Governance for Sustainable Development in Troubled Times

Dear Colleagues,

Embedded in the normative principles of inter and intra generational equity, the promotion of sustainable development has come to be seen as requiring complex systems of multi-sector, multi-level governance, open to participatory and reflexive processes. However, in recent times governance practices have been reshaped by managerialist and neo-liberal trends, diverting practices away from the original sustainable development imaginary. Furthermore, governance efforts are now confronted with social, economic and political contexts characterised by austerity, populist politics and the ‘’securitisation’’ of the environmental agenda. These ‘’troubled times’’ offer values that directly contradict the sustainable development imaginary.

This SI asks for papers that explore context dynamics to examine whether the existing understanding of governance for sustainable development continues to be relevant. Here, we specifically call upon contributors to:

• Examine how, and in what ways, approaches to the governance of sustainable development reflect particular historic social, political and cultural configurations, and consider whether what has come to be seen as the core requirements of sustainable development governance continue to remain valid in the contemporary period;
• Explore the challenges presented for how we govern the pursuit of sustainable futures by the current configuration of geopolitical and ideological frames;
• Consider how governance approaches might need to develop in response, including by examining more recent re-politicisation, as witnessed by the de-growth movement, the climate justice and just transition movements, and youth dissent on climate change.

Call for Papers

We seek papers dealing individually or in combination with the following:

1. Failings in the earlier conceptualisation of governance for sustainable development, for example, the relative neglect of issues of power, interest and agency; or analysis of the extent to which its radical intent became co-opted to other agendas, examined from a theoretical perspective;
2. Factors that may have restricted the impact of governance for sustainable development, such as, for example, deep structural barriers, the socio-economic resilience of unsustainability, the actions of vested interests, or limitations of democratic governance. Such papers can be of a theoretical or empirical nature;
3. Theoretical insights dealing directly with the linkages between the rise of populism and existing approaches to governance for sustainable development, including as they relate to participatory forms of governance;
4. Factors that may be subverting the value base of governance for sustainable development, particularly for experimentation, participatory processes, reflexivity and learning. This can include papers, for example, on the adoption of managerialist or neo-liberal approaches, the rise of populism, and/or the emergence of the securitization agenda. Such papers can be of a theoretical or empirical nature;
5. The changing framing of sustainable development and/or related governance approaches in a specific institutional context. Papers, for example, can deal with empirical study of the development of policy narratives and practice amongst States (including across multi-level scale), State-like actors (UN; EU), Business Interest Associations (BIAs) and NGOs;
6. The examination of political responses to the current context, for example, from those who place environmental issues within a social justice and redistributive agenda, such as the US ‘Green New Deal’, as they relate to the theme of the SI;
7. Theoretical or empirical insights into measures that might better address the governance of sustainable development in contemporary, troubled times, including through examination of re-politicisation and dissent movements.

Papers should be no more than 8,000 words in length, inclusive of the abstract, tables, references, figure captions, and endnotes. We expect 8–10 papers to be included in the SI, inclusive of the Introduction. The Guest Editors will invite potential participation based on initial submission of abstracts. The Abstract should be submitted no later than 10th April 2019 and should be no more than 300 words in length. These will then be developed into expanded abstracts in discussion with the Editors. For abstract submission, please contact Assistant Editor Liv Li ([email protected])

Important deadlines:

• Abstract submission: 10th April 2019
• Final version submission: 15th December 2019

Prof. Susan Baker
Dr. Matthew Quinn
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• Sustainable development
• Governance