LIST OF PANELS

The general aim of the panel is to bring together different ideas and good practices related to the governance of transformation to sustainability. The following research questions would be pursued:

- Which governance modes or policy frameworks are needed to foster transformation?

- Does the governance of transformation to sustainability go beyond authoritarian and democractic regimes?

- How can policies be effectively integrated or mixed to address the challenges of transformation to sustainability?

- What roles do non-state actors play in governing transformation to sustainability?

The scientific relevance of the panel lies in its societal impact. Understanding the (im)possibility of governing of transformation to sustainability can limit the costs and burdens of transformation through a more "purposive" steering of the process.

The panel on the "(Im)possibility of Governing Transformation to Sustainability" aims to bring together academic scholars and policy experts to advance the discourse on the governance of transformation to sustainability (T2S). The (im)possibility of governance of transformation to sustainability is driven by how the related multiple transition processes as well as the various functional, institutional and bargaining interactions among relevant agents or stakeholders can be steered. T2S, like other transformation processes, is an immediate response to threats and risks behind structural changes. These structural changes can be initiated by global (e.g., climate change, information technological innovation), regional (e.g., wave of democratization in the Arab region, China’s perceived assertiveness in East and Southeast Asia), national (e.g., liberalization of a planned economy) or local (e.g., curbing of air pollution) events that call for shifts on policies or even in social contracts particularly when institutions require new societal mandates. T2S is highly complex, because it entails structural changes as well as changes in preferences and behavior that requires corresponding substantial changes in how humans are governed. At the same time, revisions in the social contract will accompany changes on how threats and risks are perceived by the society. While the threats posed by climate change, poverty, state fragility, etc., are primarily outcomes of long-existing “inflammatory” patterns of human behavior, the urgent solutions are unprecedented, and therefore uncertain.

The panel is looking for papers that could provide impulses to answer the following questions:

- Which governance modes or policy frameworks are needed to foster transformation?

- Does the governance of transformation to sustainability go beyond authoritarian and democractic regimes?

- How can policies be effectively integrated or mixed to address the challenges of transformation to sustainability?

- What roles do non-state actors play in governing transformation to sustainability?