Performance indicators and the new governmentality of water utilities in France
| Date | 01 June 2017 |
| Published date | 01 June 2017 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0020852315589696 |
| Author | Yvan Renou |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
International Review of
Administrative Sciences
2017, Vol. 83(2) 378–396
!The Author(s) 2015
Reprints and permissions:
sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav
DOI: 10.1177/0020852315589696
journals.sagepub.com/home/ras
International
Review of
Administrative
Sciences
Article
Performance indicators and the
new governmentality of water
utilities in France
Yvan Renou
University of Grenoble Alpes, France
Abstract
This article aims to examine the potential transformation of practices triggered by the
introduction of performance indicators in the water utilities in France in the late 2000s.
We show that the transformative dynamic that, on the face of it, is brought about by this
new governance tool is put into question by the multitude of brakes (political, economic,
social and environmental) impeding its deployment. The article analyses the limits of the
system by applying Foucault’s governmentality approach, defined by the analytical frame-
work of the management tools as reformulated by Lascoumes and Le Gale
`s.
Points for practitioners
In particular, following the adoption of theWater Framework Directive in 2000, European
states havehad to streamline their drinking water and sanitation utilities.New methods of
regulation, borrowing more markedly than in the past from market logics, have thus
gradually taken hold. In this article, we examine the controversial performance indicators
of the water and sanitation utilities, whose effectiveness and legitimacy are regularly
questioned. We seek to clarify the structuring of the current debate and identify possible
ways to improve their functioning on the basis of the French case.
Keywords
good governance, modernisation, network, performance, transparency
Introduction
In a context marked by the proliferation of European directives dedicated to water
resources, as well as the increased defiance shown by users towards their water
utilities, quantifying performance by means of indicators emerged as a solution to
Corresponding author:
Yvan Renou, University of Grenoble Alpes, Centre de Recherches en Economie de Grenoble,
UPMF-GRENOLBE II, BP 47, 38040 Grenoble Cedex 9, France.
Email: yvan.renou@upmf-grenoble.fr
making it possible to ‘remotely’ govern the main operators (private and public) and
to consolidate their tarnished legitimacy. In France, since 2007, the regulations
have laid down a list of 29 performance indicators that these utilities must annually
prepare and submit to their users. The Ministry of Ecology and Sustainable
Development presents them as a tool to assess sustainable development covering
the whole spectrum of the operator’s functions (customer satisfaction, network
maintenance, efficient operation of equipment, etc.).
The purpose of this article is not to rehash in detail the genesis and the practical
operation of this new governance mechanism (Canneva and Guerin-Schneider,
2011a), nor to propose a precise and informed assessment of it given the absence
of sufficient historical perspective. Rather, it sets out to examine its potential for
transformation (of spaces, actors and infrastructures) in the light of the objectives
that governed its creation or its rationalisation after the fact (better regulation of a
local monopoly and integration of sustainable development objectives in particular).
As the discussion on the place and role of instruments in the management of
public resources and infrastructures is rather outdated (Ridley, 1927; Willcox,
1896), it is necessary to specify the analytical framework adopted and, in particular,
to explain its underlying principles. Building on the efforts recently made to sum-
marise the information (Modell, 2009; Pollitt, 2006), we will attempt to empirically
and theoretically inform three essential areas requiring the overlapping of know-
ledge (Modell, 2009: 278–279):
(i) Analysis of conflicts of institutional logics in the conduct of public policies:
beyond the traditional opposition between ‘structure’ and ‘agency’, recent
studies have, indeed, emphasised the institutional embedding of courses of
action and documented the resistance generated by the persistent institutiona-
lised fragmentation of actual practices (Thornton and Ocasio, 2008).
(ii) Analysis of the entanglement between economic and instrumental action and
the value systems structuring the social order: the aim is to better understand
how the roll-out of performance indicators may spawn new values within
organisations subject to institutional changes ‘imposed’ by the environment
(Lounsbury, 2008).
(iii) The sectoral analysis of multi-level governance: the study of the management
and measurement of performance is expected to shift towards the inclusion of
the organisation of the institutional mechanisms structuring different levels of
coordination within the same sector (Dillard et al., 2004).
To contribute to the deployment of this vast field of research, we will examine
the water utilities sector in France, drawing on two fundamental principles:
(i) The properties of the instruments, the constraints related to their use and
history, and the reasons for their choice should not be treated as secondary
issues. It is necessary to focus on the specificity of the instruments and break
away from the illusion of their neutrality (Theys, 2003).
Renou 379
To continue reading
Request your trial