Focus area 4 – Governance

Governance, collaboration and resistance in environmental communication

This focus area investigates the meaning and function of collaborative governance in environmental politics against the backdrop of mounting tensions and resistance around sustainability transformations. A pivotal concern is to study how resistance and tensions affect power relations, which in turn shape perceptions about the legitimacy and viability of collaborative governance processes in the environmental field.
Theme leader

Martin Westin

Martin works in the intersection between governance theory and practice. His research focuses on collaborative governance and participatory planning.

Collaborative governance is a governing arrangement that brings together actors across different interests, sectors and jurisdiction. It aims to further deliberation and collective decision-making to address public issues or manage resources. The normative core of collaborative governance is cooperation, dialogue and trust.  

Collaborative governance can play a constructive role to enhance legitimacy and improve effectiveness of decision-making processes by leveraging diverse knowledge, resources, and perspectives. It is particularly important for addressing “wicked problems” complex issues like climate change and biodiversity loss that often transcend geographical, political, and organizational boundaries. 

Today, tensions are mounting around sustainability transformations. Debates are often sharply polarized. Broad consensus in decision-making is becoming rarer, and organised resistance to sustainability policies, including by new interest-based groups and social movements, is on the rise. This often results in amplified antagonism and distrust. The prospects for collective decision-making today are becoming more tenuous. 

In our research, we set out from this broad contextual background to study the meaning and function of collaborative governance in environmental and sustainability politics. We are especially interested in the question of how mounting tensions around and resistance to sustainability policy affect power relations because such relations play a crucial role in shaping the viability and legitimacy of collaborative governance processes. We study how expertise and local knowledge are negotiated and utilized. And we seek to develop practical tools to make collaborative processes better equipped to deal with social and political tensions and resistance to sustainability transformations. 

We are currently doing work on three case studies of collaborative governance: climate change mitigation, management of invasive species and biodiversity loss, and large-scale infrastructure projects.  

We work closely with a partnership of practitioners, which consists of the following actors: the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, the Swedish Forest Agency, the Hunters’ Association, Greenpeace, Uppsala Municipality, and the Swedish Centre for Nature Interpretation at SLU 

Dialogue and collaboration network

Within the focus area, a network has been created for those who want to develop sustainability dialogues. Read more about the network and sign up at slu.se/mistraec/natverkdialogsamverkan (in Swedish).

Publications

Can Conflict Be Planned Away? A Critical Assessment of Participatory Land Use Planning in Swedish Forest Governance

Scientific paper
A widespread governance response to land use conflict is to seek improved communication through the employment of dialogue-based instruments. In this paper, we interrogate the guiding presupposition that conflict can be planned away through a case study on the Reindeer Husbandry Plan (Renbruksplan), a tool used to address land use conflicts between industrial forestry and Indigenous Sámi reindeer herding. Annette Löf, 2024.

Rättviseargument blockerar Sveriges omställning

Debate article
Robert Österbergh, Martin Westin, and Anke Fischer published a debate article in Dagens Arena. May 23, 2024

The Sustainability Walk – Combining Nudging and Pragmatism to Facilitate Collective Action and Reflection.

Scientific paper
Westin M, Joosse S, Möckel F, et al. (2024) The Sustainability Walk – Combining Nudging and Pragmatism to Facilitate Collective Action and Reflection. Scandinavian Journal of Public Administration 28(2). 2: 40–57.

Negotiating Authority in Facilitation Practice – A Conceptual Framework to Describe Facilitators’ Use of Power in Collaborative Governance.

Scientific paper
Westin M and Montgomerie E (2024) Negotiating Authority in Facilitation Practice – A Conceptual Framework to Describe Facilitators’ Use of Power in Collaborative Governance. Society & Natural Resources 0(0). Routledge: 1–20.