Bottom-up Governance Research Articles

Digital geographies of power: The scale of digital money infrastructures

This paper examines the relationship between the scale, socio-political goals, and the technological design of digital money infrastructures. The backdrop is the digital currency industry that threatens to undermine institutions’ monetary powers. Institutions are developing digital money infrastructures conceived as public utilities. Scattered geographically and scaled differently, the coexistence of digital currency within the EU raises the question about the role of money in a digitized society. Eleven in-depth interviews with key actors and three publicly funded projects that organize digital money infrastructures were compared in this study. Smaller scale and bottom-up governance implies higher attention to local problems and social dynamics. Links with institutions and top-down decision-making remain necessary to ensure long-lasting and scalable digital money infrastructures. The geographies of power are co-shaped for each project. This demonstrates a very complex interplay of sociopolitical goals, data as part of the digital monetary design, and its scale that varies across time and space.

Beyond Formal Structures: Exploring Bottom-Up Governance Dynamics in the Assyrian Community’s COVID-19 Response in Germany

This article examines pandemic governance towards migrant communities in Germany in the context of mobilisation and demobilisation of state–society relations during the COVID-19 crisis. By studying how informality is reproduced in social practices and community networks as a response to top-down governance practices in the case of Assyrians – a quintessential diaspora community that settled in Germany through various migratory waves starting from the 1960s – this article aims to explore the bottom-up dynamics of governance practices among migrant communities. The study identifies three key themes for studying bottom-up dynamics of governance: informality embedded in everyday practices in response to formal governance, particularly vaccine policies; the existence of alternative epistemologies based on mistrust towards authorities, manifested in dual narratives; and the articulation of migrant agency in navigating top-down structures. Adopting a grounded theory approach, the study utilises theoretical sampling. Data were collected from various sources, including reports, newspaper articles, official statements and press releases from migrant organisations, alongside interviews with key migrant stakeholders.

Development of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) in Vietnam from a coevolutionary governance perspective: Challenges of unholy alliances between the state, businesses and NGOs

Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) are widely recognised as a management framework for achieving biodiversity conservation and sustainable ocean uses. Although the attention to improving the governance of MPAs as a priority for achieving effective MPAs has been escalated, debates concerning MPA governance are inspired mainly by the bottom-up governance approach and its focus on horizontal and vertical linkages as a means of resolving conflicts, with the assumption that the state should only take a passive role. As the debates on the best MPA governance model continue, the progress of spatially expanding the global MPA network remains slow and has created many paper parks. Through a coevolutionary governance lens, this paper aims to empirically examine the development of MPAs in Vietnam and reflect on the national realities of achieving global biodiversity targets. Our findings emphasise that governance frameworks adopted for Vietnamese MPAs are typically characterised by a significant decentralisation of responsibilities to province-/district-level governments but with a lack of conditions and accountability attached to such responsibilities and of related oversight from the central government. Consequences include rent-seeking and clientelism opportunities for local authorities, elite capture of MPA benefits, and diminishing trust and stewardship among local communities. Our study suggests that, in the face of increasing overfishing and corporate interests nurtured by the unholy alliances between the state, businesses and NGOs, effective and equitable MPAs critically rely on synergies among different governance approaches, which are case-specific, along with sufficient political will and oversight from the state.

Social sustainability for whom? Developing an analytical approach through a tripartite collaboration

PurposeSocial sustainability is a concept frequently referred to in public debates concerning how to construct the governance of future societies. The interpretations of its meaning, however, are ambiguous, and practices often dubious. Confronting top-down technocratic governance structures, this paper aims to argue for for tripartite collaborations between residents, higher education institutions (HEIs) and local government, as an approach toward social sustainability that involves residents’ interests in local governance.Design/methodology/approachThis study argues that a specific time-spatial method of analysis can benefit the co-creation of knowledge as it passes through the spectrum of resident–HEI–local government. It provides a way for resident perceptions to become structured knowledge that originates from the residents, effectively engendering a bottom-up governance structure.FindingsThis study shows how to include residents in policymaking and implementation processes as co-creators of knowledge, and thereby displays the possibility of examining knowledge and competence within municipal projects for social sustainability.Originality/valueThe model developed in this study can be used as a methodological instrument to analyze and expand resident participation in local social sustainability work. It thereby provides a toolbox for inclusive policymaking and strategies.

“Biomass from somewhere?” Governing the spatial mismatch of Viennese biomass consumption and its impact on biodiversity

Vienna’s biomass demand is large and nearly all biomass consumed in the city is produced in the regional and global hinterland. This raises the question, how the socioecological conditions at specific places somewhere in the world are impacted by urban consumption and how negative impacts can be addressed and mitigated by urban actors. Here we focus on the city’s biodiversity footprint and argue that the spatial mismatch between the social-ecological impacts of biomass production and consumption and its impact on biodiversity on the one hand, and the governance instruments available at a city level mentioned by the interviewed experts on the other hand, must be considered when looking for bottom-up governance strategies of urban actors. We combine food regime theory, the analysis of biomass flows and a multiscalar governance approach to analyze “biomass from somewhere” in three important sectors of biomass use in Vienna – food, energy and construction timber. We find that consumption in Vienna requires 3.1 Mio. t of primary biomass per year (2010–2013), of which 59 % are for food, 28 % for material (only 1.3 % for construction) and 13 % for energy; roughly half of this biomass was sourced from Austria, the rest from other countries, mainly in Europe. While governance instruments at the city level are quite effective with respect to urban ecosystems and conservation within the city, they are insufficient to tackle biodiversity loss in the global hinterland. Important leverage points at the city scale are public procurement and the promotion of consumption patterns with lower land and primary biomass demand. An important prerequisite is unambiguous information and labelling concerning the biodiversity impacts of biomass products which is complicated by the fact that indirect land use effects need to be considered. Currently, none of the governance measures investigated includes extensive biodiversity criteria. We conclude that to effectively address the spatial mismatch, a different mode of production – regulated at higher scales and including mandatory measures – and a different mode of consumption as well as a reduction of consumption and production is required.

He Karanga Maha. Investigating Relational Resource Management in Aotearoa, New Zealand

Reciprocity amongst Māori peoples and the natural world is the foundation of the Māori worldview and natural resource management. Autonomy over resource management and the associated practices is an essential component of Māori wellbeing. This paper investigates the cultural, spiritual, historical, and ecological dimensions of mutton-bird harvesting, to gain a better understanding of the relational approach of Māori natural resource management. Resource management in Aotearoa New Zealand currently lacks the relational approach seen in Māori customary harvests. Therefore, the objective of this study is to identify the key values that underpin this cultural practice. Semi-structured interviews identified three key themes: harvesting practices, kaitiakitanga (resource management based on a Māori worldview), and whanaungatanga (kinship between people). Harvest practices had a bottom-up governance approach creating diverse harvesting techniques that adapt to local environments. Kaitiakitanga identified mana whenua rights to decision-making power in natural resource management as a requirement for success. Whanaungatanga also identified relationships and collaboration as a vital component. To optimize the best outcomes for the environment, we advocate for a genuine cross-cultural and relational approach and the inclusion of these practices and values in the governance of natural resources in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Internal Governance and Cost Stickiness

ABSTRACTInternal governance is the bottom-up governance mechanism within the top management team (hereinafter referred to as “TMT”) through which key subordinates internally monitor the Chief Executive Officer (CEO). We find that cost stickiness is negatively associated with internal governance after controlling for legitimate economic reasons of cost stickiness, suggesting that internal governance mitigates agency-based cost stickiness. Consistent with the agency explanation, the results show that the impact of internal governance on cost stickiness is stronger for firms with lower future-value creation of selling, general, and administrative (SG&A) costs. In addition, we document that the impact of internal governance on cost stickiness is more pronounced for firms with more-effective board monitoring. This paper extends a growing literature that investigates the impact of internal governance on corporate decisions and complements existing studies on the role of various governance mechanisms in mitigating agency-based cost stickiness.JEL Classifications: M41; G30.

Why is bottom-up more acceptable than top-down? A study on collective psychological ownership and place-technology fit in the Irish Midlands

Previous research has shown that bottom-up governance approaches enjoy higher community acceptance than top-down approaches. However, it is unclear why this is the case. We investigated this in a survey-based field study in a community in the Irish Midlands that is transitioning away from fossil fuel-based (peat) based energy generation to a renewable energy system. Community members evaluated two scenarios that were part of the actual public debate, that is - a scenario proposed by the government and industry (a top-down scenario), and a scenario proposed by some local community members (a bottom-up scenario). The results showed that, compared to the top-down scenario, the bottom-up scenario was more acceptable, community members felt stronger collective psychological ownership over it, and it was perceived as more place-fitting. Mediation analysis confirmed that higher community acceptance of the bottom-up scenario compared to the top-down one was mediated by stronger feelings of collective psychological ownership and perceptions of place-technology fit community members had regarding the proposed bottom-up development than the top-down one. These results imply that community acceptance is higher under bottom-up governance approaches as they strengthen collective psychological ownership and perceptions of place-technology fit among communities where renewable energy projects are being developed.

Da li se plima okrenula? Primorski turizam i osnaživanje žena - slučaj Galicije

Several fishing families on the Spanish coast use marine tourism as a means to complement their finances. The aim of this research is the analysis of this phenomenon characterised by a prominent mood of female empowerment, as a large number of the entrepreneurs and workers in this area are women, and also by its sustainable management, since it is an activity that respects and cares for the environment, while also safeguarding local identities and cultural traditions. The case study is the Galician coast, a pioneer region for this type of tourism. The methodology of analysis is qualitative, involving in-depth interviews with women representing the fishing communities of Redondela, Cambados and Cesantes, as well as the Galician Government's tourism plans. The research contributes to the theory by studying and conceptualising marine tourism as another way to reinforce local identity and sense of belonging. As for its practical implications, it highlights the predominant role of women (who are traditionally invisible in this sector) and the sustainable, bottom-up governance of this form of tourism.

Bottom-Up Dilemma


 
 
 Global environmental governance reflects a bottom-up trend of polycentric, adaptive, and participatory decision-making processes. The legal regime for international investment, by contrast, has a top- down structure that requires consistent, stable, and predictable governance of foreign investment in host states. This difference in structure results in an emerging “bottom-up” dilemma where states face conflicting obligations regarding the distribution of governing authorities, the frequency of norm evolution, and the inclusiveness of decision-making. This paper analyzes three aspects of the bottom-up dilemma—governing actors, scales of governance, and modes of governance—as reflected in the investment arbitration case law. It then conducts an analysis of investment treaties to assess their effectiveness in solving the dilemma and makes proposals for future treaty reform and arbitration practice. In conclusion, the paper proposes to strike a balance between, on the one hand, the protection of foreign investors’ interests in a dynamic and complex governing process, and, on the other hand, the preservation of host states’ policy space to adopt a polycentric and bottom-up governance structure.
 
 

An emergent taxonomy of boundary spanning in the smart city context – The case of smart Dublin

Smart cities emphasize the use of advanced technology to deliver better services to and improve the well-being of their residents. Since the administrative authorities that manage cities often lack the knowledge and skills needed to transform their operations in this way, smart city initiatives usually involve a complex set of actors, from local urban authorities and their technical departments to small and large IT firms, academics, and civic organizations, as well as individual citizens. Mediating organizations are often set up to coordinate and manage such interactions. However, little is known about the roles and activities of such bodies. Using data from the Dublin smart city projects, this study draws on the concept of boundary spanning to develop a taxonomy of the work of such intermediaries. Divided into technical, political, social, and cultural domains, the study demonstrates the critical role of the work done by such bodies in enhancing collaboration among and the participation of a diverse group of citizens, IT and digital strategy departments of local authorities, universities and local/international IT companies (e.g., Google, Facebook or Airbnb), leading to a bottom-up governance style of leading smart city initiatives and projects.

Implementing Regional Sea Use Planning system in China: Evolution, drivers and experiences

The Regional Sea Use Planning (RSUP) system, initiated in 2006 and terminated in 2018 in China, required a concentrated layout and unified planning for multiple reclamation projects in the same coastal area to improve reclamation management. In this study, we investigated the driving factors and challenges by analysing policy evolution, temporal and spatial changes of the approved reclamation area under RSUP system, and utilisation efficiency of reclamation land. Our results show that the progress of RSUP in China was strongly influenced by macro policies and the economy, local industrial structure, and bottom-level governance system. First, RSUP items increased steadily from 2006 to 2008, peaked from 2009 to 2012, and decreased sharply thereafter, indicating that the policy adjustment and the trend of economic fluctuation has played a crucial role in promoting or controlling reclamation. Second, the reclamation scale curve of each coastal region was highly consistent with the proportion curve of the marine secondary industry. This implies that the coastal industrial structure largely relied on traditional land-based secondary industry has led to a surge in RSUP items. Moreover, the reclamation completion rate of 79.7% and construction rate of 24.8% exposed the excessive conversion of the sea to land, and the main reason is that the bottom-up governance process of the RSUP system did not coincide with its top-down decision-making process. Hence, adaptive management is an important approach for coastal reclamation policymaking, marine industrial structure should be redesigned to become less dependent on secondary industry, and the bottom-level governance system must be improved to connect effectively to the top-level design. The experiences gained from China's RSUP system are highly important and relevant even to other countries, as the policy implications from this study would inform reclamation and other sea use management policies.

A governance perspective for climate change adaptation: Conceptualizing the policy-community interface in Bangladesh

Climate change adaptation is currently an important community concern in developing countries like Bangladesh. The conceptualization of adaptation within the government system matters for the promotion of activities such as employment generation for local communities. The lesser the gap between government policy and the local community’s needs for adaptation the more effective outcomes are for ensuring policy success and promoting sustainable community livelihoods or vice versa. This interface between policy and community is important for climate change adaptation which is explored in this paper along with the findings of the research project, DEltas, vulnerability and climate change: Migration and Adaptation (DECCMA) conducted during 2014–2018 in Bangladesh, Ghana, India, and the United Kingdom. The data from Bangladesh was collected from 1384 survey respondents, 19 Focus Group Discussions (FGDs), 3 workshops, and 43 Key Informant Interviews (KIIs). The findings of the paper show that government adaptation activities mainly reflect the Reactive Approach of Limited Action (RALA) perspective rather than the Proactive Approach To Adaptation (PATA). The RALA perspective is characterized by piecemeal and top-down approaches to adaptation which fail to recognize a community conceptualization of climate change, policy perspectives for coping with local concerns, and governance approaches for effective adaptation. In response, the government needs to focus on the PATA in policy, programs, and projects with the governance approach implemented from the bottom-up or, in other words, from the local perspective. Community participation in decision-making processes is characteristic of this bottom-up governance model. Local community participation, consultation, and representation are essential parts of PATA in adaptation policy formulation and execution, providing important lessons for Bangladesh.

The Legitimacy of Bottom-up Governance: The Role of Multi-Stakeholder GVC Partnerships in Ethiopia

Multi-stakeholder initiatives (MSIs) have emerged as forms of collaborative, horizontal governance aimed at advancing the sustainable development of global value chains (GVC). Despite their recent popularity and good intentions, legitimacy deficits emerged, preventing more significant improvements in terms of sustainability. Consequently, academics and policy makers have called for more civil society organization (CSO) involvement in GVC governance. This article applies a grounded theory approach to a single, deviant case study: an EU-funded, CSO-led GVC MSI, consisting of public, private, and civil society organizations both in Europe and Ethiopia, which aims to promote a sustainable cotton and garment value chain of Ethiopian cotton to European consumers. To analyze the case, we conducted 69 in-depth semi-structured interviews. Our findings show the interplay between politically and socially driven legitimacy concerns in the context of CSO-led MSIs. Specifically, our results contrast the bottom-up nature of CSO-led MSIs against Ethiopia’s hierarchical, top-down structures deeply ingrained in local institutions. This global-local mismatch creates social legitimacy challenges for the project, which in return, contributes to both input and output legitimacy deficits. This is mainly visible from the lack of local ownership by ‘powerful’ project partners, whose presence in the project is paramount for social legitimacy, but whose specific interests also impede output legitimacy at the highest level. Overall, while CSO-led MSIs are confronted with similar legitimacy challenges than either traditional (global) or local MSIs, it is their strong footing in the local market that allows them to create value for stakeholders at the bottom (i.e., workers).

Whether Social Participation Can Affect the Central Government Public Policy Response to the COVID-19 in China.

ObjectiveThe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak has threatened the state's governance and public safety. This study investigates whether and how public participation can affect central government policy response to this pandemic in the context of China.MethodsThis study constructs the theoretical framework based on theoretical analysis, and Social Network Analysis is used to analyze data on the public participation, New Media, and the central government response in this pandemic.ResultsFindings show that the Chinese central government does not always adopt top-down elitist governance strategies in risk management. The central government will also adopt the bottom-up governance strategy triggered by public participation. In this process, New Media acts as a catalyst. Specifically, when faced with a public emergency and needs a policy response from the central government, public participation firstly creates “participation” with the authority of the media, forms public opinion, and then the prompt policy response from the central government.ConclusionThis study confirms that the central government will refer to public participation to decide the policy response. It also shows that the theory of government response applies to both the local government and the central government.

How do governance arrangements matter in the circular economy? Lessons from five methanation projects based on the social-ecological system framework

As the circular economy (CE) is a viable solution to address environmental issues, academics and policy makers aim to have a better understanding of the drivers and barriers related to its development. Nonetheless, what is still missing in this discussion is what governance arrangements at the micro level would be conducive for the CE. In other words, how actors should interact to apply, form, and reform rules to organize activities inherent in the development of the CE. This study aims to investigate this question by mobilizing the Socio-Ecological Systems framework to examine five methanation projects carried out in the Brittany and Normandy regions of France. As these projects are characterized by different outcomes, a comparative analysis is conducted to identify a set of governance arrangement factors that are key to the success of the CE. First, in terms of actors, the results highlight the importance of (i) the participation of all relevant stakeholders in the governance process, especially local inhabitants, (ii) facilitative leadership, (iii) sufficient technological expertise. Second, there should be effective collaboration through frequent information sharing and self-organizing activities. Third, actors apply constitutional rules while elaborating collective choice rules that allow a collaborative and bottom-up governance.

The how and what of bottom-up governance to change household energy consumption behaviour

Advancing the energy transition requires substantial reductions in energy consumption. This calls for technological energy efficiency improvements, and more importantly for behavioural change to reduce household energy consumption.However, classical governmental command-and-control or economic instruments are only partially suitable to advance this process, particularly because energy consumption behaviour (ECB) is often performed privately at home and is thus partly out of reach of governmental regulations. Instead, energy consumption behaviour is often addressed through “bottom-up” governance (BuG), i.e., “softer types” of instruments, like information, labelling, and/or feedback instruments, implemented by a range of governance actors.Despite the relevance of BuG for changing ECB, and regular reference to the term in practice and science, there appears to be no commonly accepted understanding or comprehensive approach, detailing best-practice designs. Therefore, the aim of this paper is: (1) to develop a comprehensive conception of BuG (the what); and (2) to identify effective features of BuG arrangements to change ECB (the how). Through a systematic literature review, we develop a conceptualisation of BuG. Moreover, we outline features of BuG for ECB change, detailing tailored, multifactorial, integrated, and dynamic governance arrangements.

Governance of Fragmented Compliance and Voluntary Carbon Markets Under the Paris Agreement

Over the past two decades, the emergence of multiple carbon market segments has led to fragmentation of governance of international carbon markets. International baseline-and-credit systems for greenhouse gas mitigation have been repeatedly expected to wither away, but show significant resilience. Still, Parties to the Paris Agreement have struggled to finalize rules for market-based cooperation under Article 6, which are still being negotiated. Generally, there is tension between international top-down and bottom-up governance. The former was pioneered through the Clean Development Mechanism under the Kyoto Protocol and is likely to be utilized for the Article 6.4 mechanism, while the latter was used for the first track of Joint Implementation and will be applied for Article 6.2. Voluntary carbon markets governed bottom-up and outside the Kyoto Protocol by private institutions have recently gained importance by offering complementary project types and methodological approaches. The clear intention of some Parties to use market-based cooperation in order to reach their nationally determined contributions to the Paris Agreement have led to an ongoing process of navigating the alignment of these fragmented carbon market instruments with the implementation of nationally determined contributions and Paris Agreement’s governance architecture. We discuss emerging features of international carbon market governance in the public and private domain, including political and technical issues. Fragmented governance is characterized by different degrees of transparency, centralization, and scales. We assess the crunch issues in the Article 6 negotiations through the lens of these governance features and their effectiveness, focusing on governance principles and their operationalization to ensure environmental integrity and avoid double counting.

Implementing bottom-up governance through granting legal rights to rivers: a case study of the Whanganui River, Aotearoa New Zealand

ABSTRACT In the context of water management, designing and implementing bottom-up governance regimes that are more sensitive to local knowledge and provide for the direct participation of local actors is of growing interest. Mechanisms that facilitate the successful devolution of authority to local actors remain a challenge, however. This article seeks to understand whether the ‘Rights of Nature’ approach could be a used as a mechanism for transferring decision-making responsibility to local actors. A case study of the Whanganui River, Aotearoa New Zealand, suggests that granting legal rights to nature does help foster more bottom-up governance by using the social norms, customs, traditions, beliefs, and values of individuals within the community to shape the decision-making framework. The analysis highlights the role that local beliefs and customs play in enabling the transfer of decision-making responsibility to lower levels of an institutional arrangement when implementing the ‘Rights of Nature’ approach.

‘Bottom-up governance’: discourse, practices and the duality of the state

ABSTRACT This paper uses a case study of an Israeli teacher leadership initiative to explore a mode of educational governance that employs ‘bottom-up’ logic and discourse. The authors analyse the origins of this initiative, and – through a policy-making ethnography of the initiative’s enactment at the district level – show how it is sustained and governed through ‘top-down’ structures and strategies. The authors use the term ‘bottom-up governance’ to describe a hybrid mixture of discourse that valorises grass-roots leadership, of governance through actors’ autonomy and reflexivity, of enactment by a complex array of external and internal educational actors, and of initiation and control by central government, which provides insufficient, temporary and unstable resources. Their analysis highlights the conflicted and complex role of mid-level policy-makers in this mode of governance, as well as the simultaneous pursuit by the Israeli education system of centralisation and decentralisation, and ‘weak state’ and ‘strong state’ strategies.