Striking the balance
Sustainability and institutional transitions in the European Environment Agency
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 9843040 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Zora Kovacic (0000-0002-0911-9273, University of Bergen, corresponding author), Luciano Benini (0000-0003-4491-9070, European Environment Agency), Lorenzo Benini |
| Year | 2022 |
| Volume | 141 |
| Pages | 102984 |
| Publication date | 2022-08-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Futures (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0016-3287 • E-ISSN: 1873-6378 |
| Publisher | Elsevier BV (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1016/j.futures.2022.102984 |
| OpenAlex | W4283077862 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 26 |
We look at how concepts of uncertainty and complexity undergo a series of balancing acts when moving between scientific research and policy. By questioning the prediction and control framework, uncertainty and complexity create both opportunities for new policy framings to emerge and challenges to the current role of institutions. We identify three balancing acts. First, there is the challenge of acknowledging the limits of the govern-ability of the future while retaining a role for governing agents. Second, the interface with policy leads to the selection of policy-relevant evidence that may be in tension with creating an inclusive space for the plurality of legitimate but often contrasting, perspectives at the interface with society. Third, there is a tension between the expectation that policy recommendations be formulated to solve existing problems and the new questions and processes that are opened when taking uncertainty and complexity into account. The paper takes as its case study the policy recommendations formulated by the European Environment Agency about sustainability transitions. Results show that the innovative and disruptive suggestions, which are made in the main text, are very much nuanced when it comes to policy recommendations and part of the transformative power of these concepts is lost through the balancing of opposing institutional needs. The value of the report lies not necessarily in the practical advice it formulates but in the more modest contribution of giving visibility to debates about uncertainty and complexity. Sustainability transition concepts serve as gatekeepers for new debates and new narratives to develop if sustained in time. Opportunities windows for new debates to emerge, however, may close fast
Agency (philosophy · Control (management · Economics · Law and economics · Management · Management science · Narrative · Political science · Public relations · Social science · Sociology · Sustainability · Transformative learning · Value (mathematics · Climate Change Policy and Economics · Computer Science · Risk Perception and Management · Sustainability and Climate Change Governance
More evolution than revolution
Uncertainty, complexity and post-normal science
Reflexive Governance for Sustainable Development
Uncertainty as Information
To co-produce or not to co-produce
To Save Everything, Click Here
When scientists politicize science
Fit-for-purpose governance
Knowledge architecture for the wise governance of sustainability transitions
Uncertainty and environmental learning 1, 2Reconceiving science and policy in the preventive paradigm
Moving innovation systems research to the next level
Technologies of Humility
Taking power seriously
The practice of transition management
Science for the post-normal age
Introduction
Making sustainability transitions research policy-relevant
Dilemmas in a general theory of planning
Boundary Organizations in Environmental Policy and Science
A decade of adaptive governance scholarship
Power in Transition
| Unique citing works | 2 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,67 |
| Citation span | 2023 - 2025 (3) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 2 |