多中心的环境治理外文翻译2019-2020 英文
The black box of power in polycentric environmental governance
T.H.Morrison， W.N.Adger，etc
Abstract
Failure to address unsustainable global change is often attributed to failures in conventional environmental governance. Polycentric environmental governance—the popular alternative—involves many centres of authority interacting coherently for a common governance goal. Yet, longitudinal analysis reveals many polycentric systems are struggling to cope with the growing impacts, pace, and scope of social and environmental change. Analytic shortcomings are also beginning to appear, particularly in the treatment of power. Here we draw together diverse social science perspectives and research into a variety of cases to show how different types of power shape rule setting, issue construction, and policy implementation in polycentric governance. We delineate an important and emerging research agenda for polycentric environmental governance, integrating diverse types of power into analytical and practical models.
Keywords: Polycentric governance, Environmental governance, Power
1. Introduction
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Global environmental change is a wicked challenge: non-reducible, variable, and complex. It is also an urgent problem—failure to progress the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), for instance, could permanently compromise finite natural resources and inter and intra-generational well-being. While there is general agreement that averting unsustainable change is desirable, social and policy responses are often constrained by limited capacity and the fact that single actors or singular approaches—whether top down or bottom up—cannot effectively tackle such problems. Social and policy solutions need to be experimental, adaptive, distributed, and multi-scale (Loorbach et al., 2017; Ostrom, 2010a; Pattberg and Widerberg, 2016).
Environmental governance structures have broadened in response to such complexity and interdependency, from top-down centralised approaches to decentralised, community-based, or polycentric arrangements, incorporating not just principles of efficiency but also those of equity, legitimacy, and accountability (Lemos and Agrawal, 2006). Polycentric governance structures in particular have become popular with analysts since Elinor Ostrom’s reflections in 2010 on the failure of top down solutions (Ostrom, 2010a).
The concept of polycentric governance is best understood when juxtaposed with monocentric governance (Ostrom et al., 1961). An ideal-type monocentric system is one controlled by a central predominant
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authority (e.g. a comprehensive governmental authority or private monopoly responsible for all goods and services). By contrast, a polycentric system comprises multiple governing authorities at different scales which do not stand in hierarchical relationship to each other but are engaged in self-organisation and mutual adjustment (Ostrom, 2010a).
Polycentric systems are attractive to a wide variety of interests in that they allow for more policy innovation and diffusion across multiple organisational units, whether through “hard” regulation or “soft” instruments such as economic incentives, voluntary agreements, self-regulation, and sustainability certification (Jordan et al., 2013, 2015). Advocates suggest that this form of governance creates new opportunities for multiple actors at multiple levels to take responsibility for initiating and implementing sustainability and resilience solutions (Carlisle and Gruby, 2017; Pattberg and Widerberg, 2016; Steffen et al., 2018). Polycentric governance is also understood to provide more opportunities for representation of different social actors than monocentric governance. As such, its inclusivity can be viewed as a more legitimate form of governance.
In
providing
opportunities
for
innovation
and
experimentation across multiple organisational units, polycentric governance can also enable the development of tailor-made solutions that are fit for purpose (Lebel et al., 2006). It additionally provides a level of flexibility and nimbleness that may not be possible in traditional
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多中心的环境治理外文文献翻译2019-2020
