Beyond ‘should they stay, or should they go?’ The management of contested statues in Flanders from an evolutionary governance perspective

Coral reefs and the slow emergence of institutional structures for a glocal land- and sea-based collective dilemma

Coasts are changing at an impressive speed. Therewith come changes in and challenges to governance that require an empirically-based understanding in order to foster sustainability transitions. New challenges are often not adequately met, so a host of problems arise. The papers in this special issue speak to these problems and consider which governance approaches might be worth exploring. The authors look at a diverse set of governance practices and changes, using the lens of Evolutionary Governance Theory (EGT). This theoretical approach is chosen, because EGT offers a perspective on governance which gives central place to co-evolution. EGT integrates a broad range of theoretical notions, drawing on evolutionary and system theories, institutional economics and versions of post-structuralism. EGT is put to use to analyse what is called in the framing paper ‘the coastal condition’. It is argued that governing land-sea interactions and the coastal zones is particularly prone to problems of observation (between land and sea, between centre and coastal margin) and complex interdependencies (between social and ecological systems, between actors managing risk). Governing land-sea interactions requires multi-level governance and new forms of policy integration, which means, an explicitly coastal governance arena, semi-autonomous yet subjected to the checks and balances of a multi-level system. The various papers develop these insights by highlighting problems of coordination in coastal governance, issues of inclusion/exclusion, diverse knowledges and observations. They illustrate how the coastal condition engenders risk and uncertainty, and how it renders policy integration more important, while simultaneously making it harder to achieve.

• Karst geodiversity heritage is shaped by evolving governance trajectories, not by recognition alone. • Evolutionary Governance Theory reveals how narratives, institutions and materialities co-evolve in karst landscapes. • Contrasting institutional pathways explain uneven heritage outcomes in extractive and non-extractive contexts. • Heritage-making operates as a form of symbolic and territorial governance in regions shaped by extraction. • Comparative analysis shows how heritage can coexist with, rather than simply replace, extractive land uses. This article analyses the processes of geodiversity heritage-making in karst landscapes in Minas Gerais, Brazil. A qualitative, comparative approach based on Evolutionary Governance Theory (EGT) is used. The study compares two cases with different land-use and regulatory regimes: Lagoa Santa karst, with ongoing mining, urban pressures, and institutional fragmentation; and the Peruaçu Valley, a non-extractive area beyond active mining that has more stable heritage governance. Core EGT concepts such as trajectory creation, path dependence, bifurcation points (e.g., the 1990s mining moratorium in Peruaçu), and reality effects are used. These are combined with a typology of heritage narratives and six empirical dimensions from patrimonialization literature. The aim is to understand how norms, discourses, and materialities evolve together in geoheritage production. The results show that Peruaçu Valley has a more unified, multi-level trajectory. Its heritage-making relies on organised institutions, participatory methods, and a common narrative. In contrast, Lagoa Santa has overlapping rules, limited coordination between governance levels, and land-use disputes, with heritage largely symbolic. The comparison shows that karst heritage-making is a dynamic, political-territorial process shaped by unequal narrative systems and institutional strength. Heritage governance can offer a territorial alternative to mining and help create non-extractive futures. The study concludes that EGT is a helpful way to analyse geodiversity governance in contested karst areas. Still, it also has limits when institutional imbalance and ongoing land-use conflict are present.

Coastal climate adaptation planning and evolutionary governance: Insights from Homer, Alaska

A mega-event is an open socioeconomic system characterized by massive budget demands and multiple types of subprojects and their complex interrelationships. Although a mega-event is an opportunity for a country to show its international reputation, management capacity, and societal strength, it demands a long preparation time; an enormous amount of investment; and massive resource mobilization, with far-reaching effects on both the economic and social development of a country. Mega-event projects (MEPs) face remarkable challenges in terms of overrun costs, delayed schedules, and political issues, indicating that the research on such mega-events is still insufficient and that there is a lack of effective theories to support the management and governance of MEPs. Existing studies have also ignored the dynamic evolution and adaptation of governance in a changing environment, particularly in relation to the success of MEPs. To fill this research gap, this study aims to examine the dynamic governance of MEPs on the basis of a new theory—evolutionary governance theory (EGT)—which combines institutional economics, systems theory, and project governance. The study was conducted in three main steps: (1) studying the case of the evolutionary governance of the World Expo 2010 in China during its life cycle stage, including planning, construction, operation, and post-event development; (2) discussing the impact of the hierarchical and cross-functional governance structure of the Expo; and (3) summarizing the theories and best practices of dynamic governance mechanisms for MEPs. The result of the study can deepen understanding of the multi-level governance of mega-events during the life cycle process and can also support the evolution of governance transition over the different stages.

An evolutionary governance framework for the sustainable management of urban wetlands: integrating theoretical perspectives and practical applications

This article presents a comparative account of the evolution of flood governance in the Dutch (Western Scheldt) and Flemish (Sea Scheldt) regions of the Scheldt estuary through the lens of evolutionary governance theory. Evolutionary governance theory is based on three assumptions: governance is continuously evolving, change is contingent, and discourses are drivers of change. Employing a comparative research design and secondary data analysis, this study examines how institutional, material, and discursive factors, goals, path dependencies, and interdependencies have shaped flood risk governance and influenced the integration of nature conservation goals alongside traditional flood safety objectives. While dike reinforcement prioritizes flood safety, integrated strategies—such as transitional polders and dike setbacks—aim to balance flood protection with ecological restoration. This is particularly pertinent in the Scheldt estuary, where ecological degradation has raised concerns regarding the long‐term loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services. A significant challenge in transforming the governance of the estuary is anticipating long‐term risks while pursuing ecological and flood safety objectives. Through a longitudinal cross‐case comparison, this study identifies barriers to the adoption of nature‐based solutions in flood risk management. The findings emphasize the need for a more integrated approach that aligns flood safety and nature conservation development policies for resilient and long‐term climate solutions.

Afghans’ protracted displacement is a geopolitical legacy from the Cold War. Although Pakistan’s return policymaking has foreseen the complete voluntary return of Afghans since the end of the Cold War, then as now, about three million Afghans reside in Pakistan. This article advances the notion of calculated informality to dissolve this seeming contradiction. Pakistan’s policymakers have excelled in calculated informality by successfully navigating the domestic and geopolitical arena over time based on practices of deregulation and ambiguity. Methodologically, the article applies Evolutionary Governance Theory (EGT) to reconstruct Pakistan’s return governance path based on the analysis of legal documents, previous research and secondary literature. EGT reveals the dependencies and layering at work in return governance and points out how the geopolitical positionality of Pakistan has determined its return policymaking. The structured interconnectedness of path-, goal- and interdependencies illustrates rigidities of the governance path and why opacity and ambiguity in return governance persist.

PurposeMuch has been said about institutional change and the forms it can take, whether it is abrupt or incremental, path breaking or path dependent. This strand of research is highly relevant in times of welfare institutional reforms and changes. A puzzle, however, remains, and it concerns the empirical phenomena that there might be institutional inertia despite seeming change. One reason for this remaining puzzle is, as argued here, that the ongoing theoretical reflections have a certain blind spot: “institutional constellations” and their characteristics. The purpose of this paper, therefore, is to analyse the “layering” of a welfare institution which results in an institutional constellation.Design/methodology/approachSuch newly established institutional constellations, though they look roughly similar and are formed of comparable ingredients, can differ profoundly between themselves. This could be due to the fact that the characteristics of institutions depend on the regulating principles (the “spirit”) implemented in them. To validate this hypothesis, the author analyses in depth the institutional layering in two traditionally different social protection systems: the Dutch and the German pension systems.FindingsIn both cases, as the author shows, the traditional regulating principles are also implemented in the newly established institutional constellation, so that in the end pension systems do not change but differ as they did before.Originality/valueThe empirical phenomenon of institutional inertia despite seeming change has not yet been explicitly addressed. This is the case since the ongoing theoretical reflections have a certain blind spot: “institutional constellations” and their characteristics which are the focus of this paper.

Social networks, collective action and the evolution of governance for sustainable tourism on the Gili Islands, Indonesia

When we launched ‘Nepal Public Policy Review (NPPR)’ as a policy journal last year, we were not sure how the stakeholders – academic researchers and the policy community in particular – would react to it. A year down the line, NPPR has been a platform to engage academic researchers and the policy community in critical discussion and reflection on how Nepal’s public policy discourse should be reimagined and restructured. We are happy that a frank and honest discussion has started. We hope the discussion will trigger a paradigm shift in the way public policies are envisioned, developed and implemented. Such a shift is long overdue in Nepal.

Prompted by intense public debate and policy shifts, this study examines news media representations of gender-affirming care for transgender and gender diverse (TGD) youth in Sweden from 2019 to 2023. The analysis draws on Hall's theories of media representation and articulation, with a framework focussing on risk and temporality. Analysing media representations is crucial for understanding how societal discourses on gender dysphoria are shaped. The media articulates a dramatic rise in youth seeking gender-affirming care, and portrays a new group of patients, primarily young "girls" with neuropsychiatric conditions. This group is frequently articulated as vulnerable, mentally unstable and influenced by social contagion. The media representations draw on a risk discourse, centred on the threat of future regret, the irreversibility of medical interventions and suicidality. Both critics and supporters of gender-affirming care invoke suicide risk to justify their positions. The study highlights how TGD youths' voices are largely absent from the media representations. It critiques the simplified constructions of gender dysphoria and calls for more nuanced understandings of the rise of a diagnosis, care access and mental health. Finally, the paper illustrates shifting alliances and resistance within a broader conjuncture where professional and cultural tensions shape public discourse on gender-affirming care.

Conventionally, periods in American politics have been identified with American presidents — the Roosevelt era, the Kennedy—Johnson era, the Reagan era, and so on — rather than particular Congresses. These presidential labels are attached not only because of the prevailing presidentialism in American political science and history, but often because particular presidents are associated with detectable shifts in public policy. The events of 1995 and 1996 do not fit this pattern. As has often been the case in American government, the primary thrust for policy change came from Congress1 not from the White House. In the past, when Congress has sought to shift public policy in a new direction members have frequently sought also to adjust their chambers’ internal organisational arrangements so that they may better fulfil their policy needs and demands. When the 70 or so War Hawks elected to the 12th House in 1810 wanted to push President James Madison into waging war against Britain, they transformed the previously inert Speakership into the chamber’s political leader, augmented the office’s authority so as to rival the president, and elected Henry Clay as Speaker. Clay then used his new authority to appoint like-minded House members to committees and chairs in order to advance the new members’ policy agenda. In 1910, Progressive Republicans in the House wished to defeat the Payne-Aldrich tariff bill and curtail the power of their autocratic leader, Speaker ‘Uncle Joe’ Joseph G. Cannon (R.IL, 1903–11). Progressives combined with minority Democrats to strip Cannon of his power.

This chapter briefly outlines the theoretical framework of Evolutionary Governance Theory. It presents its architecture as well as the most important concepts and their relations. We emphasize the concepts of contingency and co-evolution, which serve as the base of an analysis of co-evolving configurations: actor/institutions, formal/informal, and power/knowledge. We discuss the three dependencies: path dependence, interdependence, and goal dependence and reflect on governance techniques and steering options. For a more detailed overview of EGT we refer to the book: ‘Evolutionary Governance Theory, an introduction’ (Van Assche et al. (Evolutionary governance theory: an introduction. Springer, 2014a)). For a further elaboration on the relations between concepts we also refer to the Glossary chapter at the end of this book.

Negotiating coastal infrastructures: An evolutionary governance theory (EGT) approach to Chinese high-modernist development along the Indian Ocean