Polycentricity is a fundamental concept in commons scholarship that connotes a complex form of governance with multiple centers of semiautonomous decision making. If the decision-making centers take each other into account in competitive and cooperative relationships and have recourse to conflict resolution mechanisms, they may be regarded as a polycentric governance system. In the context of natural resource governance, commons scholars have ascribed a number of advantages to polycentric governance systems, most notably enhanced adaptive capacity, provision of good institutional fit for natural resource systems, and mitigation of risk on account of redundant governance actors and institutions. Despite the popularity of the concept, systematic development of polycentricity, including its posited advantages, is lacking in the commons literature. To build greater clarity and specificity around the concept, we develop a theoretical model of a polycentric governance system with a focus on the features necessary or conducive for achieving the functioning predicted by commons scholars. The model is comprised of attributes, which constitute the definitional elements, and enabling conditions, which specify additional institutional features for achieving functionality in the commons. The model we propose takes the concept a step further toward specificity without sacrificing the generality necessary for contextual application and further development.

In this article, we track a relatively new term in global environmental governance: "blue economy." Analyzing preparatory documentation and data collected at the 2012 UN Conference on Sustainable Development (i.e., Rio þ 20), we show how the term entered into use and how it was articulated within four competing discourses regarding human-ocean relations: (a) oceans as natural capital, (b) oceans as good business, (c) oceans as integral to Pacific Small Island Developing States, and (d) oceans as small-scale fisheries livelihoods. Blue economy was consistently invoked to connect oceans with Rio þ 20's "green economy" theme; however, different actors worked to further define the term in ways that prioritized particular oceans problems, solutions, and participants. It is not clear whether blue economy will eventually be understood singularly or as the domain of a particular actor or discourse. We explore possibilities as well as discuss discourse in global environmental governance as powerful and precarious.

o-production is a rapidly growing endeavour now widely applied in the fields of health, development, education, climate change, industrial production and sustainability [1][2][3][4][5][6] . It broadly seeks to connect researchers with diverse societal actors to collaboratively and iteratively produce knowledge, action and societal change 1 . The promise is compelling: developing solutions through legitimate processes that draw on diverse and credible expertise with, by and for those best placed to use them 5,7,8 . Sustainability

Increased interest in oceans is leading to new and renewed global governance efforts directed toward ocean issues in areas of food production, biodiversity conservation, industrialization, global environmental change, and pollution. Global oceans governance efforts face challenges and opportunities related to the nature of oceans and to actors involved in, the scale of, and knowledge informing their governance. We review these topics generally and in relation to nine new and emerging issues: small-scale fisheries (SSFs), aquaculture, biodiversity conservation on the high seas, large marine protected areas (LMPAs), tuna fisheries, deep-sea mining, ocean acidification (OA), blue carbon (BC), and plastics pollution.

Large marine protected areas (LMPAs) are a high‐profile trend in global marine conservation. Although the social sciences have become well integrated into marine protected area research and practice, human dimensions considerations have not been an early priority in the development of many LMPAs. This article argues that because LMPAs exhibit unique characteristics in form, function, and/or conceptualization, they warrant a distinct social science research agenda. We outline an agenda for social science research on and for LMPAs in four related themes: scoping of human dimensions, governance, politics, and social and economic outcomes. The article is informed by interviews, participant observation at the 2014 World Parks Congress, a literature review and the authors’ research experiences.  LMPAs are at an early stage in what promises to be a globally significant, long‐term project of ocean conservation and governance. There is a timely opportunity to translate relevant insights from decades of social science research to LMPAs and generate new knowledge, where necessary, to give them their best chance at biological and social success.