Policy, complexity and ecological sustainability

Abstract

Environmental policy and governance play a key role in promoting socio-ecological sustainability. The complexity of the issues involved asks for learning, collaboration and adaptation by all stakeholders. Policy and governance arrangements can facilitate this but their own complexity can create barriers, including power inequalities. The aim of this panel is to explore how policy processes and governance institutions tackle the complexity of socio-ecological sustainability and critically evaluate how this could be improved. Papers will examine these issues in areas including climate change, water governance and nuclear waste management.

Title	Details
An analytical framework for uncovering lock-in dynamics in complex policy systems – Applied to climate change adaptation	View Paper Details
Locked-in and heating up? Policy lock-ins and the case of adapting to heat stress in Bavaria, Germany	View Paper Details
Challenges for environmental governance: policy issue interdependencies might not lead to collaboration	View Paper Details
From a ‘hard nuclear state’ towards a ‘soft nuclear repository state’ - Participation, Co-design, Learning, and Adaptation by the German ‘Repository Site Selection Act’?	View Paper Details
Learning to anticipate in water governance	View Paper Details