This book deals with the issue of sustainable development in a novel and innovative way. It examines the governance implications of reflexive modernisation - the condition that societal development is endangered by its own side-effects. With conceptualising reflexive governance the book leads a way out of endless quarrels about the definition of sustainability and into a new mode of collective action.The authors assert that sustainability is not a defined end-state, but should be understood as the capacity of society to learn about the conditions of its future existence and wants. This requires, in their view, a specific kind of problem solving framework which emphasises the interlinkage of problems and scales, as well as long-term and indirect effects of various actions. Sustainability calls for new forms of governance with attention given to uncertainty, ambivalence about multiple goals and distributed power. The book develops an alternative framework with which to address the challenge of sustainability and derives a set of strategy elements for dealing with sustainability in practice. These are discussed from conceptual as well as practical perspectives.
Bringing recent insights from innovation research, governance studies and complexity theory in common focus, Reflexive Governance for Sustainable Development will be of great interest to researchers in social change, innovation and governance studies, as well as policymakers confronted with sustainable development issues.
Contents:
Preface
Part I: Introduction
1. Sustainability and Reflexive Government: Introduction
Jan-Peter Voß and René Kemp
Part II: Reflections on Reflexive Governance
2. Reflexive Governance: Politics in the Global Risk Society
Ulrich Beck
3. Reflexive Modernisation as a Governance Issue, Or: Designing and Shaping Re-structuration
John Grin
4. A Co-Evolutionary Approach to Reflexive Governance - and its Ironies
Arie Rip
Part III: Strategies for Sustainable System Transformation
5.Transition Management: A Reflexive Governance Approach
René Kemp and Derk Loorbach
6. Adaptive Management to Restore Ecological and Economic Resilience in the Tisza River Basin
Jan Sendzimir, Piotr Magnuszewski, Peter Balogh and Anna Vári
7. Sustainability Foresight: Reflexive Governance in the Transformation of Utility Systems
Jan-Peter Voß, Bernard Truffer and Kornelia Konrad
8. Foresight and Adaptive Planning as Complementary Elements in Anticipatory Policy-making: A Conceptual and Methodological Approach
K. Matthias Weber
Part IV: Knowledge Production and Assessment
9. Precaution, Foresight and Sustainability: Reflection and Reflexivity in the Governance of Science and Technology
Andy Stirling
10. The (Re)search for Solutions: Research Programmes for Sustainable Development
Katy Whitelegg
11. Integrating Perspectives in the Practice of Transdisciplinary Research
Marie Céline Loibl
Part V: Development of Technology and Policy
12. Niche-based Approaches to Sustainable Development: Radical Activists versus Strategic Managers
Adrian Smith
13. The Sustainable Transformation of Sanitation
Bas van Vliet
14. The Transition towards Sustainable Production Systems in Austria: A Reflexive Exercise?
Philipp Späth, Harald Rohracher, K. Matthias Weber and Ines Oehme
15. The Transformation of Agriculture: Reflexive Governance for Agrobiodiversity
Franziska Wolff
Part VI: Conclusions
16. Reflexive Governance: A View on an Emerging Path
Jan-Peter Voß, René Kemp and Dierk Bauknecht
Index
