Controversy Over Voluntary Environmental Standards: A Socioeconomic Analysis of the Marine Stewardship Council
Fiche du document
2019
- handle: 10670/1.b4z67x
- halshs: halshs-02071504
- doi: 10.1177/1086026619831449
Ce document est lié à :
info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.1177/1086026619831449
info:eu-repo/semantics/OpenAccess
Mots-clés
certification competition label environmental governance controversy conflict Marine Stewardship Council nongovernmental organization self-regulation standard L - Industrial Organization/L.L3 - Nonprofit Organizations and Public Enterprise/L.L3.L31 - Nonprofit Institutions • NGOs • Social Entrepreneurship Q - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics • Environmental and Ecological Economics/Q.Q2 - Renewable Resources and Conservation/Q.Q2.Q22 - Fishery • Aquaculture Q - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics • Environmental and Ecological Economics/Q.Q5 - Environmental EconomicsSujets proches
Interest and usury Economic theory Political economy Businesses Firms Companies Enterprises Business organizations Organizations, Business Sustainability scienceCiter ce document
Frank Wijen et al., « Controversy Over Voluntary Environmental Standards: A Socioeconomic Analysis of the Marine Stewardship Council », HAL-SHS : économie et finance, ID : 10.1177/1086026619831449
Métriques
Partage / Export
Résumé
Voluntary standards certifying environmental qualities of labeled products have proliferated across sectors and countries. Effectuating these standards requires the collaboration among and between creators (typically firms and nongovernmental organizations) and adopters (firms across a particular supply chain). However, the need to collaborate does not rule out the presence of controversy. Drawing on the case of the Marine Stewardship Council, a leading seafood standard to conserve the world’s threatened marine fauna, we analyze how this controversy, from economic and sociologic vantage points, impacts a sustainability transition. In essence, interest divergence drives controversy over standard design, which spurs controversy over standard effectiveness and prompts the proliferation of competing standards. Controversy is magnified by the opacity or nontransparency of the fields which such standards seek to govern. We conclude that, while interest divergence and field opacity entail inherent controversy over voluntary environmental standards, the impact of this controversy on sustainability transitions is typically predominantly positive.