Theoretical multiplicity for the governance of transitions. The energy producing greenhouse case

Transition management, as a theory of directing structural societal changes towards sustainable system innovations, has become a major topic in scientific research over the last years. In the Netherlands, the concept of transition management was adopted by several governmental agencies as one of the leading principles for steering sustainable development. In this paper we focus on the governance of transitions. The question is if and how transitions towards sustainability can be steered, governed or managed, in particular by governmental actors. We suggest an approach of theoretical multiplicity, arguing that multiple theories will be needed simultaneously for dealing with the complex societal sustainability issues. Therefore, we address the governance question by theoretically comparing transition management theory to a number of related theories on societal change and intervention, such as multi-actor collaboration, network governance, policy agenda setting and adaptive governance. We argue that these related theories put the managerial assumptions of transition management into perspective, by adding other steering roles and leadership mechanisms to the picture. We will illustrate the advantages of theoretical multiplicity by analysing the case of the greenhouse as a source of energy. The energy producing greenhouse can be considered a revolutionary technology, with the potential of turning the greenhouse horticultural sector from a mass energy consumer into a sustainable energy user and producer

Disentangling scale approaches in governance research: comparing monocentric, multilevel, and adaptive governance

The question of how to govern the multiscale problems in today’s network society is an important topic in the fields of public administration, political sciences, and environmental sciences. How scales are defined, studied, and dealt with varies substantially within and across these fields. This paper aims to reduce the existing conceptual confusion regarding scales by disentangling three representative approaches that address both governance and scaling: monocentric governance, multilevel governance, and adaptive governance. It does so by analyzing the differences in (1) underlying views on governing, (2) assumptions about scales, (3) dominant problem definitions regarding scales, and (4) preferred responses for dealing with multiple scales. Finally, this paper identifies research opportunities within and across these approaches

The value of theoretical multiplicity for steering transitions towards sustainability

Transition management, as a theory of directing structural societal changes towards sustainable system innovations, has become a major topic in scientific research over the last years. In this paper we focus on the question how transitions towards sustainability can be steered, governed or managed, in particular by governmental actors. We suggest an approach of theoretical multiplicity, arguing that multiple theories will be needed simultaneously for dealing with the complex societal sustainability issues. Therefore, we address the steering question by theoretically comparing transition management theory to a number of related theories on societal change and intervention, such as multi-actor collaboration, network governance, configuration management, policy agenda setting, and adaptive management. We conclude that these related theories put the managerial assumptions of transition management into perspective, by adding other steering roles and leadership mechanisms to the picture. Finally we argue that new modes of steering inevitable have consequences for the actual governance institutions. New ways of governing change ask for change within governance systems itself and vice versa. Our argument for theoretical multiplicity implicates the development of multiple, potentially conflicting, governance capacitie

Do scale frames matter? Scale frame mismatches in the decision making process of a 'mega farm' in a small Dutch village

Scale issues are an increasingly important feature of complex sustainability issues, but they are mostly taken for granted in policy processes. However, the scale at which a problem is defined as well as the scale at which it should be solved are potentially contentious issues. The framing of a problem as a local, regional, or global problem is not without consequences and influences processes of inclusion and exclusion. Little is known about the ways actors frame scales and the effect of different scale frames on decision making processes. This paper addresses the questions that different scale frames actors use and what the implications of scale frames are for policy processes. It does so by analyzing the scale frames deployed by different actors on the establishment of a so-called new mixed company or mega farm and the related decision making process in a Dutch municipality. We find that actors deploy different and conflicting scale frames, leading to scale frame mismatches. We conclude that scale frame mismatches play an important role in the stagnation of the decision making proces

Schaken met schalen

Het doel van dit essay is om beleidsmakers, onderzoekers, ondernemers en maatschappelijke partijen gevoelig te maken voor de verschillende schaalframes (interpretaties van betrokkenen waarin zij de kwestie op een bepaalde schaal en niveau plaatsen) over de intensieve veehouderij en de gevolgen die deze hebben voor besluitvormingsprocessen

Juridisch Kennismanagement in het IT-tijdperk

Gegevens, informatie en kennis worden voor organisaties van steeds groter belang. Zij worden steeds meer beschouwd als producten waarvan de waarde wordt bepaald door vraag en aanbod. Dit wordt mede veroorzaakt door de steeds verdergaande invloed van informatietechnologie (IT). Voor sommige organisaties zijn informatie en kennis inmiddels de belangrijkste productiefactoren geworden. Dit geldt ook, en zelfs in sterke mate, voor juridische organisaties. Deze dienen te beschikken over steeds meer juridische kennis en informatie om hun taak naar behoren te kunnen uitvoeren. Juridische informatie en kennis zijn vastgelegd in een breed scala van documenten en worden steeds vaker aangeboden via elektronische media. De vorm van de oorspronkelijke documenten, en daarmee ook de inhoud, ondergaat daarbij deels veranderingen, evenals de wijze waarop zij kunnen worden geraadpleegd. Dit onderzoek voorziet in een eerste inventarisatie en analyse van de wijze waarop juristen met informatiestromen omgaan, alsmede van de rol die IT hierbij speelt. Daartoe werd onderzoek gedaan bij organisaties die een juridische taak vervullen: gemeenten met wel/geen vergaande automatisering. Voorts wordt nagegaan in hoeverre IT een geschikt hulpmiddel is voor het kanaliseren van de steeds toenemende stroom gegevens, informatie en kennis en in welke omgeving dit het best tot zijn recht komt

The role of knowledge and power in climate change adaptation governance: a systematic literature review

The long-term character of climate change and the high costs of adaptation measures, in combination with their uncertain effects, turn climate adaptation governance into a torturous process. We systematically review the literature on climate adaptation governance to analyze the scholarly understanding of these complexities. Building on governance literature about long-term and complex policy problems, we develop a conceptual matrix based on the dimensions knowledge and power to systematically study the peer-reviewed literature on climate adaptation governance. We find that about a quarter of the reviewed journal articles do not address the knowledge or power dimension of the governance of climate change adaptation, about half of the articles discuss either the knowledge or the power dimension, and another quarter discuss both knowledge and power. The articles that do address both knowledge and power (1) conceptualize the governance of climate adaptation mainly as a complex system of regulatory frameworks and technical knowledge, (2) assume that regulatory systems can be easily adapted to new knowledge, (3) pay little attention to fluid or unorganized forms of power, e.g., negotiation, and knowledge, e.g., learning, and (4) largely neglect the interplay between the two. We argue that more research on this interplay is needed, and we discuss how puzzling and powering are a promising pair of concepts to study this

Cooperation and trust in the context of decentralization reforms in rural Tanzania

This paper investigates the impact of decentralization reforms on cooperation and trust at the village level in Tanzania, using a gender perspective. The paper draws on survey and qualitative data from ten villages in two rural districts. The findings show that the reforms have revitalized 'formal’ cooperative efforts and social networks and groups aimed at improving public services and poverty reduction. Citizen’s participation in decision-making processes and users’ satisfaction with public services are significantly related to social and political trust, in which gender plays a role as well. There is a two-way interface between trust and decentralization reforms. ‘Good’ decentralization outcomes generate trust while ‘bad’ outcomes decrease trust. Key Words: Decentralization, cooperation, gender, political trust, social trust

When CSR meets plural legal order: can palm oil companies do better than public authorities by committing to zero-deforestation in Indonesia?

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has been seen as the manifestation of corporate citizenship or the contribution of corporations as part of society. As such, the initiatives and activities within the scope of CSR are often aimed at contributing to the society’s greater good. However, little has been discussed on the significance and implications of CSR activities in the context of plural, often conflicting, legal orders. This paper discusses a particular case when a CSR initiative overlaps with global private and national public regulations on sustainability. One of the most controversial issues in public and political debates on sustainability is the expansion of palm oil as a global commodity at the expense of forests in Indonesia. The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) and its standard launched in 2007 is a private multi-stakeholder regulation and was the only regulatory authority at both the global and national level to set rules for sustainable palm oil in palm oil producing countries. This changed when Indonesia, being the largest producer and exporter of palm oil, launched the mandatory Indonesian Sustainable Palm Oil (ISPO) standard in 2011. Palm oil buyers generally demand compliance with the RSPO standard, while Indonesia insists that ISPO is the mandatory standard for palm oil producers in Indonesia. As a result, the regulatory system to govern sustainable palm oil in Indonesia has changed from a singular to a plural system. This plural legal order has become more diversified and complicated when in 2014 four very large palm oil companies committing themselves to zero deforestation production of palm oil through self-regulation and establishing the platform of the Indonesian Palm Oil Pledge (IPOP). Self-regulation is seen as one of the ‘new’ forms of CSR (Auld et al. 2008). The companies’ self-regulation may overlap with the requirements of the RSPO and ISPO. At the same time, their self-regulation may also conflict with the national regulation on plantations, which stipulate that concession holders cannot leave their entitlements idle and must clear the land to plant the oil palm.We analyze the process through which the large palm oil companies promote zero-deforestation and navigate across different regulatory authorities and systems. For this purpose, we use the concept of interlegality (de Sousa-Santos 1987), that refers to interactions between different standards, norms, principles among different legal orders. We also use the concept of governance interactions (Eberlein et al. 2014) to explore whether and how interactions at the actor level can be characterized in terms of competition, cooperation, cooptation or chaos. The paper contributes to policy debate on CSR in plural legal order by reflecting on the inception of the Indonesian Palm Oil Pledge (IPOP) and the interactions of IPOP with Indonesian public authorities, leading to the termination of IPOP. The paper concludes that good intentions of zero-deforestation and sustainability standards of private companies that are stricter than those of public authorities, are not necessarily well accepted by these authorities. On the contrary, collective organization of CSR may be considered a threat to public authorities, certainly when these authorities perceive the standards as influenced by foreign powers and not beneficial for smallholders