ABSTRACT
The purpose of the following chapter is to prepare the case studies in chapters four and five. It will describe the external expectations and demands that are addressed to local administration in Germany when implementing the federal waste policy. In accordance with the general framework sketched in the preceding chapters, the description is guided by the following questions: How precise are the demands for local waste management? Are there contradictions in the expectations the administration has to fulfil? Thus, to which degree do these demands create ambiguities for the organisations? The answers to these questions lead to the uncertainty absorbing capacity of these external expectations. The lower this capacity, the more the organisations have to provide for certainty with their own, internal structural adaptations. This is supposed to be the precondition for decision making under risk. These structural adaptations will then be analysed in the two case studies.
