Strategic agency and learning in sustainability initiatives driving transformation: the symphony tool for ecosystem-based marine spatial planning

Abstract

Ecosystem-based management and marine spatial planning (MSP) represent novel approaches intended to transform marine governance and improve ecosystems. The transformation can be supported by sustainability initiatives such as decision-support tools, which inform changes in management strategies and practices. This study illustrates the potential and challenges of such sustainability initiatives to promote deliberative transformative change in marine governance systems. Specifically, it focuses on the amplification processes of the Symphony tool for ecosystem-based MSP in Sweden. Our findings suggest that the amplification of sustainability initiatives is driven by informal networks, coalition forming, resource mobilization skills, a shared vision, trust, experimentation, and social learning. Our results also highlight that in the face of institutional challenges such as sparse financial resources, uncertain institutional support, and divided ownership, a strategic way forward is to simultaneously work on parallel amplification processes, as they may enable each other. Further, we find that a key challenge in amplification across governance scales is the need for significant adjustments of the original innovation, to meet differing needs and competences. This highlights the broader challenge of achieving transformative change across scales in heterogenous and fragmented multilevel governance systems. Co-production of knowledge and early stakeholder interaction to ensure accessibility and availability can improve the chances of successful amplification. To move beyond a mechanistic understanding of steps and processes, future research on sustainability initiatives should consider the interplay between strategic agency, social learning, and institutional context in driving amplification processes.