Regions on their way to sustainability: the role of institutions in fostering sustainable development at the regional level

Sustainable regional development as a politically requested concept challenges regions within the European Union since the Amsterdam Treaty 1997. A growing body of literature identifies cooperation between stakeholder groups as one of the limiting factors for implementing sustainable regional strategies. This leads to the question, how cooperation within a region could be organised. How can institutions support the implementation process of sustainable development on the regional level? Regional institutions are both supporters of cooperation between regional stakeholders and key players in regional development processes. Their connections strengthen the importance of networks in the sustainable regional development process.     

The role of ad hoc networks in supporting climate change adaptation: a case study from the Southeastern United States

To examine the factors that support adaptation within a regional and sectoral context, this article explores five climate-sensitive sectors in North and South Carolina (Forestry, Government Administration, Tourism, Water Management, and Wildlife Management) and the role of partnerships, collaborations, and networks in facilitating climate adaptation and related activities. Drawing from 117 online questionnaires and interviews with sector leaders across the Carolinas, the article highlights several key functions of networks in regard to supporting adaptation—intra-sector information sharing; monitoring, data collection, and research; and education and outreach. Furthermore, the analysis examines how climate networks in the region have facilitated the development of bonding, bridging, and linking social capital while also noting factors that have constrained the growth and success of both intra- and cross-sector collaboration. Although no formal, or discrete, state or regional cross-sector climate change network exists in the Carolinas, climate adaptations and capacity-building efforts have been supported by ad hoc and decentralized networks, emerging collegial partnerships within and across sectors, and collaborative efforts to pool expertise and resources. The role of different forms of social capital within these networks is discussed in the context of a contentious political environment where support for activities designed to address climate change is limited. These findings enhance our understanding of the social factors and relational processes that shape and influence capacity to adapt to climate change.     

Homophily and Agency: Creating Effective Sustainable Development Networks

Community networks are self-organized groupings that form for many different reasons. Some networks, connected mainly through bonding ties, are based on personal interests and relationships; others, based mainly on bridging ties, centre around broader interests. These networks form to create collective agency for engaging with social, environmental, and other issues through the concentration of social capital. The multi-scaled and evolutionary nature of sustainable development issues requires that community groups dedicated to engaging with such issues be particularly diverse, resilient, and flexible. As such, they must build a large number of bridging ties leading to external resources and limit the potential for bonding ties to impose constraining norms upon the group. Over time, however, volunteer groups tend towards a state of homophily, the tendency of groups to form from similar actors and then become more similar with time. This tendency leads to a decrease in the number of the bridging ties that help to provide group agency. Homophily must be actively recognized within community sustainable development groups if they are to remain effective over the long term. This paper suggests methods to prevent and control group homophily drawn from experience in forming small, time-limited sustainable development networks. Readers should send their comments on this paper to: BhaskarNath@aol.com within 3 months of publication of this issue     

社会网络异质性对果农有机肥替代化肥技术模式采用行为的影响

研究果农有机肥替代化肥技术采用行为对完善我国化肥减量与有机肥增施政策具有重要的现实意义.基于陕西省苹果种植户的调查数据,分析社会网络异质性对果农有机肥替代化肥技术模式采用行为的影响.研究表明:社会网络异质性对果农有机肥替代化肥技术模式采用的影响存在差异.用果农与亲友邻里的交流程度表征的横向社会网络对果农"有机肥+配方肥"模式的采用有显著正向影响.用果农与肥料零售商的交流程度和是否加入合作社表征的前向和斜向社会网络对果农"有机肥+水肥一体化"模式的采用有显著正向影响.用果农与苹果收购商是否签订销售合同表征的后向社会网络对果农"有机肥+配方肥"及"自然生草+绿肥"模式的采用有显著正向影响,而社会网络对果农"果-沼-畜"模式的采用影响不显著.因此,提出发展合同生产模式、促进果农间互助合作、促进果农与有机肥零售商交流,通过新媒体等信息渠道提高果农有机肥认知,进而促进果农有机肥替代技术模式采用的政策建议.     

Policy networks,stakeholder interactions and climate adaptation in the region of South East Queensland,Australia

The strategic use of science in regional policy-making forums often assumes collaborative interactions between stakeholders. However, other types of stakeholder interactions are possible. This paper uses the ecology of games to frame an investigation into stakeholder participation in the policy networks for regional climate change planning for South East Queensland, Australia. We tracked organisational participation in policy forums between 2008 and 2012. We then used a novel bipartite network theoretical approach to identify participation by different types of organisations across shared multiple forums, which we argue prefaces: cooperation, collaboration, support or advocacy. Network analysis was then combined with semi-structured interviews to access how scientific information was utilised across the regional network. Our results suggest that stakeholder interactions were predominately used to advocate for organisational agendas. Advocacy artificially narrows the scope of possible policy options and represents a biased, selective use of information. While advocacy is an important part of policy process, as a counter balance, explicit efforts are needed to recurrently expand the scope of policy options.     

Regional Research Capacity-Building in Sustainability Science: Facts,Gaps, and Futures in Northeast Asia

Abstract

Evidence shows that some conceptual ideas relevant to both local and global sustainability have been adopted in some official documents in northeast Asian nations, particularly China, South Korea, and Japan. This seems to be a very positive signal for the future development of sustainability science in this region. However, studyes show that there are still some major gaps there. One is the problem of how to build up the regional research capacity of sustainability science among northeast Asian research institutes across different disciplines as well as different political systems. Another is how to shift the conceptual frameworks of sustainability science into the operational policy frameworks. There are four major obstacles to the enhancement of regional research capacity-building in sustainability science. In order to build up the regional research capacity in sustainability science and to realize both local and global goals of the sustainable development in northeast Asia, this paper proposes some basic frameworks, including regional institutional innovations, establishment of a regional sustainability information network, initiatives of the regional assessment programme, and focus on the regional education and training of sustainability knowledge.     

Linking planetary boundaries and ecosystem accounting,with an illustration for the Colombian Orinoco river basin

Economic development has increased pressures on natural resources during the last decades. The concept of planetary boundaries has been developed to propose limits on human activities based on earth processes and ecological thresholds. However, this concept was not developed to downscale planetary boundaries to sub-global level. The absence of boundaries at sub-global levels constrains the use of the concept in environmental governance and natural resource management, because decisions are typically taken at these levels. Decisions at the national level are currently supported, among others, by statistical frameworks in particular the System of National Accounts. However, statistical frameworks were not developed to compile environmental information, hindering environmental decision making. Our study examines if and how ecosystem accounting can be used in combination with the concept of planetary boundaries in guiding human activities at the level of a river basin. We assess the applicability of both frameworks for natural resource management in the Orinoco river basin, based on adaptive management components. Our analysis indicates that differences in the purpose of analysis, information provided, and methods constrain the potential integration of both frameworks. Nevertheless, the way both frameworks conceptualize the social system and the interactions between social and ecological systems can facilitate translating planetary boundaries into indicators considered in ecosystem accounting. The information recorded in national ecosystem accounts can support establishing ecological thresholds and, more fundamentally, to relate ecological thresholds to human impacts on ecosystem condition. Capitalizing on these synergies requires further exchange of experiences between the communities working on ecosystem accounting and planetary boundaries.

     

China’s Regional Policies: Progress of the 11th Five Year Plan Period and Prospect of the 12th Five Year Plan Period

Abstract

During the 11^th Five Year Plan period, China improved its policy system for the overall strategy of regional development, and established and completed the policies intended for the promotion of regional cooperation and interaction. Thereupon, regional development in China took on a series of positive changes such as the enhancement of coordination. During the 12^th Five Year Plan period, China will fully implement and continuously improve the policy measures for development in its four major regions, strengthen differentiated guidance to different regions in line with the planning for major function-oriented zones, and accelerate the establishment of basic systems that facilitate coordinated regional development.     

农村社区小型水利设施合作供给意愿的实证

本文基于社会资本视角,在现有文献的基础上,将社会资本分为社会网络、社会信任、社会声望、社会参与四个维度,利用6省区600户农户的调查资料,运用logistic模型分析了农户参与小型水利设施合作供给意愿的影响因素。研究结果表明,社会资本对农户小型水利设施合作供给意愿有积极作用。社会资本不同维度中,除社会声望对合作意愿影响不显著外,社会网络、社会信任、社会参与对农户参与小型水利设施合作供给意愿均有显著正向影响,说明农户的合作供给实现应该充分利用社会资本。此外,农户参与小型水利设施合作供给意愿还受其他因素影响,其中合作认知和灌溉面积对农户参与小型水利设施供给的合作意愿有显著正向影响,而家庭收入、是否偷水和用水纠纷对合作意愿有显著负向影响。提出应通过培育农户社会资本、规范社区用水环境、提高合作认知程度等措施,提高农户参与农村社区小型水利设施合作供给积极性的政策建议。     

Farming dynamics and social capital: A case study in the urban fringe of Mexico City

Urban development has important implications for farmland preservation and natural resource management in local peri-urban communities. Social science research on recent changes in rural landscape of mega-cities tends to be limited to case studies in Latin-American nations. This study analyses the socioecomic dynamics of farming land use and the interactions between multiple cultural variables and the environment. Fieldwork was carried out during the 2002–2003 period in rural livelihoods of the five high mountain towns of south Mexico City. Data obtained from participatory survey and ethnographic techniques were integrated to assess changes in rural landscape and resource management and how urbanization, deforestation and market oriented agricultural production result in different livelihoods within a similar urban fringe context. The dynamic of mixture of urban and rural landscapes is based on farm productivity and social capital factors. The study concludes that policy support for regional agricultural production systems through enhancing ecosystems services, environmental protection and economic development is needed for sustainable development of local communities. Readers should send their comments on this paper to BhaskarNath@aol.com within 3 months of publication of this issue     

Regional Research Capacity -Building inSustainability Science:Facts, Gaps, and Futures in Northeast Asia

Evidence shows that some conceptual ideas relevant to both local and global sustainability have been adopted in some official documents in northeast Asian nations, particularly China, South Korea, and Japan. This seems to be a very positive signal for the future development of sustainability science in this region. However,studyes show that there are still some major gaps there. One is the problem of how to build up the regional research capacity of sustainability science among northeast Asian research institutes across different disciplines as well as different political systems. Another is how to shift the conceptual frameworks of sustainability science into the operational policy frameworks. There are four major obstacles to the enhancement of regional research capacity-building in sustainability science. In order to build up the regional research capacity in sustainability science and to realize both local and global goals of the sustainable development in northeast Asia, this paper proposes some ba     

Educating for sustainable production and consumption and sustainable livelihoods: learning from multi-stakeholder networks

This paper examines how education for sustainable development (ESD) can be concretely advanced using the theoretical approaches of sustainable consumption and production (SCP) and sustainable livelihoods (SL). Five case examples illustrate a diverse set of strategic educational interventions focusing on: (1) education of specific organizational actors about these theoretical frameworks illustrated with case examples (such as SCP training by the United Nations University Institute of Advanced Studies [UNU-IAS] and CSR-Asia of government and business representatives), (2) regional education strategies focused on production and consumption in specific sectors (such as the food sector in Sk?ne, Sweden), (3) social learning directed at innovation for sustainable development (such as competitions of solar boats developed by universities in the region of Friesland, the Netherlands), (4) education of consumers and firms made possible by the adoption of certification systems affirming SCP and SL (such as Cradle-to-Cradle certification of a paper company in the Netherlands or the establishment of Fair Trade cities in Sweden), or (5) reorienting communities to address underutilized productive physical capital within communities (such as the sharing productive capital project in rural areas of Saskatchewan, Canada). The cases are drawn from the projects that the UNU-IAS, four of its regional centers of expertise (RCE) on ESD and other affiliates have conducted. In addition to documenting the educational processes emerging from specific regions, the paper highlights findings related to the success of these projects and opportunities for further research, including regional and inter-regional approaches.     

China＇s Regional Policies： Progress of the 11^th Five Year Plan Period and Prospect of the 12^th Five Year Plan Period

During the 11^th Five Year Plan period, China improved its policy system for the overall strategy of regional development, and established and completed the policies intended for the promotion of regional cooperation and interaction. Thereupon, regional development in China took on a series of positive changes such as the enhancement of coordination. During the 12^th Five Year Plan period, China will fully implement and continuously improve the policy measures for development in its four major regions, strengthen differentiated guidance to different regions in line with the planning for major function-oriented zones, and accelerate the establishment of basic systems that facilitate coordinated regional development.     

社会资本与经济增长及环境影响的关系研究

"社会资本"作为一个多维度的概念,近年来引起了全世界的广泛关注。大量证据已证明,高水平的社会资本是生态、社会和经济职责和谐过程的先决条件,社会资本对于促进经济增长、缓解贫困、提高工程绩效、管理自然资源与保护环境非常关键。本文阐释了社会资本概念,分析了社会资本的主要成分、分析层次及主要类型等维度,指出社会资本的主要成分包括网络、规范、制裁,分析层次包括个体、中观、宏观,主要类型包括结合型、沟通型、联系型;在此基础上,梳理总结了社会资本与经济增长及环境影响关系的国际研究进展,阐释了社会资本促进经济增长、影响生态环境的作用机理,分析了社会资本与适应能力的关系,简要介绍了国际上理解和研究社会系统与关键资源之间的相互作用和影响的思想框架。最后,讨论分析了社会资本与经济增长、环境影响的关系研究中需要进一步完善的问题。     

生态资本运营机制:基于绿色发展的分析

生态资本是一种重要的资本形态,要实现经济社会的绿色发展,必须重视生态资源节约利用和生态环境建设,建立健全生态资本运营机制,促进生态资本的良性运营,以维持生态资本存量的非减性。本研究在全球绿色转型与绿色发展背景下,采用生态经济学和系统分析方法,探讨如何突破我国经济社会发展面临的资源约束和环境压力,提出建立健全生态资本运营机制的基本构想和分析框架。本研究认为,生态资本运营的内核和目标与绿色发展的要求是完全一致的,完善的生态资本运营机制框架体系应包括生态资本运营的积累机制、转换机制、补偿机制和激励机制。"积累机制"是一般资本运营所具备的步骤,"转换机制"是生态资本运营特有的步骤和内在过程,正是生态资本运营的特殊性,同时需要建立健全"补偿机制"和"激励机制",这是生态资本运营的外在保障措施。因此,要充分调动政府、市场和社会力量参与生态资本运营的积极性,促进生态资本的可持续利用,最终实现经济社会的绿色发展。     

长江中游城市群城市土地利用效率空间溢出效应研究

城市群城市土地利用效率是城市群城市土地要素有效配置、合理利用以及城市经营管理水平的综合体现。在使用DEA方法得到2003～2015年长江中游城市群28个城市土地利用效率并且分析其变化趋势以及空间关联性的基础上,构建SDM模型对长江中游城市群的城市土地利用效率空间溢出效应进行分析。研究结果表明：（1）2003～2015年长江中游城市群城市土地利用效率总体呈波动变化趋势。长江中游城市群城市土地利用效率存在空间负相关关系,城市土地利用效率具有空间异质性;（2）通过构建SDM模型分析表明,外商直接投资额以及人均地区生产总值是长江中游城市群城市土地利用效率的主要驱动因素;（3）长江中游城市群城市土地利用效率的空间溢出效应较弱,在一定程度上反映了长江中游城市群城市之间的空间相互作用较弱,经济联系还不够紧密。因此,长江中游城市群需要进一步构建城市合作机制,提高城市土地利用系统的整体性和联动性,推进区域经济协同发展。     

Exploring regional futures,tools and methodologies

The new English regional governance framework presents fresh opportunities to direct regional development in a more sustainable direction. However, for the North West region it is yet to be seen how these aspirations can be reconciled with the strong 'pro-growth' aims of the regional economic strategy. Within this context, the nature and findings of two interlinked projects which aimed to investigate and model regional development processes are presented. The first, 4-sight, is a resource flow audit for the promotion of sustainable resource management. Focusing on mineral flows, a mass balance methodology is used to facilitate a clearer connection between the use of resources and the generation of waste. Findings from 4-sight were then used in a second project, Atlas^NW, involving the development of a digital atlas and future scenario model. Both projects make a useful contribution to the regional sustainability agenda through providing data and tools to underpin decision-making. Electronic Publication     

Science, Research, Knowledge and Capacity Building

A small part of the scientific community is seeking hard to enhance the contribution of science, knowledge and capacity building to environmentally sustainable and socially fair human development around the world. Many researchers over the globe share the same commitment – anchored in concerns for the human condition. They believe that science and research can and have influenced sustainability. Therefore their main goals are to seek and build up knowledge, know-how and capacity that might help to feed, nurture, house, educate and employ the world's growing human population while conserving its basic life support systems and biodiversity. They undertake projects, that are essentially integrative, and they try to connect the natural, social and engineering sciences, environment and development of communities, multiple stakeholders, geographic and temporal scales. More generally, scientists engaged in sustainable development are bridging the worlds of knowledge and action. This pro-active, heavily ethics- and wisdom-based "science for sustainability" can be seen as the conclusion of all dialogues and discussions amongst scientists at the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) 2002 in Johannesburg. The "Plan of Implementation" after WSSD will be based on political will, practical steps and partnerships with time-bound actions. Several "means of implementation" are going to be proofed and initiated: finance, trade, transfer of environmentally sound technology, and, last but not least, science and capacity building.Some characteristics of working scientific sustainability initiatives are that they are regional, place-based and solution-oriented. They are focusing at intermediate scales where multiple stresses intersect, where complexity is manageable, where integration is possible, where innovation happens, and where significant transitions toward sustainability can start bottom-up. And they have a fundamental character, addressing the unity of the nature – society system, asking how that interactive system is evolving and how it can be consciously, if imperfectly, steered through the reflective mobilization and application of appropriate knowledge and know-how. The aims of such sustainability-building initiatives conducted by researchers are: first to make significant progress toward expanding and deepening the research agenda of science and knowledge-building for sustainability; secondly to strengthen the infrastructure and capacity for conducting and applying science, research and technology for sustainability – everywhere in the world where it is needed; and thirdly, to connect science, policy and decision-making more effectively in pursuit of a faster transition towards real sustainable development. The overall characteristic is, that sustainability initiatives are mainly open-ended networks and dialogues for the better future. A world society that tries to turn towards sustainable development has to work hard to refine their clumsy technologies, in "earthing" their responsibility to all creatures and resources, in establishing democratic systems in peace and by heeding human rights, in building up global solidarity through all mankind and in commit themselves to a better life for the next generations.     

社会组织参与区域合作治理进化博弈模型

社会多元化与公民社会的快速发展,促使社会组织参与社会治理和应急响应的诉求与能力日益加强,驱动着政府职能变革和区域治理方式创新。区域合作治理过程中,治理主体依据情景态势调整策略,影响其他主体的治理收益和策略选择,形成复杂的动态博弈关系。本文把握政府与社会组织的动态博弈行为特征,确定区域合作治理的博弈支付矩阵与复制动态方程,构建区域政府与社会组织合作治理进化博弈模型。分析得出5个可能的均衡点,通过雅可比矩阵分析均衡点的稳定性,可知政府与社会组织合作治理进化博弈的长期稳定策略集为{(合作,合作),(不合作,不合作)}。模型结果分析表明,合作收益直接影响着博弈稳定策略的进化方向,收益大于成本是政府与社会组织选择合作策略的必要条件,任一方的合作收益小于成本,选择独立行动是双方的占优策略,最终的策略选择与政府和社会组织合作所获取的超额收益、支付成本及合作水平密切相关。合作超额收益增加或合作水平提升时,博弈系统向(合作,合作)演化的概率加大;合作成本增加时,博弈系统向(不合作,不合作)演化的概率加大。制度规范不健全、组织信任缺失、社会组织力量薄弱等因素影响进化均衡结果,社会组织创新发展氛围尚未形成、自组织性和自律性内生动力不足,是制约社会组织参与合作治理的关键问题。基于此,提出社会组织参与区域合作治理的协调机制及培育机制,具体策略包括:明确权责关系、畅通参与渠道、创新合作形式,以及优化管理制度、让渡成长空间和树立社会公信。     

Developing an integrated framework to assess agri-food systems and its application in the Ecuadorian Andes

Agri-food systems assessment can be performed following official and alternative framings, each linked to different objects of study, methods of analysis, and policy responses. Alternative frames conceptualize agri-food systems as the integration and interaction of humans and the agro-environment (i.e., as socio-ecological systems). This conceptualization allows studying the cross-level, cross-scale, and nonlinear interactions within and between the components of the system and help assess policy proposals, such as food sovereignty, in a more systemic way. To facilitate this, we link reflections and methodologies from complex system thinking and vulnerability studies applied to agri-food systems to propose an integrated framework of assessment, which links the agroecological context and the social function of agriculture, considering actor’s agency and institutional processes. This framework is suitable to analyze agri-food systems in fragile and marginal environments such as the Andean region. We apply the framework to assess vulnerability of local agri-food systems to global change in the southern Ecuadorian Andes, taking into account the role of peasant institutions (agroecological associations, comunas) and indigenous culture. The framework also allows understanding how agri-food policies change the configuration of agri-food systems and determines whether these changes are consistent with communities’ livelihoods reproduction.