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4 Discussion
eThekwini’s network of green and ecological infrastructures aspires to improve the
well-being of its residents through a variety of motivated declarations, such as biodiversity improvement, climate change adaptation and mitigation, socio-economic and
sustainable development, as well as improved water security, through the overarching
notion of ecosystem service delivery. This means that water security is not the only
focal point of the infrastructure types, but it is an indirect favourable consequence,
together with other favourable outcomes, such as job creation.
I argue that a shift towards the benefits of ecosystem services should not come at
the expense of normativity. The empirical benefits of ecosystem services in natural
open areas are well-known in the natural sciences. Nonetheless, there is a paucity of
normative aspects surrounding such services, because natural scientists view their
advantages from an empirical cause-and-effect dogma. Therefore, there should not
only be a balanced move away from the science- and data-driven epistemology of grey
infrastructures (p. 8), towards the inclusion of green and ecological infrastructures
that are based on a similar epistemology. The move should also include a normative
ontology that focuses not only the concept of the material benefits, but also on the
values and benefits for society. The PULSE
3 analysis reveals that eThekwini mixes
and matches green and ecological infrastructures, but it does not mix and match
empiricism and positivism with interpretivism and normativity, when developing
and implementing the infrastructure types. The standard practice around green and
ecological infrastructure policies and enterprises should, therefore, note how city
dwellers’ intersubjectively view and appraise the benefits of these infrastructure
types. This means that the city planners and natural scientists who are involved in
green and ecological infrastructure initiatives require an epistemological revolution
towards a broader ontological realisation. This should help to relieve the ideological
tension between the green and ecological infrastructures and the grey infrastructures,
from an epistemological and ontological perspective. In other words, the technocratic
thinking that informs the technocratic-infused governance system that I observed in
eThekwini, should also have an intersubjectively-informed normative focus.
This means that an exclusive positivist viewpoint, which is infused with a
liberal institutionalist and systemic constructivist perspective, is operating in the
policy landscape. This creates an epistocracy in eThekwini that is epistemologically,
methodologically and ontologically exclusive.
4.2 Self-Reflection and Exclusivity
At this point, I would also like to reflect on the development of my knowledge around
green and ecological infrastructures. When I conceived this project, my plan was to
investigate how green infrastructures influence eThekwini’s water security, and my
exclusive focus was to be on the interdependence that exists between them. During
my open-ended (p. 54) data gathering and analysis activities, I realised that water
security is not central in eThekwini’s green infrastructure policy landscape; on the
4 Discussion
eThekwini’s network of green and ecological infrastructures aspires to improve the
well-being of its residents through a variety of motivated declarations, such as biodiversity improvement, climate change adaptation and mitigation, socio-economic and
sustainable development, as well as improved water security, through the overarching
notion of ecosystem service delivery. This means that water security is not the only
focal point of the infrastructure types, but it is an indirect favourable consequence,
together with other favourable outcomes, such as job creation.
I argue that a shift towards the benefits of ecosystem services should not come at
the expense of normativity. The empirical benefits of ecosystem services in natural
open areas are well-known in the natural sciences. Nonetheless, there is a paucity of
normative aspects surrounding such services, because natural scientists view their
advantages from an empirical cause-and-effect dogma. Therefore, there should not
only be a balanced move away from the science- and data-driven epistemology of grey
infrastructures (p. 8), towards the inclusion of green and ecological infrastructures
that are based on a similar epistemology. The move should also include a normative
ontology that focuses not only the concept of the material benefits, but also on the
values and benefits for society. The PULSE
3 analysis reveals that eThekwini mixes
and matches green and ecological infrastructures, but it does not mix and match
empiricism and positivism with interpretivism and normativity, when developing
and implementing the infrastructure types. The standard practice around green and
ecological infrastructure policies and enterprises should, therefore, note how city
dwellers’ intersubjectively view and appraise the benefits of these infrastructure
types. This means that the city planners and natural scientists who are involved in
green and ecological infrastructure initiatives require an epistemological revolution
towards a broader ontological realisation. This should help to relieve the ideological
tension between the green and ecological infrastructures and the grey infrastructures,
from an epistemological and ontological perspective. In other words, the technocratic
thinking that informs the technocratic-infused governance system that I observed in
eThekwini, should also have an intersubjectively-informed normative focus.
This means that an exclusive positivist viewpoint, which is infused with a
liberal institutionalist and systemic constructivist perspective, is operating in the
policy landscape. This creates an epistocracy in eThekwini that is epistemologically,
methodologically and ontologically exclusive.
4.2 Self-Reflection and Exclusivity
At this point, I would also like to reflect on the development of my knowledge around
green and ecological infrastructures. When I conceived this project, my plan was to
investigate how green infrastructures influence eThekwini’s water security, and my
exclusive focus was to be on the interdependence that exists between them. During
my open-ended (p. 54) data gathering and analysis activities, I realised that water
security is not central in eThekwini’s green infrastructure policy landscape; on the