Bioregional politics: Social learning and public participation in Great Lakes water quality policy in Detroit and Toronto (1972--2001) (Michigan, Ontario)

The primal character of water and the age old concern with collective action problems frames the focus of the research effort, with an exploratory approach that contributes to the debates concerning the workings of the public policy process (including implementation), the parameters of environmental policy within the context of watershed politics, and the role of actors and institutions in the resolution of collective action problems regarding common pool resources in one key area of water "abundance," the Great Lakes - St. Lawrence Ecosystem. I analyze the policy design of the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement (GLWQA), explore the philosophic roots of modern policy debates and controversies surrounding the democratic resolution of common pool resources, and explore the newsprint coverage in six newspapers (three each from Canada and the US) of each revision of the GLWQA to demonstrate that the agreement is textual evidence of bi-national social learning at multiple levels of governance. Finally, I perform a content analysis of specific terms and phrases appearing in local Detroit and Toronto newsprint between 1985--2001 to develop an argument regarding the difference in a capacity for social learning in each bioregion. The research finds that while in Toronto there is evidence of a well-developed discourse of watershed politics, a slow but steady growth in such a discourse is apparent in Detroit. Implementation of the ecosystem approach and the application of a democratic process in each bioregion is unique yet linked to the degree to which such a discourse is developed or not. The GLWQA therefore finds a friendlier environment in Toronto than in Detroit. Nonetheless, Detroit has been able to move forward outside the formal frameworks of the GLWQA and the remedial action plan process and limp slowly towards an ecological paradigm of sorts. The study thus finds two models of sustainability and sustainable development at the bioregional and urban level of governance. In addition, I argue that a successful confrontation with the agreement includes the development of a discourse of watershed politics and a capacity to engage in social learning at multiple levels of governance and geographic scale.