Transparency through Labelling? Layers of Visibility in Environmental Risk Management

Abstract

The aim of this chapter is to move the issue a bit beyond the polarized views of profound critical reflection versus excessive trust in the checking procedures behind standards. We claim that the polarized views are largely due to an over-simplistic understanding of transparency. By comparing practical policy processes surrounding various standards, we aim to provide nuance to the issue of transparency. This study ofpolicy processes, along with examinations of theoretical work in policy analysis, makes clear the limits of merely treating transparency in terms of ‘more’ versus ‘less’. A more thorough understanding of the promise and limits of transparency in policy processes requires, we argue, another dimension, consisting of qualitatively different ‘layers’ of transparency. The basis for our emphasis on this additional dimension is the obvious - yet often overlooked - notion that an examination of standards, which are in turn claimed to disclose hidden, and often physical, risks, needs to take the political context into account as well as the negotiations and framings surrounding the schemes on which the standards are based. Since risks are uncertain, socially and culturally dependent, and since they are evaluated and interpreted in many different ways by actors with diverse ideologies and interests, a more comprehensive transparency must reach far beyond the concrete visibility and direct awareness of the label itself. Based on these claims we find it useful to distinguish…