Simon Schaub

Universität Heidelberg · Institute of Political Science

DeepDCarb is a collaborative project between researchers at the University of East Anglia and the University of Heidelberg, funded through an Advanced Grant from the European Research Council (Project number: 882601). The standard advice to politicians confronting long-term challenges such as decarbonisation is to adopt time-consistent commitment devices such as binding policies. Yet politicians appear unable to do this. The state-of-the art struggles to explain the causes, and hence the solutions, to this impasse. Political scientists argue that politicians fear retribution at the next election; psychologists claim that citizens understand what is at stake, but expect politicians to lead. The untested assumption is that both are locked into a ‘governance trap’ which greatly reduces the political feasibility of rapid change. DeepDCarb seeks to significantly advance the academic state-of-the-art by directly interrogating the relationship between politicians, citizens/voters and other actors in a uniquely detailed and comparative manner, drawing on an unconventional combination of methods and unrivalled new data sets. https://www.deepdcarb.org/

Policymakers in European countries have paid increasing attention to contaminants of emerging concern (CECs) and initiated a political process. As the topic is now on the political agenda, the governance of these contaminants comes into play. Contamination by CECs represents a complex problem that challenges policymakers in their efforts to find adequate solutions. There are several reasons for the issue’s complexity: First, there is a multitude of entry sources, many different actors and interests involved (e.g.: environmental organizations, consumer protection, farmers’ associations, pharmaceutical industry, energy industry, and the water treatment sector) as well as overlapping policy fields. Second, causes and effects are transboundary and, therefore, transnational solutions are needed. Third, the risk of CECs is characterized by uncertainty as the effects of a multitude of compounds and their interactions in water on humans and the environment are not well understood yet. The complexity of the issue poses a particular challenge for governance leading to several unanswered political questions. This, in turn, makes it especially interesting to study from a social science perspective. Research questions include: How can we explain different levels of political and public attention for CECs? What factors explain differences in policy responses between countries? Why do we predominantly observe a ‘top-down’ political process that mostly lacks public attention and ‘bottom-up’ mobilization? Who are the main actors relevant for the governance of CECs? What positions do they take and what strategies do they use to advance their interests? How can we explain diverging political party positions on how to address the issue? What factors are conducive for agreeing on adequate policy solutions? Does nexus thinking help to find more sustainable solutions? How does the uncertainty inherent in CECs affect individuals’ problem perception?

The goal of this research is to better understand conflicts over the regulation of novel foods - in particular genetically modified foods - and the reasons for opposition.