05.02.2006 - 07.02.2006 | Berlin - Workshop

Governance for Sustainable Development - Steering in Contexts of Ambivalence, Uncertainty and Distributed Control, 5.-7.2.2006

From 6-7th February 2006 the international workshop on "Governance for Sustainable Development" took place in Berlin. Fourty invited participants discussed the conditions for shaping socio-ecological transformation according to the vision of sustainable development. The workshop was organised by the SÖF working group Governance and Transformation. This site contains an overview on the programme and participants as well as presentations and draft papers for download. Final versions of papers will be published in an edited volume.

Content

• Background
• Programme flyer
• List of participants
• Programme, presentations and draft papers
• Pictures
• Contact

Background

Sustainable development stirs up debate about the capacities of political steering and governance. The complexity of the task expounds limits of steering in three dimensions: goals, knowledge, and power.

• Sustainability concerns the balancing of potentially conflicting risk perceptions, values and interests. With knowledge development and ongoing cultural and ecological transformation, sustainability goals are subject to change and controversy. Steering has to cope, therefore, with conflict and ambivalence.
• Knowledge of ecological cause-and-effect relations and the coupled dynamics of society, technology and nature is limited. The predictability of long-term developments and possible side-effects of intervention strategies is very limited. For this reason, steering for sustainable development has to cope with uncertainty and unintended consequences.
• The power to shape structural change in society and technology is distributed across a multitude of actors and societal subsystems. On account of this, steering for sustainable development has to cope with a lack of central control and to face the necessity of coordinating strategies of different actor groups and social networks.

The workshop explores steering strategies and governance arrangements for sustainable development with a view to these problem dimensions. The aim is to identify approaches and methods which reflect the limits of steering and yet offer guidance for constructively taking up the task of sustainable development in science and practice.

Programme, presentations and draft papers

Introduction

Welcome and introduction to the workshop
J.-P. Voß (Öko-Institut, Berlin/D), J. Newig (Univ. Osnabrück/D), J. Monstadt (EAWAG, Kastanienbaum/CH)

Problem dimensions of sustainable governance and a typology of steering situations and theories
J.-P. Voß, J. Newig, B. Nölting (TU Berlin/D), B. Kastens (Univ. Osnabrück/D), J. Monstadt (EAWAG, Kastanienbaum/CH)
download presentation (0,1 MB); download draft paper (0,2 MB)

Block A: Ambivalence of sustainability as a goal

Keynote on ambivalence of goals
G. Walker (Univ. Lancaster/GB)
download presentation (0,1 MB); download draft paper (0,0 MB)

Sustainable development: The reflexive governance of risk
G. Borne (Univ. Plymouth/GB)
download presentation (0,0 MB); download draft paper (0,0 MB)

Block B: Uncertainty about socio-ecological dynamics

Keynote on uncertainty of knowledge
A. Grunwald (ITAS, Karlsruhe/D)
download presentation (0,0 MB); download draft paper (0,1 MB)

Uncertainty as a political tool in environmental conflicts: Causes and uses of expert disagreement in the Klamath Water Crisis, 2001-2004
N. Buchanan (MIT, Cambridge/USA)
download presentation (0,0 MB); download draft paper (0,0 MB)

The state as a tillerman – getting back-in or getting squeezed out. Two contrasting cases in the field of flood protection in Germany
H. Lange, H. Garrelts (Univ. Bremen/D)
download presentation (0,2 MB); download draft paper (0,1 MB)

Managing uncertainties in the transition towards sustainability: the case of micro-CHP and biofuels in the Netherlands
I. Meijer, M. Hekkert (Univ. Utrecht/NL)
download presentation (0,3 MB); download draft paper (0,2 MB)

Block C: Distribution of control over development

Keynote on distribution of power
J. Meadowcroft (Carleton Univ., Ottawa/CDN)
download presentation (0,0 MB); download draft paper (0,0 MB)

Sustainable land use planning: Powered by governance or governed by power?
M. Pütz (Swiss Fed. Research Inst. WSL, Birmensdorf/CH)
download presentation (0,0 MB); download draft paper (0,0 MB)

Governance for sustainable agriculture: The role of agricultural consultants as change agents
M. Gottschick, R. Sodtke, S. Weiland (Univ. Hamburg/D)
download presentation (0,0 MB); download draft paper (0,0 MB)

Block D: Governance and discourse

Crafting narrative, molding identity: Seizing opportunities to improve societal resilience in the aftermath of disaster
B. Goldstein (Virginia Tech, Blacksburg/USA)
download draft paper (0,9 MB)

Grounding transition governance on context and practice
C. M. Hendriks, J. Grin (Univ. Amsterdam/NL)
download presentation (0,0 MB); download draft paper (0,0 MB)

Block E: Governing with ambivalence, uncertainty and distributed power

Inside or Out? Open or Closed? Positioning the governance of sustainable technology
A. Smith, A. Stirling (Univ. Sussex/GB)
download presentation (0,1 MB); download draft paper (0,2 MB)

How governance can still be successful
N. Dose (TU München/D)
download presentation (0,1 MB); download draft paper (0,1 MB)

Goal-oriented modulation as a model for dealing with problems of sustainable development
R. Kemp (Univ. Maastricht/NL)
download presentation (0,0 MB); download draft paper (0,0 MB)

Pictures

Contact

Jan-Peter Voß Öko-Institut e.V. Novalisstr. 10 10115 Berlin Ph.: +49(0)30-280486-62 Fax: +49(0)30-280486-88 E-Mail: Contact	Dr. Jens Newig Universität Osnabrück Institut für Umweltsystemforschung Albrechtstr. 28 49069 Osnabrück Ph.: +49(0)541-969-2315 Fax: +49(0)541-969-2770 E-Mail: Contact	Jochen Monstadt CIRUS-Swiss Federal Institute for Environmental Science and Technology ( EAWAG ) Seestrasse 79 CH-6047 Kastanienbaum Ph.: +41(0)41-3492182 Fax: +41(0)41-3492162 E-Mail: Contact