Epsilon Archive for Student Projects

Abstract

Environmental management is a topic of interest since it is an ongoing problem in various areas including Lahore in Pakistan where smog problems are recurrent and require proper management and policies. Based on the research questions, this thesis examines the link between government decision-making processes and views of the local inspectors who are part of the air pollution control policies in Lahore. This study applies framework of Social Practice Theory in order to identify the ways that inspectors work through the challenges of policy implementation. This work uses qualitative interviews with environmental inspectors to investigate the problems that officials encounter, such as communication problems, constraints or resources, and power relations. Thus, the study shows that inspectors work under many limitations which affect their efficiency in implementing the rules and regulations. These constraints are in concurrence with Lipsky’s streetlevel bureaucracy, whereby inspectors modify policies that suit the conditions on the ground. The research also focuses on the differences in priorities of different governmental departments and the overall fragmentation of environmental governance by using the Social practice theory and Bourdieu’s theory of Symbolic power. The following are the major findings of this study: There is the lack of cooperation between departments, inadequate resources especially for the Environmental Protection Agency, lack of public participation, and the imbalance of power between the inspectors and the industry. The research highlights the need to consider the day to day activities of environmental inspectors in order to come up with policies that can be useful in addressing the challenges that they face in the course of their work. Thus, the findings of this thesis can enrich the current debates on environmental governance and policy making by offering a detailed account of the problems encountered by local inspectors during implementation. In this regard, the findings provide specific suggestions for enhancing environmental management and other comparable urban conditions with the view to enhancing the sustainability and resilience of the urban built environment.