Science-policy-interfaces (SPIs) are expected to go beyond the linear model of scientific policy advice through creating spaces for exchange and dialogue between 'policy' and 'knowledge'. Given that most environmental issues require inter-and transdisciplinary approaches, SPIs must take into account a variety of knowledge types, views and interests of scientists, policymakers and other decision makers. Moreover, acceptance and durability of SPIs depend largely on their perceived legitimacy and the credibility of their knowledge-gathering processes, providing additional challenges for their internal organisation. As the interplay between different knowledge types and decision making is far from neutral, a reflexive approach is required in the design of an SPI so that it is capable of learning from past experiences. The aim of this article is to discuss which governance arrangements could best support the development of an effective and legitimate SPI for European biodiversity politics. We analyse different options for facilitating the implementation of a 'Network of Knowledge' approach. This approach has been developed to improve the interface between diverse knowledge-holder communities and decision making processes for biodiversity and ecosystem services-a field where multi-scalar and multi-dimensional problems arise. In this article, we develop and discuss two stylized extreme governance models as our starting point: an 'informal network model´, which almost entirely depends on the dedication of individuals, versus a more formalized 'platform model´, predominantly based on the needs and interests of the organisations involved. We discuss the pros and cons of each of these models in reaching their objectives and in developing sound governing processes for a 'Network of Knowledge'. From this discussion, we derive a recommended design for the reflexive governance of such a network in the context of the European Union and finish by discussing some more general lessons learnt.
This article proposes a reinvestment in political sociology in general, and the concept of territory in particular, as means of renewing analysis of the policy-polity dialectic at the heart of the European Union (EU). Drawing on a sociological theory of decision-making and sectoral regulation, the foundations for a 'territorial institutionalist' approach are developed in order to study political usages of territory. Specifically, the process of the 'political assignment of authority' is examined to analyse three such usages in EU fisheries and wine: justifying frontiers of policy instruments, defining actor eligibility, politicizing/depoliticizing regulatory controversies. Overall, we argue that EU studies must re-engage in epistemological debates over policy-polity linkages in order to produce new and rigorous knowledge about European integration and its legitimization. For, as our findings suggest, these processes are not driven by the certainty of 'rational' multi-level governance, but are mediated within sectoral 'institutional orders'.
The focus of ecosystem restoration has recently shifted from pure rehabilitation objectives to both improving ecological functioning and the delivery of ecosystem services. However, these different targets need to be integrated to create a unified, synergistic, and balanced restoration approach. This should be done by combining state‐of‐the‐art knowledge from natural and social sciences to create manageable units of restoration that consider both the temporal and multiple spatial scales of ecosystems, legislative units, and policy agendas. Only by considering these aspects combined can we accomplish more cost‐efficient restoration resulting in resilient ecosystems that provide a wealth of ecosystem services and the possibility for sustainable economic development in the future. We propose a novel conceptual framework that will yield more effective ecosystem restoration: the Operational Restoration Unit. This is based on scale‐dependent restoration actions that can adhere easily to the relevant environmental legislation, encompass the spatial and temporal resilience of aquatic ecosystems, and consider the sum of human pressures acting on water bodies. This opens up possibilities for an effective integration of the restoration agenda into the delivery of major policy objectives of economic growth, regional development, and human security. WIREs Water 2017, 4:e1190. doi: 10.1002/wat2.1190 This article is categorized under: Water and Life > Conservation, Management, and Awareness Human Water > Water Governance
In this paper, we examine a number of related themes that have emerged in the literature concerning the legitimacy problems confronting the European Union as it evolves as an arrangement for governance that resides at a level 'beyond' the nation state. We take as our starting point the legitimacy crisis that became such a prominent feature of the EU in the aftermath of the signing of the TEU, and which continues to obstruct moves towards closer European integration. We locate this crisis within a broader constitutional deficit in the arrangements that mediate relations between each of the EU, the Member State and the individual citizen. We argue that to understand the emergence of the legitimacy crisis-manifest in a dramatic shift in popular opinion vis-à-vis the construction of 'an ever closer Union' at the end of the 1980s, signalling the onset of a legitimacy crisis within (and of) the EU-it is necessary to reflect not only on the evolving constitutional architecture of the EU and associated policy developments, but also the modalities whereby such changes are transposed to Member State constitutional and political arenas, and to the policy processes within those states impacted upon by European integration. For it is still the case that, despite the Treaty reforms of the 1980s and 1990s, it is the Member State which remains the dominant participant in European integration; a situation that is unlikely to change over the foreseeable future. And while it has been the leadership of Member States which has given European integration its principal driving force, equally, the centrality of the Member State to the enterprise has restricted the capacity of the EU to adjust or police common policies, or respond to emerging problems in ways which satisfy the explicit and implicit objectives of European integration. In this paper we develop an approach in which constitutionalism is regarded as being more than simply the constitutional architecture of the EU Treaties. We augment the orthodox approach by focusing on the (legitimating) modalities which are necessary to facilitate the constitutional development of the EU, and argue that the legitimacy crisis reflects a failure in the operation of these modalities.The remainder of this paper is organised into five sections. In the next section we identify the core problematic of the EU as the legitimacy crisis, and consider some of the responses that have been proposed to deal with this. In section III we consider the
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