Jens Newig
Biographic Data
| ID | 3704872 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Jens Newig |
| GIVEN NAMES | Jens |
| FAMILY NAME | Newig |
| SIGNATURE | NEWIG J |
| AFFILIATIONS | Leuphana University of Lüneburg |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-2390-2982 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 65 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 856 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 63 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 2 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2003 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 15 |
Governing the trade-off between the co-production of actionable knowledge and academic publishing in transdisciplinary sustainability research
Integrating sufficiency in the trade and biodiversity agenda of the European Union
Publisher of over 50 scientific journals across the life, physical, earth, and health sciences, both independently and in partnership with scientific societies including Cell, Neuron, Immunity, Current Biology, AJHG, and the Trends Journals
Political embedding of climate assemblies. How effective strategies for policy impact depend on context
Scholars and practitioners discuss how to increase the policy impact of climate assemblies (CAs) noting that their proposals tend to be more ambitious than government policy. CAs comprise groups of randomly selected citizens (minipublics) who deliberate on climate policy issues. We argue for greater focus on how political actors strategically use CAs and suggest welcoming some of this strategic use. We propose that CAs, and minipublics more gener…
Does participatory governance help address long-term environmental problems? Conceptualization and evidence from 23 democracies
Democratic myopia, lacking salience, and high uncertainty seem to make it difficult to govern long-term problems like nuclear waste disposal, biodiversity loss or the environmental consequences of infrastructure projects. Participatory approaches may benefit environmental decisions, but the literature largely neglects the implications of the long-termness of many environmental issues. Conversely, the literature on long-term governance disregards …
Now you see me, now you don't: The Role and Relevance of Paradigms in Water Governance
Successful water governance pathways across problem contexts: A Global Qualitative Comparative Analysis
Water-related problématiques: Five Archetypical Contexts of Water Governance
It is necessary to consider the contextual factors surrounding water governance systems to understand their performance. We conducted a review of 165 empirical studies and 223 cases from the water governance literature to investigate water-related contexts. Our analysis is based on an archetype analysis of three dimensions of water-related contexts across 160 cases: water resources, related water uses, and sustainability issues. Our results show …
The importance of understanding the multiple dimensions of power in stakeholder participation for effective biodiversity conservation
Biodiversity conservation are increasingly focused on involving stakeholder engagement, making power a key concept in understanding its success and failure. Power is often conceptualized as unidimensional and coercive, but a multidimensional view better reflects structural power, as well as its productive and enabling potential. This paper investigates how different dimensions of power in participatory processes affect biodiversity conservation o…
MSPs for the SDGs – Assessing the collaborative governance architecture of multi-stakeholder partnerships for implementing the Sustainable Development Goals
Multi-stakeholder partnerships (MSPs) involving a diverse set of actors are assumed to reduce implementation gaps of the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). While existing research suggests that MSPs can complement state-led efforts in environmental and sustainability governance, a deeper understanding of the composition, thematic focus, and specific governance functions of MSPs for the SDGs is still wanting. In this article…
Does stakeholder participation improve environmental governance? Evidence from a meta-analysis of 305 case studies
Participation and collaboration of citizens and organized stakeholders in public decision-making is widely believed to improve environmental governance outputs. However, empirical evidence on the benefits of participatory governance is largely scattered across small-N case studies. To synthesize the available case-based evidence, we conducted a broad case-based meta-analysis across 22 Western democracies, including 305 individual cases of public …
Toward spatial fit in the governance of global commodity flows
Global commodity flows between distally connected social-ecological systems pose important challenges to sustainability governance. These challenges are partly due to difficulties in designing and implementing governance institutions that fit or match the scale of the environmental and social problems generated in such telecoupled systems. We focus on the spatial dimension of governance fit in relation to global commodity flows and telecoupled sy…
Environmental governance in globally telecoupled systems: Mapping the terrain towards an integrated research agenda
Environmental governance is increasingly challenged by global flows, which connect distant places through trade, investment and movement of people. To date, research on this topic has been dispersed across multiple fields and diverse theoretical perspectives. We present the results of a systematic literature review of 120 journal articles on the environmental governance of global flows and their environmental impacts, employing the notion of tele…
Environmental governance of a Belt and Road project in Montenegro – National agency and external influences
China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is an ambitious effort to increase trans-continental connectivity and cooperation mainly through infrastructure investments and trade. On the one hand, this globally unparalleled initiative is expected to foster economic growth, but on the other hand, it can have substantial environmental implications. The BRI creates new challenges and opportunities for environmental governance as new actor constellations e…
How to Explain Major Policy Change Towards Sustainability? Bringing Together the Multiple Streams Framework and the Multilevel Perspective on Socio‐Technical Transitions to Explore the German “Energie…
Most efforts at explaining major policy transformation apply a single lens to study specific cases. Recent contributions have called for a more plural use of theories to facilitate the production of valuable new perspectives and research agendas. The German energy transition is a good example of such a transformative change. This article takes up the call for cross‐fertilization of theories, using two complementary lenses to explain the German en…
Environmental Governance of China's Belt and Road Initiative
China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), launched in 2013, is rapidly subsuming much of China's political and economic involvement abroad. As a far‐reaching infrastructure development and investment strategy, officially involving more than 130 countries, the expansion of the BRI raises important questions about its environmental impacts and its implications for environmental governance. This article examines how China is actively and rapidly devel…
Participation in multi-level policy implementation: Exploring the influence of governance culture
In environmental governance, participatory modes of political decision-making and planning are becoming more prevalent. A rationalist model of governance would assume that instrumental rationales prevail in choosing participatory process designs. Some argue, however, that public policy-makers also follow administrative or governance ‘culture’. The concept of participatory governance culture assumes that historically grown institutional traditions…
Success of collaboration for sustainable agriculture: A case study meta-analysis
More and better collaboration between farmers and other stakeholders has repeatedly been identified as a key strategy for sustainable agriculture. However, for collaboration to actually benefit sustainable agriculture certain conditions have to be met. In this paper, we scrutinize the conditions that support or hamper the success of collaborative efforts in the context of sustainable agriculture. For this purpose, we conducted an exploratory case…
Demarcating transdisciplinary research in sustainability science—Five clusters of research modes based on evidence from 59 research projects
The discourse revolving around “new modes of knowledge production”—particularly in sustainability‐oriented research—seems to suggest a duality of transdisciplinary versus non‐transdisciplinary research. Yet, in reality, a spectrum of transdisciplinary research modes may be expected. This article offers an empirically grounded distinction of five research modes, based on a cluster analysis of 59 completed sustainability‐oriented research projects.…
Systematic learning in water governance: Insights From Five Local Adaptive Management Projects for Water Quality Innovation
Kochskämper, E., T. M. Koontz, and J. Newig. 2021. Systematic learning in water governance: insights from five local adaptive management projects for water quality innovation. Ecology and Society 26(1):22. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-12080-260122
How does collaborative governance evolve? Insights from a medium-n case comparison
Understanding the performance of collaborative governance regimes (CGRs) necessitates an understanding of how stakeholders and their interactions evolve over time. However, few studies assess the evolution of the structure or process dynamics of CGRs over time. This paper contributes to our understanding of the longitudinal dynamics of CGRs. We apply a modified grounded theory approach to a dataset of collaboration case studies to develop empiric…
Contextualizing certification and auditing: Soy certification and access of local communities to land and water in Brazil
The massive expansion of soy production in Brazil has contributed to a loss of access for local communities to land and water, particularly in highly dynamic frontier regions in the Cerrado. Soy certification standards like the Roundtable on Responsible Soy (RTRS) contain principles that are supposed to prevent such problems. In this paper, we examine the extent to which certification and auditing have served to protect local communities’ access …
A typology of actors and their strategies in multi-scale governance of wind turbine conflict within forests
Putting adaptive planning into practice: A meta-analysis of current applications
Pathways to Implementation: Evidence on How Participation in Environmental Governance Impacts on Environmental Outcomes
There is much enthusiasm among scholars and public administrators for participatory and collaborative modes of governance as a means to tackle contemporary environmental problems. Participatory and collaborative approaches are expected to both enhance the environmental standard of the outputs of decision-making processes and improve the implementation of these outputs. In this article, we draw on a database of 305 coded published cases of public …
Governing global telecoupling toward environmental sustainability
Newig, J., E. Challies, B. Cotta, A. Lenschow, and A. Schilling-Vacaflor. 2020. Governing global telecoupling toward environmental sustainability. Ecology and Society 25(4):21. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-11844-250421
The Environmental Performance of Participatory and Collaborative Governance: A Framework of Causal Mechanisms
Many have advocated for collaborative governance and the participation of citizens and stakeholders on the basis that it can improve the environmental outcomes of public decision making, as compared to traditional, top‐down decision making. Others, however, point to the potential negative effects of participation and collaboration on environmental outcomes. This article draws on several literatures to identify five clusters of causal mechanisms d…
From Planning to Implementation: Top‐Down and Bottom‐Up Approaches for Collaborative Watershed Management
Collaborative approaches are increasingly used to address challenging environmental problems in theUnitedStates and around the world. The inclusion of multiple stakeholders and sources of information is expected to solve such problems. Prior research has highlighted the importance of collaborative process characteristics in reaching agreements and building social capital, but less is known about what factors affect the implementation of such agre…
Leverage points for sustainability transformation
Multi-level governance, policy implementation and participation: The EU's mandated participatory planning approach to implementing environmental policy
Innovations in European Union (EU) policy making have produced a distinctive, novel mode of policy that combines components of participatory and multi-level governance for policy implementation. In this manuscript we provide a conceptualization of what we term the EU's 'mandated participatory planning' (MPP) approach. This approach is increasingly used to implement EU directives, mandating the explicit formulation of certain plans or programmes o…
What is Social Learning
Reed, M. S., A. C. Evely, G. Cundill, I. Fazey, J. Glass, A. Laing, J. Newig, B. Parrish, C. Prell, C. Raymond, and L. C. Stringer. 2010. What is social learning? Ecology and Society 15(4): r1. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-03564-1504r01
Pathways to Implementation: Evidence on How Participation in Environmental Governance Impacts on Environmental Outcomes
There is much enthusiasm among scholars and public administrators for participatory and collaborative modes of governance as a means to tackle contemporary environmental problems. Participatory and collaborative approaches are expected to both enhance the environmental standard of the outputs of decision-making processes and improve the implementation of these outputs. In this article, we draw on a database of 305 coded published cases of public …
Policy implementation through multi-level governance: Analysing practical implementation of EU air quality directives in Germany
Eurpean Union (EU) environmental policy has increasingly advanced multi-level governance (MLG) to improve policy implementation. MLG approaches mandate (sub-) national planning and introduce functional governance layers to match the biophysical scale of environmental problems. Whereas the literature on policy implementation has focused on the challenges posed by multi-level systems, the described EU approach relies on MLG as a strategy to better …
Synapses in the Network: Learning in Governance Networks in the Context of Environmental Management
Newig, J., D. Günther, and C. Pahl-Wostl. 2010. Synapses in the network: learning in governance networks in the context of environmental management. Ecology and Society 15(4): 24. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-03713-150424
Linking modes of research to their scientific and societal outcomes. Evidence from 81 sustainability-oriented research projects
Sustainability-oriented research has increasingly adopted “new” modes of research promoted under labels such as ‘post-normal science’, ‘mode 2 knowledge production’ or ‘transdisciplinarity’, aiming to address societally relevant problems and to produce ‘socially robust’ knowledge by involving relevant scientific disciplines and non-academic actors into the research. We present the results of a comparative quantitative analysis of 81 completed sus…
How does collaborative governance evolve? Insights from a medium-n case comparison
Understanding the performance of collaborative governance regimes (CGRs) necessitates an understanding of how stakeholders and their interactions evolve over time. However, few studies assess the evolution of the structure or process dynamics of CGRs over time. This paper contributes to our understanding of the longitudinal dynamics of CGRs. We apply a modified grounded theory approach to a dataset of collaboration case studies to develop empiric…
Does stakeholder participation improve environmental governance? Evidence from a meta-analysis of 305 case studies
Participation and collaboration of citizens and organized stakeholders in public decision-making is widely believed to improve environmental governance outputs. However, empirical evidence on the benefits of participatory governance is largely scattered across small-N case studies. To synthesize the available case-based evidence, we conducted a broad case-based meta-analysis across 22 Western democracies, including 305 individual cases of public …
Assessing Collaborative Conservation: A Case Survey of Output, Outcome, and Impact Measures Used in the Empirical Literature
Much existing research on collaborative conservation has focused on process, even as researchers have called for greater attention to explaining what results these processes yield. It is time to take stock of collaborative conservation research by mapping what kinds of variables researchers are including in analyses. Here we conduct a case survey from the SCAPE database of environmental decision-making cases. We include cases involving collaborat…
Spillover systems in a telecoupled Anthropocene: Typology, methods, and governance for global sustainability
Collaboration or fragmentation? Biodiversity management through the common agricultural policy
How to Explain Major Policy Change Towards Sustainability? Bringing Together the Multiple Streams Framework and the Multilevel Perspective on Socio‐Technical Transitions to Explore the German “Energie…
Most efforts at explaining major policy transformation apply a single lens to study specific cases. Recent contributions have called for a more plural use of theories to facilitate the production of valuable new perspectives and research agendas. The German energy transition is a good example of such a transformative change. This article takes up the call for cross‐fertilization of theories, using two complementary lenses to explain the German en…
Governance for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals: How important are participation, policy coherence, reflexivity, adaptation and democratic institutions
It is widely accepted that the achievement of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) depends on effective governance arrangements. However, it is less clear which modes and aspects of governance are important for which of the 17 goals. Until now, empirical research has mostly studied individual cases, with comparative studies largely missing. Here, we conduct a comparative analysis among 41 high and upper-middle income countries for the year…
Globalization's limits to the environmental state? Integrating telecoupling into global environmental governance
Globalization entails increased interdependence and interconnectivities among distal regions and social-ecological systems. This global interregional connectedness – telecoupling – gives rise to specific sustainability challenges, which require new governance solutions. Moving beyond ‘scaling-up’ governance to address global environmental problems, and exploring the implications of telecoupling for state-led environmental governance, ways the sta…
Public Attention, Political Action: The Example of Environmental Regulation
In this paper, a rational choice model of the dynamics of public attention to politically relevant issues is proposed, responding to the following research questions: When and why does public attention arise in the .rst place? Do 'issue attention cycles' really exist? What issues are likely to attain which degree of public attention? How can public attention be measured soundly? In which way does public attention in.uence regulatory action, and h…
Public participation and local environmental planning: Testing factors influencing decision quality and implementation in four case studies from Germany
What role for social–ecological systems research in governing global teleconnections
Contextualizing certification and auditing: Soy certification and access of local communities to land and water in Brazil
The massive expansion of soy production in Brazil has contributed to a loss of access for local communities to land and water, particularly in highly dynamic frontier regions in the Cerrado. Soy certification standards like the Roundtable on Responsible Soy (RTRS) contain principles that are supposed to prevent such problems. In this paper, we examine the extent to which certification and auditing have served to protect local communities’ access …
Exploring governance learning: How policymakers draw on evidence, experience and intuition in designing participatory flood risk planning
The importance of designing suitable participatory governance processes is generally acknowledged. However, less emphasis has been put on how decision-makers design such processes, and how they learn about doing so. While the policy learning literature has tended to focus on the substance of policy, little research is available on learning about the design of governance. Here, we explore different approaches to learning among German policymakers …
Participatory and collaborative governance for sustainable flood risk management: An emerging research agenda
Governance change and governance learning in Europe: Stakeholder participation in environmental policy implementation
Current European Union (EU) policies require policy-makers on different levels of government to engage with new forms of governance such as participatory planning, aiming to improve environmental policy delivery. We address the central issue of how policy-makers learn about the appropriateness of different modes of governance. By way of example, we examine recent innovations in EU water governance – primarily through the enactment of the Water Fr…
How does the context and design of participatory decision making processes affect their outcomes? Evidence from sustainable land management in global drylands
De Vente, J., M. S. Reed, L. C. Stringer, S. Valente, and J. Newig. 2016. How does the context and design of participatory decision making processes affect their outcomes? Evidence from sustainable land management in global drylands. Ecology and Society 21(2):24.http://dx.doi.org/10.5751/ES-08053-210224
Symbolische Umweltgesetzgebung: Rechtssoziologische Untersuchungen am Beispiel des Ozongesetzes, des Kreislaufwirtschafts- und Abfallgesetzes sowie der Großfeuerungsanlagenverordnung
Anstatt ökologisch relevante Probleme nachhaltig zu lösen, beläßt es der Gesetzgeber oft bei formelhaften Kompromissen oder Alibi-Vorschriften. Indem solche "symbolische Gesetzgebung" ökonomisch ineffizient und umweltpolitisch wie verfassungsrechtlich fragwürdig bleibt, wird sie selbst zum Problem. Wie aber läßt sich dieses empirisch offenlegen? Unter welchen Voraussetzungen kommt es dazu und wann nicht? -- Ausgehend von der rechtssoziologischen …
Public Attention, Political Action: The Example of Environmental Regulation
In this paper, a rational choice model of the dynamics of public attention to politically relevant issues is proposed, responding to the following research questions: When and why does public attention arise in the .rst place? Do 'issue attention cycles' really exist? What issues are likely to attain which degree of public attention? How can public attention be measured soundly? In which way does public attention in.uence regulatory action, and h…
Symbolic environmental legislation and societal self-deception
The primarily symbolic quality of many environmental laws is widely held responsible for the fact that despite all eco-political achievements many major environmental problems still remain unresolved. This contribution works towards a clear conceptual distinction between symbolic and non-symbolic environmental legislation; it investigates different levels of effectiveness of symbolic legislation, tries to establish a series of external factors wh…
Environmental governance: Participatory, multi‐level – and effective?
Current political trends and scholarly research increasingly promote collaborative and participatory governance in multi‐level systems as a way to more sustainable and effective environmental policy. Yet empirical findings as well as conceptual works from different academic fields remain ambiguous about this claim. This paper explores whether and to what extent the existence of multiple levels of governance affects the ability of participatory de…
Synapses in the Network: Learning in Governance Networks in the Context of Environmental Management
Newig, J., D. Günther, and C. Pahl-Wostl. 2010. Synapses in the network: learning in governance networks in the context of environmental management. Ecology and Society 15(4): 24. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-03713-150424
What is Social Learning
Reed, M. S., A. C. Evely, G. Cundill, I. Fazey, J. Glass, A. Laing, J. Newig, B. Parrish, C. Prell, C. Raymond, and L. C. Stringer. 2010. What is social learning? Ecology and Society 15(4): r1. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-03564-1504r01
Nachhaltige Gesellschaft
Partizipation und Kooperation gelten als unabdingbar für die Erreichung einer nachhaltigen Entwicklung. Dieses Buch stellt diese Annahme kritisch auf den Prüfstand. Es wird herausgearbeitet, worin im einzelnen die Leistungen partizipativer und kooperativer Verfahren für die Erreichung von Nachhaltigkeitszielen liegen (können) und unter welchen Voraussetzungen dies der Fall ist. Dies geschieht anhand der Betrachtung allgemeiner gesellschaftlicher …
Nachhaltige Gesellschaft: Welche Rolle Für Partizipation und Kooperation?
Energy Transition as Transdisciplinary Challenge Die Energiewende als transdisziplinäre Herausforderung
Führt Bürgerbeteiligung in umweltpolitischen Entscheidungsprozessen zu mehr Effektivität und Legitimität? Erste Ergebnisse einer Metaanalyse von 71 wasserpolitischen Fallstudien
Der Beteiligung von Bürgern und zivilgesellschaftlichen Akteuren an politisch-administrativen Entscheidungsprozessen jenseits von Wahlen und Referenden wird vielfach ein hohes Potenzial zur Stiftung von Legitimität und Effektivität umweltpolitischer Entscheidungen beigemessen. Jedoch ist diese umfassende Kompetenzzuschreibung an partizipative Verfahren nicht unumstritten und darüber hinaus auch empirisch nur unzureichend untersucht. Unser Ziel is…
A review of transdisciplinary research in sustainability science
How interest groups adapt to the changing forest governance landscape in the EU: A case study from Germany
What role for social–ecological systems research in governing global teleconnections
Cross-level information and influence in mandated participatory planning: Alternative pathways to sustainable water management in Germany's implementation of the EU Water Framework Directive
From Planning to Implementation: Top‐Down and Bottom‐Up Approaches for Collaborative Watershed Management
Collaborative approaches are increasingly used to address challenging environmental problems in theUnitedStates and around the world. The inclusion of multiple stakeholders and sources of information is expected to solve such problems. Prior research has highlighted the importance of collaborative process characteristics in reaching agreements and building social capital, but less is known about what factors affect the implementation of such agre…
Multi-level governance, policy implementation and participation: The EU's mandated participatory planning approach to implementing environmental policy
Innovations in European Union (EU) policy making have produced a distinctive, novel mode of policy that combines components of participatory and multi-level governance for policy implementation. In this manuscript we provide a conceptualization of what we term the EU's 'mandated participatory planning' (MPP) approach. This approach is increasingly used to implement EU directives, mandating the explicit formulation of certain plans or programmes o…
Exploring governance learning: How policymakers draw on evidence, experience and intuition in designing participatory flood risk planning
The importance of designing suitable participatory governance processes is generally acknowledged. However, less emphasis has been put on how decision-makers design such processes, and how they learn about doing so. While the policy learning literature has tended to focus on the substance of policy, little research is available on learning about the design of governance. Here, we explore different approaches to learning among German policymakers …
Participatory and collaborative governance for sustainable flood risk management: An emerging research agenda
What role for frames in scalar conflicts
Public participation and local environmental planning: Testing factors influencing decision quality and implementation in four case studies from Germany
Applying a capitals approach to understand rural development traps: A case study from post-socialist Romania
Importance of Actors and Agency in Sustainability Transitions: A Systematic Exploration of the Literature
This article explores the role of actors and agency in the literature on sustainability transitions. We reviewed 386 journal articles on transition management and sustainability transitions listed in Scopus from 1995 to 2014. We investigate the thesis that actors have been neglected in this literature in favor of more abstract system concepts. Results show that this thesis cannot be confirmed on a general level. Rather, we find a variety of diffe…
Reviving wood-pastures for biodiversity and people: A case study from western Estonia
Globalization's limits to the environmental state? Integrating telecoupling into global environmental governance
Globalization entails increased interdependence and interconnectivities among distal regions and social-ecological systems. This global interregional connectedness – telecoupling – gives rise to specific sustainability challenges, which require new governance solutions. Moving beyond ‘scaling-up’ governance to address global environmental problems, and exploring the implications of telecoupling for state-led environmental governance, ways the sta…
How does the context and design of participatory decision making processes affect their outcomes? Evidence from sustainable land management in global drylands
De Vente, J., M. S. Reed, L. C. Stringer, S. Valente, and J. Newig. 2016. How does the context and design of participatory decision making processes affect their outcomes? Evidence from sustainable land management in global drylands. Ecology and Society 21(2):24.http://dx.doi.org/10.5751/ES-08053-210224
Political science (45 works) · Business (41 works) · Economics (40 works) · Corporate governance (36 works) · Sustainability and Climate Change Governance (31 works) · Environmental resource management (29 works) · Computer Science (26 works) · Geography (23 works) · Ecology (20 works) · Sociology (20 works)