Actor Constellations Research Articles

Governance of nature-based solutions through intermediaries for urban transitions – A case study from Melbourne, Australia

As cities increasingly turn to nature-based solutions to address key urban socio-ecological challenges, approaches to their governance, planning and implementation are increasingly important for ensuring their effectiveness. Nature-based solutions are multifunctional, and so their planning and implementation are by necessity interdisciplinary. As such, to support urban transitions with nature-based solutions, the role of intermediary actors deserves research attention. Intermediaries play key roles in linking between sectors, across different levels of government and between disciplines and policy domains. We identified three key points for research and planning nature-based solutions through intermediaries as key agents for change: intermediaries are creators of enabling institutional spaces needed for mainstreaming nature-based solutions in cities; intermediaries as actor configurations are dynamic over time and in context, and intermediation has to be understood as a fundamental governance activity in cities that want to scale up their climate adaptation planning with nature-based solutions. Using a case study of the development and initial implementation of the metropolitan urban forest strategy in Melbourne Australia, we analyze the multi-actor landscape that emerged, through the lens of intermediation. We systematically investigated which actors, partnerships and platforms acted as intermediaries in the transformative agenda of the Urban Forest strategy, how these actors interacted over the course of the strategy’s development and how their roles and functions shifted during the early implementation stages of the strategy. We found that an ‘ecology of intermediaries’ adopted a range of roles to support key functions including building collaboration, informing and disseminating policy learning, and strengthening political support. While intermediaries’ roles and functions shifted across the strategy’s development, their contributions were critical in the complex metropolitan governance context. Collaborative planning and governance for nature-based solutions in cities require intermediaries to remain topical, focused and inclusive/open to new ideas and lessons from innovations both emerging and driven.

Urban versus Rural? Conflict Lines in Land Use Disputes in the Urban–Rural Fringe Region of Schwerin, Germany

Land use conflicts can present major obstacles to sustainable land management. An accurate understanding of their actor constellations and conflict lines is therefore crucial in developing tools for successful landscape governance. In this context, actors from cities and actors from rural areas are often seen as typical opponents. Hence, the objective of this paper is to analyze the extent to which empirical conflict lines indeed run between urban and rural actors. We applied qualitative text analysis to examine 124 land use conflicts in the urban–rural fringe of Schwerin, Germany, which were identified through semistructured interviews with key land use actors in the region. Results showed that actors from the city and the rural fringe were on opposing sides in almost half of the conflicts. However, they were also frequently in conflict among themselves, and many actor constellations involved actors from other regions or administrative levels. In conclusion, the narrative of the urban–rural dichotomy appears in the empirical data but does not appropriately convey the complexity of the actual conflict lines. The findings of this paper therefore emphasize that it is important to empirically identify the actor constellations in land use conflicts rather than rely on preconceived ideas about typical conflict lines.

Modes of spread in social innovation: A social topology case in rural Portugal

The potential of social innovation to address intersecting social and spatial inequalities in regional territories is increasingly recognised. Against this background, the results in this article are based on a qualitative study of constellations of actors in peripheral rural regions engaged in socially innovative approaches to regional development. Empirically, the example of EPAM — a network of new young farmers across Portugal — is investigated using social topology methodology to demonstrate how social innovation spreads through rural regions. Data were collected and analysed across spatial scales to examine how images circulate ecologies of infrastructure –including EPAM – and traverse territorial boundaries. In this way, images as specific material-discursive configurations are shown to be agential in the performative spreading of social innovation.To conceptualise these observations, the article is based on the assumption that social innovation has dual spatial properties. The first, an empirically legible and bounded object moving in space (regional). The second, an trans-scalar relational process in which objects, subjects, and spaces are reciprocally reconfigured (process-relational). This assumption has implications on understanding diffusion dynamics in social innovation, specifically how does social innovation spread in a process-relational mode? Against this background, the primary aim of the article is to examine and elaborate the diffusion dynamics of social innovation in its process-relational mode in the case of EPAM. Applying social topology methodology with agential realist theoretical sensitivity is well suited to theoretically elaborate modes of spread in social innovation according to their spatial properties.

Disciplining migration aspirations through migration-information campaigns: A systematic review of the literature.

In the past few years, governmental agencies have developed a diverse repertoire of migration‐management measures to steer migration flows and discipline unwanted migration. Migration‐information campaigns have become a prominent tool aimed at communicating directly to migration aspirations of the targeted population in transit and sending countries. Through these information campaigns the geographical locus of control is shifted toward where the receiving state seeks to steer migration flows. This review paper is a research synthesis on literature engaging with migration‐information campaigns. The study is based on 17 peer‐reviewed journal articles from the years 2010–2020. Articles were coded based on discipline, type of research, research perspective, geographic origin and focus of the campaigns, objectives and rationale of the campaigns, tools and methods used in those campaigns, campaign funding, actor constellations, and a general assessment of each article. Findings from this study identify prominent trends as well as blind spots in the current research and indicate that there is still little research available on information campaigns concerning irregular migration, and even fewer studies report on their effectiveness. By implication future research is advised to focus on empirical studies on the impact of information campaigns on migrants' aspirations.

Innovative and m ission‐oriented financing of renewable energy in Sub‐Saharan Africa: A review and conceptual framework

AbstractNotwithstanding the high levels of renewable energy resources across Sub‐Saharan Africa (SSA), modern energy use based on these abundant natural resources remains negligible. Furthermore, the current electrification rates and reliability of available power supply in the region have consistently remained significantly lower than the global average over the last three decades. And of the reasons advanced for this state of affairs, the lack of appropriate financing is said to be a crucial one. Therefore, focusing on a comparative overview of the dominant approaches to financing electrification, we characterize the persistence of this regional gap as a reflection of relative “policy stasis.” We then problematize this condition of stasis by employing the theoretical perspectives of mission‐oriented finance in conjunction with those of innovative finance and renewable energy innovation. In addition, we review relevant peer‐reviewed articles over the same period, and find evidence that indicates an underappreciation of financing models that stimulate endogenous technological innovation in renewable energy in SSA. Our analysis suggests that the types of innovation, associated configurations of financial actors, levels of capital intensity, and perceived risks in relation to beneficiaries, diverge from those accounted for in the dominant financing models. Consequently, we propose a novel, historically path‐dependent conceptual framework that emerges from the intersection among the concepts of mission‐oriented finance, endogenous innovation, and innovative financing, which we term “endogenous innovative financing.” This framework ultimately guides our recommendations for more promising financing mechanisms for resolving the interwoven challenges of sustainable universal electrification and renewable energy innovation in SSA.This article is categorized under: Energy Research & Innovation > Economics and Policy Energy and Development > Economics and Policy Energy and Climate > Economics and Policy

Securing the Commons in India: Mapping Polycentric Governance

Common pool land and water resources in India play vital, but often overlooked, roles in livelihoods and ecosystem services. These resources are subject to the authority of various government departments and are often managed in ways that result in uncertain tenure for the people who depend on these resources for fodder, fuel, water, and other products. An Indian NGO, the Foundation for Ecological Security, has developed a process for “commoning”—assisting communities to secure the commons by forming inclusive local institutions to manage the resources, and to work with the different government departments to gain stronger rights to the commons. This study examines how the polycentric governance of natural resource commons shapes the ability of communities to do effective commoning, with particular reference to appropriation and provisioning rules. Using participatory network-mapping in FES sites in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka states, we identify the constellation of actors involved in the commons, the relationships among them, and community knowledge of these arrangements. The results reveal the complex flows of resources, information, and authority related to commons, with programs and agencies across different sectors, offering different opportunities and requirements, for commons management. The Net-maps show linkages that are present, and others that are missing or not well-understood, Net-mapping helps assess the extent of community understanding of the polycentric governance of the commons, and can help identify opportunities to strengthen participatory processes for planning and implementation.

Researching belonging with people with learning disabilities: Self‐building active community lives in the context of personalisation

Accessible Summary We wanted to understand more about how people with learning disabilities are building active community lives to help belonging. We spoke to 39 people from 29 different support organisations, 7 local authority representatives and 43 people with learning disabilities. They said belonging was about having the time to connect with other people in “everyday” places, being part of a supportive network and having the right choice and information. Belonging is like a cake. It needs the right ingredients. These ingredients include the right combination of people, places and times. Because of cuts to funding, many people with learning disabilities lack the right support, choice and information to access their communities. This is not belonging. AbstractBackgroundThis journal article draws on findings from a research project that examined how people with learning disabilities and their allies were seeking to build a sense of belonging. We wanted to focus on the concept of “belonging” in the context of personalisation and reduced government social care funding. Specifically, we sought to understand how people with learning disabilities and their supporters were coming together to “self‐build” networks of support including friendship clubs and self‐advocacy groups to enable a greater sense of belonging in their local communities.MethodsQualitative interviews were conducted with seven local authority representatives across four case study areas in the UK, as well as 39 staff across 29 organisations providing a range of day and evening support and activities. We also talked to 43 people with learning disabilities across the four areas about their experiences.FindingsOur findings demonstrate how belonging involves a complex configuration of actors, places, times, relationships and institutional roles (much like the ingredients in a cake). The ways in which belonging intersects with agency and choice was also identified as an important and novel finding of our study.ConclusionWhile belonging is often presented to people as a desirable and realisable outcome of social inclusion policies, cuts in funding and a lack of appropriate support frustrate people's desires to meaningfully belong with other people in their local community. This demonstrates the importance of supporting social environments that meet people's needs for social connectedness and belonging.

Administrative convergence in the United Nations system? Patterns of administrative reform in four United Nations organizations over time

This article asks how and why United Nations organizations reform their administrative structure and processes over time. It explores whether we can observe a convergence towards a coherent administrative model in the United Nations system. Like in most nation states, reform discussions according to models like New Public Management or post-New Public Management have permeated international public administrations. Against this background, the question of administrative convergence discussed for national administrative systems also arises for United Nations international public administrations. On the one hand, similar challenges, common reform ‘fashions’ and an increasing exchange within the United Nations system make convergence likely. Yet, on the other hand, distinct tasks, administrative styles and path dependencies might support divergent reform trajectories. This question of convergence is addressed by measuring the frequency, direction and rationales for reforms, using a sample of four international public administrations from the United Nations’ specialized agencies (the Food and Agriculture Organization, International Labour Organization, International Monetary Fund and World Bank). We find that convergence depends on the area of reform (human resources or organizational matters are more harmonized than others) and time (some international public administrations are faster or earlier than others). Points for practitioners This article identifies different drivers of reforms, as well as several supporting conditions, and obstacles to reform in international public administration, which is useful for understanding and planning change management. It highlights the issues policymakers should consider when implementing reform measures, especially institutional context, administrative styles and relevant actor constellations. Among other things, it shows that: the establishment of coordination bodies clearly leads to more homogeneous administrative practices; executive heads have a decisive role in the shaping of administrative reforms and have a specific interest to foster coordination and control in public organizations; and autonomy enables organizations to pursue reform policies apt to their individual challenges.

Inclusive innovation and the “ordinary” city: Incidental or integral?

Economic opportunity in the 21st century privileges people and places with the “right mix” of human capital to develop and apply digital technologies, and disadvantages those without. Increasing socio-technical, socio-economic, and socio-spatial polarization underscores inclusion as a critically important dimension of innovation. Workforce development and entrepreneurial ecosystems each have implications for “inclusive innovation” in restructuring cities, but understanding their realistic prospects requires attention to local institutional capacity as well as the broader multilevel policy contexts in which they operate. This study compares inclusive innovation programs in Saint-Etienne, France and Greensboro North Carolina, two mid-sized restructuring cities operating in two different macro-institutional settings. Highly variable but not entirely idiosyncratic dynamics emerge in each case; inclusive innovation is integral in Saint Etienne and incidental in Greensboro but not a resounding success in either city. “Top-down” and “bottom-up” dynamics interact in different ways to shape outcomes, but power matters most for local policy choice. The decisive factor is explicit linkage to a commonly accepted urban development agenda that is supported politically by local government. Intermediary organizations lack influence, and the private sector is disengaged. These findings suggest the need to rethink assumptions about the actor configurations that determine urban development priorities.

Higher Education Regionalism in Europe: from Bologna Process to Sorbonne

In 2017, the launch of Sorbonne process aimed at the creation of European Education Area by 2025 in parallel to the Bologna process existing since 1999 led to the emergence of two regional initiatives sharing mandate and membership. This study presents new empirical and conceptual insights into the ways in which a higher education regionalism can emerge and nest within another one as well as and their interplay. To this end, the paper compares the constellation of actors, competences, membership and driving forces of the two overlapping projects in higher education. It investigates plausible impact of the changes in European educational integration on Russia as a participant of the Bologna process. The results suggest that while the intergovernmental Bologna process was launched in the context of EU enlargement and embodied Pan-European vision, the EU-coordinated Sorbonne process was brought forth in the wake of multiple crises in the EU. It prioritizes the deepening of integration among a delineated group of EU members and candidates. Hence, the European regionalism in higher education is structured in concentric circles: the inner core of EU countries pursuing deeper integration and an outer circle comprising the rest of the Bologna countries, representing a geopolitical dimension for the core. The emergence of the inner core might lead to the shift in Bologna rationale towards diffusion of EU norms among countries of the outer circle. Although Russia find itself in the outer circle, there a low probability of substantial negative changes in the conditions of its participation in EU programmes, because some restrictive measures are already in force since 2014 and their expansion is unlikely due to the „selective engagement‟ in cooperation between the EU and Russia.

The sociology of the legal profession in the digital age

ABSTRACT This article explores how classical sociological theories such as functionalism, critical approaches, and Weberian intepretivism, can help understand the legal profession in the digital age. It argues that functionalist approaches allow to explore the changing societal role of lawyers in a digital world. Critical approaches allow for understanding how the legal profession respond to different constellations of actors and other social forces and how it is characterized by internal divisions and stratifications. Finally, Weberian approaches are helpful to reveal how the legal profession legitimizes itself by developing specific legal rationalities in response to societal and political dynamics.

Making a Research Infrastructure: Conditions and Strategies to Transform a Service into an Infrastructure

AbstractIn this article, we examine the making of research infrastructures for digital research. In line with many scholars in this field, we understand research infrastructures as deeply relational and adaptive systems that are embedded in research practice. Our aim was to identify the relevant context factors, actor constellations, organizational settings, and strategies which contribute to the evolution of a basic service into an actual infrastructure. To this end, we conducted thirty-three case studies of non-commercial and commercial research services along the research life cycle. By examining how these services emerge, we hope to gain a better understanding of the conditions and strategies to transform a service into an infrastructure. We are able to identify competitive disadvantages for publicly financed infrastructure projects with regard to the mode of implementation and the resources invested in development and marketing. We suggest that the results of this study are of practical relevance, especially for individuals, communities, and organizations wanting to create research infrastructures, as well as for funders and policy makers wanting to support innovative and sustainable infrastructures.

Patterns of European bioeconomy policy. Insights from a cross-case study of three policy areas

ABSTRACT The concept of the bioeconomy has risen to great popularity with governments around the world as a new paradigm for a sustainable economy. However, it is still highly contentious what the bioeconomy actually is or should be, which results in a certain vagueness of bioeconomy policy strategies. European bioeconomy policy is a prime example of this. Despite two dedicated bioeconomy strategies, it appears to be highly fragmented and heterogeneous when it comes to concrete political processes and measures. Against this backdrop, we aim to find patterns of European bioeconomy policy by applying the political process-inherent dynamics approach (PIDA) to the three sub-areas of bioplastics, biofuels and bioenergy. Aggregating the respective results, the overarching pattern of European bioeconomy policy is rather shaped by the interplay of specific problem structures, institutional frameworks and actor constellations in its policy sub-areas than by the ambiguous umbrella concept of the bioeconomy.

Banal Catholicism, Morality Policies and the Politics of Belonging in Spain

The articulation between religion, politics and the law in contemporary European societies is a complex matter. In this article, we argue that classical secularization approaches fail to capture the ambivalent form of Catholicism in Europe, and we advance an alternative approach that reconsiders two elements: temporality and social space. Firstly, we propose to adopt an “eventful temporality”, which enables the consideration of the impact of unexpected social and political events in altering the direction as well as shaping the public presence and form of religion. Secondly, we stress the need to focus on understanding the specificity of the different fields in which religion is mobilized, and the configuration and dynamics of each of these fields to explain the current weight of Christian majority churches in European societies. Drawing on empirical data from Spain, we examined the role and influence of Catholicism in three fields of public life: that of public services, that of morality politics and finally, that of the politics of belonging. In doing so, we identified their different temporalities (a long-term inertia in the first case, more abrupt changes in relation to the other two) as well as their specific dynamics in terms of actor constellations, issues at stake and symbolic repertoires.

Unpacking ambiguity in ideational change: the polysemy of the ‘Europe of Knowledge’

What is ambiguity, and why does it matter in policy change? Often treated as an exogenous factor, the ambiguity of ideas has been considered a taken for granted entity instrumental to actors’ strategic action. Less attention has been devoted to elucidating the nature and drivers of ambiguity in the policy process. Building on the concept of ‘boundary objects’, originally developed within the sociology of science, this article identifies polysemy as one explanatory factor through which multiple and contradictory meanings are shared across a constellation of different actors. Empirically, the article examines how the idea of the ‘Europe of Knowledge’ in European education policy was first rejected in the mid-1990s and then adopted only a few years later thanks to its polysemy. By ‘objectifying’ an idea into a boundary object, polysemy can thus create entry or exit options in the institutional arena by legitimising actors’ cooperation and enabling (policy) entrepreneurship.

Coping with Occupational Stress in Journalism: Professional Identities and Advocacy as Resources

ABSTRACT Valuable work describing occupational stress in journalism has been published over the last two decades. However, the experience of coping and how local context influences coping and support are less-often the central focus of inquiry. This study addresses this gap using qualitative responses from journalists working in the Mexican areas of Tamaulipas, Puebla, and Mexico City. Using a comparative case design to capture key differences in local conditions, this exploratory study reveals generalizable and context-contingent occupational stress, coping, and support experiences. The study found journalists in each context suffered from occupational stress and found strength in professional identities expressed as gratifications from work, commitments to public service norms, and solidarity among colleagues. In addition, the study found that the local configuration of state, civil society, and criminal actors shaped whether participants engaged in collective action to demand state protection as another form of coping. These findings articulate disconnected observations on camaraderie and values from other qualitative studies of stress in journalism, emphasizing that professional identity and advocacy are sources of strength that should be supported. The study additionally contributes to the literature on journalists’ safety by clarifying the concepts of risk, occupational stress, and coping for journalists.

Chieftaincy Conflicts in Northern Ghana: A Constellation of Actors and Politics

ABSTRACT Chieftaincy conflicts in Ghana are often presented as disputes involving rival groups over succession to traditional political power. However, chieftaincy conflicts are complex and often shaped by constellation of different actors, national and local level politics and elite maneuvering. This paper argues that chieftaincy conflicts go beyond the structural interpretations of competition and contestation for traditional power, but rather processual, encompassing constellations of diverse actors, elite politics and manipulation. In Northern Ghana, the combination of structural and processual factors drive chieftaincy conflicts. Party politics in chieftaincy conflicts have rendered chieftaincy institutions, that are supposed to be apolitical in nature, political.

Futures of sustainability: Trajectories and conflicts

The increased awareness of the exploitation of resources, as well as the negative ecological consequences of the modern way of life, has made sustainability a central guiding concept of social change in the 21st century. Sustainability has taken the form of a largely undisputed normative model of development, behind which, however, very different conceptions of the future are concealed: from the attempt to initiate a major socio-ecological transformation, through modernization processes, to control practices in a state of emergency. This special issue aims at these practices but is not primarily concerned with sustainability as a normative guiding idea that can just be pursued. However, a sociology of sustainability has to ask which conflictual spaces of possibility for socioeconomic change open up when very different ideas of a sustainable future are in conflict with each other. Three ideal-typical trajectories or futures of sustainability emerge, which can be theoretically grasped with the terms modernization, transformation and control. These three concepts of a sustainable future can also be found in the ambivalent imaginations, practices and structures of various constellations of actors.

FROM VISIBLE INFORMALITY TO SPLINTERED INFORMALITIES: Reflections on the Production of ‘Formality’ in a Moroccan Housing Programme

AbstractIncreasingly, scholarly works challenge the formal/informal dichotomy, stressing the multiple political practices of producing informality which go beyond state incapacity. In contrast, this article addresses a lack of research concerning the production of ‘formal’ urban space through state‐led housing programmes. Deconstructing simplistic notions of state intentionality and incapacity, the article zooms in on competing interests and diverse resources, as well as the shifting power relations between multiple private, semi‐public and public actors which shape the production of ‘formality’. Focusing on a shantytown resettlement programme in Casablanca, the article differentiates between visible informality and splintered informalities. The former relates to the prevailing clear‐cut and stereotypical dichotomy between formal and informal urban space which underpins the state's objective of eliminating the visible informality attached to Morocco's shantytowns. The latter is the result of a messy process of ensuring housing affordability through the so‐called third‐party scheme—a sites‐and‐services project based on small‐scale private investment and land speculation—once this objective is achieved. Characterized by heterogeneous actor constellations, opportunism and flexible regulatory practices, the scheme has not only capitalized but also individualized urban space. Instead of building new formal housing, the scheme has produced splintered informalities and created new uncertainties and arbitrariness beyond the control of a single actor.

Urban Planning by Experiment at Precinct Scale: Embracing Complexity, Ambiguity, and Multiplicity

Urban living labs have emerged as spatially embedded arenas for governing urban transformation, where heterogenous actor configurations experiment with new practices, institutions, and infrastructures. This article observes a nascent shift towards experimentation at the precinct scale and responds to a need to further investigate relevant processes in urban experimentation at this scale, and identifies particular challenges for urban planning. We tentatively conceptualise precincts as spatially bounded urban environments loosely delineated by a particular combination of social or economic activity. Our methodology involves an interpretive systematic literature review of urban experimentation and urban living labs at precinct scale, along with an empirical illustration of the Net Zero Initiative at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, which is operationalising its main campus into a living lab focussed on precinct-scale decarbonisation. We identify four processual categories relevant to precinct-scale experimentation: embedding, framing, governing, and learning. We use the empirical illustration to discuss the relevance of these processes, refine findings from the literature review and conclude with a discussion on the implications of our article for future scholarship on urban planning by experiment at precinct scale.