Attention and Water Governance: An Agenda-Setting Perspective

Dear Colleagues,

The governance of water resources has progressed significantly over the last few decades, especially in advanced market economies. One of the milestones in this process represents the adoption of the European Water Framework Directive in 2000. Over the last decade, however, public and political attention directed at water governance has declined noticeably. One reason for this could be that the regulatory arrangements in place are satisfactory in terms of ensuring that people in Europe and other advanced democracies have access to clean water. Put differently, the problems originally motivating the regulatory process to start may simply have been resolved by the policy measures adopted. One of several alternative interpretations is that other environmental problems such as most notably climate change have absorbed most of the public and/or political attention, giving the scientific community, experts, citizens, and environmental organizations less opportunity to bring water-related issues on the agenda.

The concept of agenda setting (e.g., Baumgartner and Jones 1993; Baumgartner et al. 2006) has resulted in a vibrant research in political science and we are confident that it can help to advance the state of research on water governance. Agenda setting is about when and how issues enter the public debate (discussion agenda) or are taken into account by policymakers with a view to propose policies (political agenda). Simply put, agenda setting is about arousing attention to certain issues. Despite the intuitiveness of this concept, the underlying political and societal processes are complex and when applying this perspective to water management, we need to adopt a multidisciplinary perspective.

• What is the level of attention for water governance?
• Which aspects of water governance are part of the public and/or political agenda?
• Which groups have attempted and succeeded or failed to mobilize attention directed at water governance? What mobilization strategies have the different groups used?
• How important has been scientific knowledge for increasing attention to water issues?
• What is the impact of newly developed water treatment technologies on attention for water governance?
• Are boundary-spanning issues in water governance (e.g. related to climate change) subject to greater attention?

These are the six research questions that underlie and guide this Special Issue, which aims to offer a discussion of attention and how it matters for water governance. We invite contributions from a wide range of disciplines tackling any of these questions. However, manuscripts that take a comparative perspective and/or multidisciplinary approach are particularly welcome. Submissions may focus on any aspect of water governance, including:

• Aquatic ecosystems
• Drinking water
• Waste water treatment and water reuse
• Water-Energy-Nexus
• Flood risk management
• Water scarcity and droughts

References

Baumgartner, F. R., & Jones, B. D. (1993). Agendas and instability in American politics. University of Chicago Press.

Baumgartner, F. R., Green-Pedersen, C., & Jones, B. D. (2006). Comparative studies of policy agendas. Journal of European Public Policy, 13(7), 959-974.

Prof. Dr. Jale Tosun
Dr. Ulrike Scherer
Guest Editors

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