Adaptive Governance, Introduction, Lisen Schultz & Simon West

1. Lisen Schultz and Simon West
Stockholm Resilience Centre
Adaptive governance
Intro lecture module 10

2. • Team up 3 and 3
• Formulate one critical/important question you
have about adaptive governance

3. Why adaptive governance?
• The Anthropocene, planetary boundaries
• Political shifts towards more networked forms
of governance
• Information revolution, nanotechnologies,
biotechnologies
Increased connectivity, scale and speed

4. The key question
How to govern complex social-ecological
systems (SES) in an era of rapid global
change

5. What is governance?
”Steering”, ”the process of governing”
From ”command and control” to collaboration,
negotiation, governance beyond government
Patterns of collaboration, instruments to guide
repeated interactions and steering attempts

6. Different from management
n.
• The act, manner, or practice of managing;
handling, supervision, or control:
management of a crisis, management of
factory workers
• The person or persons who control or direct a
business or other enterprise
• Skill in managing; executive ability

7. Different from institutions
• Institutions are the rules of the game
• Governance implies collaboration patterns,
steering and coordination at multiple levels
• Institutions in governance tend to be clusters
or complexes rather than simple sets of rules

8. Adaptive governance
collective action innovation systems
international regimes
Bridging organizations innovation
trust institutions
transitions and transformations
social networks Polycentric systems
adaptation
learning coping with crises

9. Adaptive governance
• Analytical purpose
• Multi-disciplinary approach
• Normative assumptions
• No quick-fix solutions

10. Learning goals
• Define and describe key concepts related to
adaptive governance, such as adaptive co-
management, social networks, bridging
organizations, polycentric governance
• Define and describe the role of innovation and
transformations in adaptive governance
• Describe how these concepts are related to
each other in the context of governance of
dynamic social-ecological systems
• Apply concepts related to adaptive governance
at multiple levels, on a real-world case

11. How?
• Lectures and readings (read before)
• Short writing assignments
• Discussion seminar
• Case study analysis
• Blog
• Examination

12. http://adaptivegovernance2015.tumblr.com
Password: gamoses

13. Blog contribution
Write blogpost: brief summary of lecture,
definition of key concept/s, and short reflection
within 48 hours after lecture, send via e-mail to
Lisen.schultz@su.se and simon.west@su.se
Writing of short comment to blogpost, directly
on the blog (individual)

14. Schedule
• Intro
• Bridging organisations (lecture + assignment)
• International institutions and regimes (lecture)
• Innovation and transformations
(assignment+lecture+exercise)
• Case study (assignment, seminar)
• Global adaptive governance – earth system
complexity, planetary boundaries (lecture)
• Global adaptive governance – marine futures
(lecture)
• Summing up
• Exam

15. Blog posts
• Intro
• Bridging organisations (Karl, Sophie)
• International institutions and regimes (Claudia, Noah)
• Innovation and transformations (Kavita, Sara)
• Case study (AM Patricia, Daniele, PM Rawaf, Tove)
• Global adaptive governance – earth system complexity,
PB (Hanna, Linnea)
• Global adaptive governance – marine futures (Linn,
Katharina)
• Summing up
• Exam

16. Questions?

17. Why does this matter?
• Because governance is becoming increasingly
complex, and provides more space for self-
organization
• Because we need to find better ways of living
together on this planet
Compare with Folke et al. 2005

18. Global changes in the political
landscape
• Decentralization
• Public Private Partnerships
• Non-governmental organizations
• International agreements

19. Centralized decison-making
Central policy-maker Decision-
(e.g. Environmental ministry) making
Regional/Local authorities Implementation
and monitoring
Local natural resource user Behavioural
response

20. Decision-making in complex
governance systems
Central policy-maker Decision-
(e.g. Environmental ministry) making
Regional/Local authorities Implementation
and monitoring
Local natural resource user Behavioural
response
International agreements and norms
Non-state actors
Participation
Collaboration, negotiation
Implementation, partnerships
Decentralization

21. National actors
International actors
Ecosystem
Local actors
Learning and collaboration
Adaptive management, Adaptive co-
management, Adaptive governance

22. Adaptive governance
Extension of adaptive co-management
• Not place-bound, but context/issue-specific
• Can include, and explore, several place-bound
attempts of ACM at the same time
• Polycentric
• Higher levels of organization – up to global
• Explorative framework

23. What do we want AG to achieve?
Dealing with ”The problem of fit”
• Spatial (municipalities vs water catchment,
local institutions vs global drivers, fisheries,
land grab)
• Temporal (e.g responding to signals of
resource depletion, early warning signals)
• Cascading dynamics (e.g. fish and ebola virus)

25. Common patterns (emergence of
adaptive governance)
• an awakening crisis led to framing of the
human-nature relationship among key
individuals and actors,
• an umbrella concept mobilized knowledge and
action across scales and sectors, and
• an existing or new bridging organization made
the adaptive governance approach possible

26. Thanks