Local/Global Institutional Systems of Environmental Public Action

In this paper we propose an analytical approach to the provision of local environmental services. These services, that seek to provide public goods, imply the undertaking of technical actions that modify, in some way, the local environment. The public goods in question always combine both local and ‘global’ dimensions. Under the latter, their production can benefit from policies elaborated at higher territorial levels that are managed and implemented by what we called ‘institutional sectors’. The analytical approach offered by Thévenot and Botanski's ‘model of cities’ is employed here in the study of these ‘institutional sectors’. It allows us to explain the tensions arising between them and to identify the conditions for effective co–ordination between sectors.