising the defence approach. As a consequence, FRM is path dependent, i.e. the development of alternative FRM approaches may be influenced by the dominant defence approach. Nevertheless, in this context, change processes of conversion and layering can be observed, which indicates that even a highly path dependent arrangement has the possibility to adapt to particular challenges.
This item appears in the following Collection(s)
- Academic publications [202799]
- Electronic publications [100870]
- Nijmegen School of Management [12820]
- Open Access publications [69590]
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