Evolutionary Governance Theory: Theory and Applications

✍ Scribed by Raoul Beunen, Kristof Van Assche, Martijn Duineveld (eds.)

• Publisher: Springer International Publishing
• Year: 2015
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 339
• Edition: 1
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

This volume presents empirical studies and theoretical reflections on Evolutionary Governance Theory (EGT), its most important concepts and their interrelations. As a novel theory of governance, EGT understands governance as radically evolutionary, which implies that all elements of governance are subject to evolution, that these elements co-evolve and that many of them are the product of governance itself. Through this book we learn how communities understand themselves and their environment and why they create the complex structures and processes we analyze as governance paths. Authors from different disciplines develop the EGT framework further and apply it to a wide rage networks of power, governance of agricultural resources etc. The contributors also reflect on the possibilities and limitations of steering, intervention, management and development in a world continuously in flux. It bridges the gap between more fundamental and philosophical accounts of the social sciences and applied studies, offering theoretical advancements as well as practical recommendations.

✦ Table of Contents

Front Matter....Pages i-x
Front Matter....Pages 1-1
The Search for Evolutionary Approaches to Governance....Pages 3-17
An Overview of EGT’s Main Concepts....Pages 19-33
Front Matter....Pages 35-35
Planning and Law in Evolving Governance....Pages 37-55
The Evolution of Welfare State Governance....Pages 57-71
Cultures of Informality and Networks of Power in Post-Soviet Non-democracies....Pages 73-85
Agricultural Resources Governance in Uzbekistan: A System Theory-Inspired Perspective on Evolutionary Governance....Pages 87-105
The Emergence of Governance and the Function of Law....Pages 107-117
Evolutionary Governance, Sustainability, and Systems Theory: The Case of Central Asia....Pages 119-134
Front Matter....Pages 135-135
Power/Knowledge as a Driver for Governance Evolution....Pages 137-141
The Role of Fantasy in Public Policy Formation....Pages 143-154
Topology and Object Formation....Pages 155-165
Performances and Performativities of Resilience....Pages 167-183
Heated Debates: The Transformation of Urban Warming into an Object of Governance in the Netherlands....Pages 185-203
Evolution of Governance or Genealogy of Power?....Pages 205-212
Front Matter....Pages 213-213
Bridging Promises and (Dis)Illusions: Deliberative Democracy in an Evolutionary Perspective....Pages 215-232
A Co-evolutionary Perspective on the Adoption of Sustainable Land Use Practices: The Case of the Amu Darya River Lowlands, Uzbekistan....Pages 233-245
Between Individual Autonomy and Centralized Control: Outlining an Evolutionary Model of Neo-endogenous Rural Development....Pages 247-265
Accounting in Evolving Organizations....Pages 267-289
Negotiating Differences: The Role of Social Identity in the Emergence of Institutions for Local Governance....Pages 291-304
Administrative (De)Centralization and the Governing of Borderlands: Towards Transmodern Governance in Belgium and DR Congo....Pages 305-312
Front Matter....Pages 213-213
Innovation in Governance....Pages 313-325
Front Matter....Pages 327-327
Bright Futures! (and Plenty of Work)....Pages 329-334
Back Matter....Pages 335-348

✦ Subjects

Public Administration; Political Science, general; Corporate Governance; Development Economics; Knowledge - Discourse; Environmental Management