Street level bureaucracy in response to environmental pressure. Insights from forestry and urban green space governance in Poland

Abstract

Forestry and urban green space governance experiences rapid changes due to bottom up environmental pressure and top down changes of legislation. To deepen our understanding of crafting preferable environmental reactions towards environmental pressure, we introduced the perspective of environmental street-level bureaucrats (SLBs) and explored it using Oliver’s strategic response framework. Drawing from case studies on the governance of the moose and urban green space in Poland, we investigated the complex and mediating sphere of SLB “policy intentions” in environmental governance. We argue that SLBs can distance themselves from new expectations if these are perceived as “socially constructed” and potentially disturbing for SLBs’ professional routines. Such limited or moderated reactions can be a coping mechanism of SLBs trying to balance a complex landscape of various, even contradictory pressures. Our findings break the monolithic-type image of a ‘decision-maker’ into complex web of interrelations between administrative units and political structures. They also suggest a need of new forms of environmental (post-) bureaucracy to reinforce social trust and to deal with ambiguities of nature.