Transnational multistakeholder partnerships for sustainable development: Conditions for success

This perspective discusses nine conditions for enhancing the performance of multistakeholder partnerships for sustainable development. Such partnerships have become mainstream implementation mechanisms for attaining international sustainable development goals and are also frequently used in other adjacent policy domains such as climate change, health and biodiversity. While multistakeholder arrangements are widely perceived as a positive contribution to addressing global change, few studies have systematically evaluated the existing evidence for their positive performance. This poses an urgent and important challenge for researchers and practitioners to understand and improve the effectiveness of partnerships, in particular since their popularity increases despite their past track record. The recommendations presented are based on own research, a literature survey and discussions with a large number or international Civil Society Organizations at two occasions during 2014. This article proceeds as follows: first, we define multistakeholder partnerships, outline their rational and summarize available assessments on partnership success; second, we provide a set of concrete recommendations based on lessons-learned from over 10 years of scholarship; and third, we conclude with some reflections on the future of multistakeholder governance for sustainability.     

Defending dissensus: participatory governance and the politics of water measurement in Montana’s Yellowstone River Basin

The role of a particular aspect of collaboration, dissensus, in stimulating critical reconsideration of ‘prior appropriation’, a historically hegemonic condition related to water rights in the western United States, is examined via a collaborative planning effort in Montana. Consensual support for a water-use measuring proposal was undermined by strong libertarian resistance to governmental regulation, and an unwavering embrace of the status quo. However, based on insights from scholars engaged in the ‘post-political’ dimensions of contemporary forms of rule – dissensus – understood as the manifestation of consensus-forestalling disagreement articulated between oppositional voices – is revealed as a condition to be actively nurtured, rather than purged. This case reveals how dissensus can open discursive spaces for hegemony-disrupting modes of inquiry, alternative perspectives, and innovative possibilities, even among sanctioned participant voices operating within otherwise established, depoliticized governing arenas. The study thus deepens our understanding of the complex political dynamics of participatory water planning.     

The environmental nation state in decline

The environmental nation state is not a formal category but a substantive one. The current set of national environmental state institutions originated in the late 1960s/1970s but has since changed in character. Many scholars note that since the new millennium, the environmental nation state in OECD countries is losing power and authority and is thus in decline, in line with wider concerns about the positions of states versus markets under conditions of (neo-liberal) globalisation. Assessing the decline of environmental nation state authority, three conclusions are drawn. States do not lose power in all sectors vis-à-vis markets. Hence, environmental nation state decline does not follow a general tendency. Second, the decline of environmental nation state powers cannot be equated with less effective or lower levels of environmental protection, as other environmental authorities have stepped in, and the jury is still out on their environmental effectiveness. Third, declining powers of environmental nation state institutions increasingly become a self-fulfilling prophecy of environmental policymakers, but non-state environmental authorities cannot take over all environmental state functions.     

高原夏季西风异常年500 hPa纬向风季节内振荡特征及其与我国降水的关系

利用NCEP/NCAR日平均再分析资料及中国596个测站日降水资料,采用带通滤波、小波功率谱、合成分析、相关分析等方法对青藏高原夏季西风异常年500 hPa纬向风季节内振荡特征及其与我国降水和大气环流的关系进行了分析,结果表明：青藏高原夏季500 hPa纬向风季节内振荡以40～60 d周期为主;该季节内振荡在高原西风异常年份表现出异常的传播特征;且高原西风增强年份,我国30°N~40°N范围内的低频降水与高原低频纬向风几乎为同位相,30°N以南地区的低频降水与高原低频纬向风几乎为反位相,东北地区的低频降水落后于高原低频纬向风约1/4位相;高原西风减弱年份,江淮以北的我国北方大部分地区低频降水与高原低频纬向风几乎同位相,江淮地区的低频降水落后于高原低频纬向风约1/4位相。低频降水与低频环流有较好的配置关系     

Leadership and lesson-drawing in the European Union’s multilevel climate governance system

ABSTRACT

The important role that climate leaders and leadership play at different levels of the European Union (EU) multilevel governance system is exemplified. Initially, climate leader states set the pace with ambitious policy measures that were adopted largely on an ad hoc basis. Since the mid-1980s, the EU has developed a multilevel climate governance system that has facilitated leadership and lesson-drawing at all governance levels including the local level. The EU has become a global climate policy leader by example although it had been set up as a ‘leaderless Europe’. The resulting ‘leadership without leader’ paradox cannot be sufficiently explained merely by reference to top-level EU climate policies. Local-level climate innovations and lesson-drawing have increasingly been encouraged by the EU’s multilevel climate governance system which has become more polycentric. The recognition of economic co-benefits of climate policy measures has helped to further the EU’s climate leadership role.     

Framing Climate Change for Public Deliberation: What Role for Interpretive Social Sciences and Humanities?

Public deliberation is increasingly marshalled as a viable avenue for climate governance. Although climate change can be framed in multiple ways, it is widely assumed that the only relevant public meaning of climate change is that given by the natural sciences. Framing climate change as an inherently science-based public issue not only shields institutional power from scrutiny, but it can also foster an instrumental approach to public deliberation that can constrain imaginative engagement with present and future socio-environmental change. By fostering the normative value of pluralism as well as the substantive value of epistemic diversity, the interpretive social sciences and humanities can assist in opening up public deliberation on climate change such that alternative questions, neglected issues, marginalized perspectives and different possibilities can gain traction for policy purposes. Stakeholders of public deliberation are encouraged to reflect on the orchestration of the processes by which climate change is defined, solutions identified and political collectives convened.     

Authority Pooling and Regional Organic Agriculture Standard-Setting: Evidence from East Africa

A key characteristic of global organic agriculture governance through standards is the coexistence of regulatory fragmentation and regional integration. To reduce barriers to organic trade, especially for market participants from developing countries, international and transnational entrepreneurs increasingly promote the setting of organic agriculture standards (OAS) in different world regions, for example, in East Africa, the Pacific, or Asia. Although scholars from different disciplines have done a lot of research on the role of standards in global governance, we still know little about why and how regional standard-setting processes evolve. Applying findings from regime analysis, entrepreneurship, and political authority, the article introduces the concept of authority pooling. It argues that legal, moral, and technical authority sources interact in a blurred functional division of labour between the public and the private sector in standard-setting. The article presents results from a within-case study of the development of the East African Organic Products Standard using the process-tracing method. It detects the underlying causal mechanism by which international and transnational entrepreneurs pooled different authority sources and, thus, significantly influenced political actors in East Africa to set the first regional OAS in the developing world.     

Farmers’ market governance and its role on consumer motives and outcomes

Local food systems and farmers' markets across the USA have experienced unprecedented growth and development in the past 20 years. While scholarship has examined participant demographics and motives for engaging in farmers' markets, few studies have considered the coupled nature of those attending the markets with institutional governance systems used for market coordination. This study examined participation in farmers' markets under the framework of high and low market governance systems, specifically considering the demographics, values for local foods, motives for attending farmers' markets, and outcomes of the experience based on the dichotomous governance classification. Governance was characterized using four attributes: market rules or policies, paid employee(s), a rule governing geography of food origin, and affiliation with an organisation or agency. Our results suggest that market governance may impact (1) which consumers attend the market, (2) motives among those who attend the market, and (3) satisfaction outcome levels among market participants. By better understanding how the emerging governance system impacts who ultimately attends the market (and the outcomes of the experience), agencies coordinating farmers' markets and market managers can ultimately improve the market's reach and experience with greater intentionality.     

Socio-technical Systems as Place-specific Matters of Concern: The Role of Urban Governance in the Transition of the Wastewater System in Denmark

In recent years, cities have been portrayed as important loci for transformations of large-scale systems. This paper contributes to scholarship on urban transitions by exploring why the boundaries, functions and challenges of large-scale systems typically are framed differently at the urban level of governance than at more aggregated levels of governance. Empirically, we examine the wastewater system in Denmark by contrasting framings at the urban and national levels over the last 20 years and the transition dynamics that emerged as a consequence of their juxtaposition. The findings illustrate that urban governance of the wastewater system was influenced by a particular concern with developing attractive and competitive urban spaces. The wastewater system emerged as a ‘place-bound’ and even ‘place-making’ governance concern; as such, the boundaries and functions of the system were subject to continuous redefinition at the city level. This urban framing conflicted with the national-level, efficiency-oriented framing of the wastewater system as homogenous, without regard to place-specific differences. The research findings suggest that a distinct characteristic of urban-level governance is concern for place-specific development; this concern can be transformative because it leads to ongoing reinterpretation of traditional boundaries and dependencies between large-scale systems and local contexts.     

农村环境善治的逻辑重塑——基于利益相关者理论的分析

农村环境污染问题是我国实现十八届五中全会倡导的五位一体重大战略的突出矛盾,也是学术界需要研究的核心问题之一。本研究利用利益相关者理论分析法,对我国农村环境治理失灵的内在机理进行理论解释,认为政府、企业、城市、村民、环保组织、科研院校等利益相关者的不同利益诉求和行为导向,造成了目前农村环境污染的现实困境。分析发现:正是政府层面重视经济发展,轻视监管职责;企业层面重视经济利润,轻视社会责任;农民层面重视生计诉求、轻视安全需求;城市层面突破政府管制,转嫁污染成本;环保组织力量资源有限,难以提供环保功能以及科研院校重视环保技术研发,轻视科技推广,才导致了现阶段农村环境污染愈演愈烈。因此,只有明确政府、企业、城市、村民、环保组织、科研院校等利益相关者的角色定位,充分发挥好各自的环保功能,真正构建起农村环境的共同治理体系,才能克服不同利益相关者之间的冲突和相互博弈状态,进而实现农村环境善治的目标。研究结论表明:农村环境善治的内涵体现为政治国家与公民社会的合作参与、共同治理乡村环境问题.其主要特征为合法性、透明性、责任性、回应性、有效性,其实质是在乡村环境治理中,构建起强国家和强社会的"双强"模式。通过构建这种"双强"模式使国家与社会在乡村环境治理中达成利益均衡共识,彼此协同合作,共同致力于乡村环境的善治之道,以此彻底改变现在的乡村污染面貌,最终实现十八届五中全会倡导的生态良好农村战略构想。