TY - JOUR

T1 - Steering for sustainable development

T2 - a typology of problems and strategies with respect to ambivalence, uncertainty and distributed power

AU - Voß, Jan-Peter

AU - Newig, Jens

AU - Kastens, Britta

AU - Monstadt, Jochen

AU - Nölting, Benjamin

PY - 2007/9/1

Y1 - 2007/9/1

N2 - Special features of sustainable development as a governance problem are contrasted with a conventional rationalist ideal of steering based on the unambiguous determination of goals, availability of knowledge to predict consequences and concentration of power to implement strategies. This leads into the elaboration of three problem dimensions of steering for sustainable development: ambivalence of sustainability as a goal, uncertainty of knowledge due to complex interactions between society, technology and nature, and distributed power to shape structural change in society. The problem dimensions are taken as a basis for a typology of steering situations and a review of existing theoretical concepts of steering in society. The paper argues for a differentiated discussion of steering capacities in respect to concrete situations. Along these lines, it presents an approach to match strategies with problems.

AB - Special features of sustainable development as a governance problem are contrasted with a conventional rationalist ideal of steering based on the unambiguous determination of goals, availability of knowledge to predict consequences and concentration of power to implement strategies. This leads into the elaboration of three problem dimensions of steering for sustainable development: ambivalence of sustainability as a goal, uncertainty of knowledge due to complex interactions between society, technology and nature, and distributed power to shape structural change in society. The problem dimensions are taken as a basis for a typology of steering situations and a review of existing theoretical concepts of steering in society. The paper argues for a differentiated discussion of steering capacities in respect to concrete situations. Along these lines, it presents an approach to match strategies with problems.

KW - Sustainability sciences, Communication

KW - sustainable development

KW - policy

KW - problem

KW - typology

KW - goals

KW - ambivalence

KW - knowlegde

KW - uncertainty

KW - control

KW - distribution of power

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=51049112960&partnerID=8YFLogxK

UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/ad7c4898-4317-35f0-b0aa-af9ccc7eb290/

U2 - 10.1080/15239080701622881

DO - 10.1080/15239080701622881

M3 - Scientific review articles

VL - 9

SP - 193

EP - 212

JO - Journal of Environmental Policy & Planning

JF - Journal of Environmental Policy & Planning

SN - 1523-908X

IS - 3-4

ER -