Critical geographies of discretion in the environmental bureaucracy

Abstract

Bureaucrats exercise discretion over many matters in environmental governance. From writing legislation and designing consultation processes to budget administration and regulatory enforcement, bureaucrats apply judgment about what situational elements to take into account, which obligations are present, and how these obligations should be met. While the discretionary nature of bureaucratic work is getting increasing attention in policy studies, geographers could benefit from engaging more with the complexity and vital political substance of discretion. In this paper we bring together recent empirical studies of bureaucratic discretion with the political and theoretical concerns of critical geography to consider how analysis of discretion can help with reworking the environmental state. Reviewing examples of discretion within environmental bureaucracies in the U.S., China, Brazil, and Aotearoa New Zealand, we canvas (i) the variety and contexts of discretionary bureaucratic actions, (ii) the different sources of legitimacy mobilized to justify these discretionary actions, and (iii) the political ends served, intentionally or unintentionally, by these actions. We argue that engaging with discretion in the environmental bureaucracy would strengthen geographers’ scholarship and political interventions.