Handbook on Adaptive Governance: (Elgar Handbooks in Energy, the Environment and Climate Change)

The interconnectedness of global society is increasingly visible through crises such as the current global health pandemic, emerging climate change impacts and increasing erosion of biodiversity. This timely Handbook navigates the challenges of adaptive governance in these complex contexts, stressing the necessarily compounded nature of biophysical and social systems to ensure more desirable governance outcomes. Highlighting the dynamics and diversity of governance systems across the globe, leading experts in the field examine the successes and failures of these systems. Synthesising theory with methodology and practical case studies, chapters explore adaptive governance in forest management, marine environments and open data ecosystems, looking closely at the role of adaptive governance in climate mitigation and disaster risk reduction. Answering the call for large-scale transformations that move societies away from unsustainable development trajectories, this prescriptive Handbook explores the existing adaptive governance measures that have driven reflexive, sustainable change. Reflecting on the past decade of research in the field, it concludes by outlining new areas of contention and inquiry for the next decade of adaptive governance research. Interdisciplinary in scope, this comprehensive Handbook will prove an invigorating read for students and scholars of environmental law, governance and regulation, and political science and public policy. Policymakers looking to innovate their adaptive governance approaches will also find this a beneficial companion.

Table of Contents:
Contents: 1 Introduction to the Handbook on Adaptive Governance 1 Sirkku Juhola PART I THEORETICAL AND CONCEPTUAL DEVELOPMENTS 2 Operationalising adaptive governance: a research agenda 15 Barbara Cosens, Holly Doremus, J. B. Ruhl, Niko Soininen and Lance Gunderson 3 Adaptive governance, law and regulation 35 Niko Soininen, Barbara Cosens, J. B. Ruhl and Suvi-Tuuli Puharinen 4 Conceptualising the science–policy–practice interface of adaptive governance 54 Carina Wyborn, Jasper Montana, Amber Datta and Elena Louder PART II LATEST TRENDS IN METHODS 5 Futures-thinking: concepts, methods and capacities for adaptive governance 76 Carla Alexandra, Carina Wyborn, Claudia Munera Roldan and Lorrae van Kerkhoff 6 Spatial data, methods, and mismatches for adaptive governance research 99 Maija Nikkanen and Aleksi Räsänen 7 Serious games as an adaptive governance method 115 Peter Edwards PART III GOVERNANCE CONTEXTS AND CASE STUDIES 8 Adaptive governance in forest management 127 Jesse Abrams and Marine Elbakidze 9 Adaptive governance for marine environments: methods, challenges, and lessons for ocean fisheries 143 Barbara Quimby 10 Adaptive governance in open data ecosystems: experiences and insights on the role of sociotechnical arrangements 158 Cancan Wang 11 Policy experimentation in the construction of ecological civilisation in China 176 Ping Huang and Linda Westman 12 The role of adaptive governance in climate mitigation and adaptation: a local perspective 192 Grete K. Hovelsrud and Hege Westskog 13 Adaptive and anticipatory governance in urban adaptation to climate change 207 Alexandra Jurgilevich 14 Towards adaptive property: legal design for a climate-affected future 218 Daniel Fitzpatrick 15 Adaptive governance for disaster risk reduction 233 R. Patrick Bixler, Sandeep Paul, Debasmita Bhakta, Tamar Farchy, Jessica Olson, Matthew Preisser and Paola Passalacqua 16 The next decade of adaptive governance research: concluding remarks 252 Sirkku Juhola Index 260

About the Author :
Edited by Sirkku Juhola, Professor of Urban Environmental Policy, Faculty of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Helsinki, Finland

Review :
‘This volume brings a dazzling array of international authors together to present the latest thinking on adaptive governance and how it can be made to work in tackling transformative and rapid change in complex social ecological systems. These innovations are urgently needed to address major challenges such as the climate crisis. The approach is highly interdisciplinary, presenting new ideas and linking to diverse theory and concepts, and to empirical cases from around the world. It will be essential reading for scholars and practitioners of environmental change, policy and governance, and those studying politics, international relations, geography and resource management.’