TY - JOUR

T1 - What is governance in global telecoupling?

AU - Newig, Jens

AU - Lenschow, Andrea

AU - Challies, Ed

AU - Cotta, Benedetta

AU - Schilling-Vacaflor, Almut

N1 - Funding Information: This work has been funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) under grant no. CH 1643/2-1 through the project “GOVERNECT - Governance of Environmental Sustainability in Telecoupled Systems of Global Inter-Regional Connectedness” (see https://sustainability-governance.net/governect). Publisher Copyright: © 2019 by the author(s).

PY - 2019/9

Y1 - 2019/9

N2 - The concept of telecoupling is increasingly used as a framework to understand globally distant interconnections and their sustainability implications. Although there is a growing research focus on issues of governance related to global telecoupling, there appears little consensus over the meaning of “governance” in this respect. Papers in the recent Ecology and Society special feature titled “Telecoupling: A New Frontier for Global Sustainability” reveal quite different understandings of the telecoupling-governance relationship. We want to suggest that greater clarity and a common understanding of how governance figures in telecoupled systems will aid constructive dialogue on how to govern telecoupling toward more sustainable pathways in the face of pressing global social and environmental issues. This response, though not aiming to define a single, definitive framework of governance as it pertains to telecoupling, seeks to identify three distinct perspectives applied to governance in the context of global telecoupling: (1) governance by states or other actors that induces or fosters telecoupling in the first place, often irrespective of its sustainability implications; (2) governance mainly by private companies that coordinates telecoupled flows; and (3) governance by states, nonstate actors, and hybrid or multistakeholder initiatives that aims to address the negative externalities of telecoupling. By distinguishing these perspectives, we aim to make underlying understandings of governance explicit, and to foster further constructive exchange on the topic.

AB - The concept of telecoupling is increasingly used as a framework to understand globally distant interconnections and their sustainability implications. Although there is a growing research focus on issues of governance related to global telecoupling, there appears little consensus over the meaning of “governance” in this respect. Papers in the recent Ecology and Society special feature titled “Telecoupling: A New Frontier for Global Sustainability” reveal quite different understandings of the telecoupling-governance relationship. We want to suggest that greater clarity and a common understanding of how governance figures in telecoupled systems will aid constructive dialogue on how to govern telecoupling toward more sustainable pathways in the face of pressing global social and environmental issues. This response, though not aiming to define a single, definitive framework of governance as it pertains to telecoupling, seeks to identify three distinct perspectives applied to governance in the context of global telecoupling: (1) governance by states or other actors that induces or fosters telecoupling in the first place, often irrespective of its sustainability implications; (2) governance mainly by private companies that coordinates telecoupled flows; and (3) governance by states, nonstate actors, and hybrid or multistakeholder initiatives that aims to address the negative externalities of telecoupling. By distinguishing these perspectives, we aim to make underlying understandings of governance explicit, and to foster further constructive exchange on the topic.

KW - Politics

KW - global commodity chains

KW - global environmental governance

KW - inter-regional connectedness

KW - Sustainability Science

KW - sustainability governance

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85073521212&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.5751/ES-11178-240326

DO - 10.5751/ES-11178-240326

M3 - Journal articles

VL - 24

JO - Ecology and Society

JF - Ecology and Society

SN - 1708-3087

IS - 3

M1 - 26

ER -