Governance in Sustainability and Public Affairs Management

This chapter builds on the collaborative governance literature to elaborate the idea of governance as the mechanisms we use to coordinate collective action at the field level. Debates about governance for sustainable... [ view full abstract ]

This chapter builds on the collaborative governance literature to elaborate the idea of governance as the mechanisms we use to coordinate collective action at the field level. Debates about governance for sustainable development move between the macro and micro levels of analysis.  The more traditional top-down approaches to governance that include the state and the good governance perspectives seem to have failed to govern complex affairs or to remain at the prescriptive level.  Other bottom-up, deliberative approaches like the collaborative governance one has began to show some promise in the management of sustainable development issues.   The purpose of the chapter is to delve deeper into the collaborative governance literature in different policy areas to provide a conceptual framework to understand governance in this type of arrangements.  I find the collaborative governance literature suggests an understanding of the term as: the mechanisms used to govern organizations at the field level to manage common affairs.  The mechanisms comprise: formal and informal institutions, processes and structures.  I elaborate on the specificities of these three mechanisms and their implications for the collaborative approach to governance.  Also, I develop the understanding of the field level and its relationship to collective action and I propose an understanding of the common affairs that includes physical and socially constructed commons.   To illustrate the elements of the definition, I use the results of empirical research about Regional Peace and Development Programs which are collaborative governance schemes to promote peace and development in the regions most affected by the armed-conflict in Colombia.  I conclude by highlighting the advantages of collaborative governance over other types of governance as identified in empirical research in aspects as varied as: the positive results in promoting institutional change; the flexibility and adaptiveness of the scheme to manage complex, wicked issues and  the possibilities to deliberate and negotiate over incommensurable values.