Resilience thinking and the influence of street-level bureaucrats on the implementation of EU environmental policies in overseas territories: lessons from Gibraltar.

Abstract

The policy implementation literature has provided important insights on how policy formulation processes affect the achievement of policy goals and how street-level bureaucrats (SLBs) involved in policy implementation utilise coping mechanisms to overcome shortages in resources, expertise and other local constraints. However, it has struggled to provide a systematic analysis of how contextual factors influence the work of SLBs or the implications of their coping mechanisms for the functioning of implementation systems, particularly in smaller countries and non-states territories, where mismatches between policy requirements and resources are more acute. This thesis addresses these knowledge gaps by examining the implementation of the EU waste framework directive (WFD) in Gibraltar, a UK overseas territories which, until Brexit, was required to implement EU policies but had limited opportunities to influence policy design and experienced severe shortages in physical, expertise and financial resources to meet the WFD’s requirements. The thesis combines ideas from transition theory and resilience to develop more detailed understandings of how contextual factors shape policy implementation trajectories and how the coping mechanisms used by SLBs enable policy implementation systems to remain functional and adapt to external policy pressures. This research used a multi-method approach consisting of secondary document analysis, semi-structured interviews with actors involved in the Gibraltar policy process, focus groups with households, and participant observations of Gibraltar Environment Agency officer working environments. The research shows that, within the EU’s multi-level governance system, SLBs played a crucial role in developing a flexible policy implementation system. Resilience perspectives demonstrated how SLBs influenced the transposition of EU directives into Gibraltar law, engaged in multi-tasking and selective task prioritisation, and utilised their social capital with target groups to facilitate implementation with limited resources. Transition theory revealed how these coping mechanisms led to “lock-ins” and path dependencies that aided meeting day-to-day requirements but created vulnerabilities in the implementation system by not addressing systemic problems, such as under-investment in waste management facilities and public engagement with waste recycling. Two main conclusions emerge from the research: first, the role of SLBs in policy implementation deserves expanded attention because of their pivotal role in developing ways to meet policy requirements. The second is that combining transition and resilience approaches with existing policy implementation theories provides a useful perspective for capturing how contextual factors and the adaptive capacity of local actors affect policy implementation, particularly in overseas territories but also more generally, reflecting the widespread nature of policy implementation challenges.