Track 08 GOVERNANCE

Track chairs: Purkarthofer Eva, Gethin Davison (UoB), Mengyu Wu 

Contemporary challenges with spatial implications, such as climate change, biodiversity loss, and growing social and economic inequality, require policy responses at various scales, from the international to the local level. While many of these responses involve formal governance interventions led and managed by the state, there are signs that other models of governance must also be part of the solution. Where established administrative arrangements do not fit the challenges at hand, flexible “soft spaces”, crossing territorial boundaries, promise less bureaucratic solutions. In contexts where public authorities are chronically under resourced, the private and third sectors are increasingly expected to fill governance vacuums. And through local experiments and networked exchange, political communities are themselves starting to address the tensions, contradictions, and failures in established governance practices. In doing so, they are turning critique and agonistic engagement into opportunities for cooperation and innovation in urban planning and policies. However, while informal modes of governance may be nimbler and more context-responsive than formal state-led approaches, they are also potentially undemocratic or unjust, and sometimes render transformative actions difficult to implement. This track examines the broad range of governance arrangements framing planning and enabling the transition to low-carbon, sustainable futures. This covers the institutional aspects of governance, i.e. the rules, laws, and procedural requirements often referred to as planning systems, and their translation into practices. We are interested both in public sector-driven governance approaches as well as private sector- or community-driven practices and experiments, and in the transboundary nature of challenges and responses, referring both to the need for new spatial framings, and for crossing boundaries between administrative silos, scientific disciplines, and various communities. In line with the congress theme, we are particularly interested in governance practices enabling sustainable development, and in contributions highlighting the struggles and potential resolutions in co-creating novel and innovative approaches for decarbonisation. We welcome theoretical and empirical contributions, as well as methodology- and policy-oriented discussions on governance and planning practices, and are open to contributions addressing governance at various scales (e.g. European, national, regional, local). 

Keywords: Democracy, conflicts, institutions, policy instruments, multi-level governance, place-based governance, legitimacy, integrated planning, soft spaces, European governance, transboundary planning, agency, co-creation