Designing with uncertainty
Rights of nature as Public Design interventions in freshwater governance
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21408674 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Mariam Carlsson Kanyama (0009-0008-2813-1607, Chalmers University of Technology, corresponding author), Åsa Nilsson Dahlström (0009-0003-1049-6353, Jönköping University) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Publication date | 2026-05-14 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | AMBIO (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0044-7447 • E-ISSN: 1654-7209 |
| Publisher | Springer Science and Business Media LLC (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1007/s13280-026-02422-x |
| PMID | 42133159 |
| OpenAlex | W7161138459 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 43 |
Freshwater governance is a wicked problem, characterised by uncertainty, contested values, and complex socio-ecological interdependencies. This article analyses rights of nature frameworks in freshwater ecosystems through a Public Design perspective, arguing that they operate as legally transformative design interventions. Drawing on theories of wicked problems and multi-loop learning, it conceptualises rights of nature as emerging experimental institutional designs that redistribute agency across human and nonhuman actors reshaping how uncertainty and ambiguity are governed within freshwater governance. Through comparative analysis of cases from Aotearoa New Zealand, Northern Ireland, Nigeria, and Peru, the article shows how rights of nature initiatives reconfigure problem definitions, decision-making practices, and epistemic authority in freshwater governance. Rather than resolving complexity, these frameworks aim to institutionalise deliberation and learning under uncertainty. By situating rights of nature within Public Design theory, the article extends design scholarship into legal innovation and foregrounds law as a material for governing socio-ecological complexity
Agency (philosophy) · Ambiguity · Aotearoa · Corporate governance · Deliberation · Environmental governance · Scholarship · Transformative learning · Wicked problem · Environmental law and policy · Sustainability and Climate Change Governance · Water Governance and Infrastructure
Design, When Everybody Designs
The Politics of Rights of Nature
Public Governance as Co-creation
Wicked Problems in Public Policy
Managing Uncertainties in Networks
Defining Uncertainty
Wicked Problems in Design Thinking
Maturing the New Water Management Paradigm
A safe operating space for humanity
The Rights of Nature Go from Theory to Reality
Sacred Civics
Boomerang Effects in Science Communication
Trees in Early Irish Law and Lore
Exploring the rights of nature in freshwater and marine ecosystems
Six modes of co-production for sustainability
A conceptual framework for analysing adaptive capacity and multi-level learning processes in resource governance regimes
Water worlds
Are the Rights of Nature the Only Way to Save Lough Neagh
Rights of nature” in translation
Tales on co-response-ability in times of environmental polarization
Hydrosocial territories
Dilemmas in a general theory of planning
Wicked Problems
Design in government
The Whanganui River as Te Awa Tupua
Adaptive Water Governance
Toward a Relational Concept of Uncertainty
Social Learning and Water Resources Management
Rights of Nature on the Island of Ireland
| Highly cited | No |
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