LIST OF PANELS

Here halfway to the 2030-deadline, it is clear that the world still has a long way to go to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which prominently feature goals and targets for climate action, the production of clean and affordable energy, protection of life on land and below water, and creation of environmentally sustainable cities. Fortunately, the SDGs come with helpful guidance, as Goal 17 calls for the formation of collaborative networks and partnerships that can spur the co-creation of innovative green solutions. Since no single actor, be it public, private or civic, has all the ideas, resources and authority to solve the nature and climate crisis singlehandedly, the formation of collaborative networks and partnerships seems to offer a way forward.

Local networks and partnerships may spark interaction between relevant and affected actors who aim to construct a common ground for addressing key environmental problems. New research shows that collaborative governance and co-creation in networks and partnerships bringing together public, private and civic actors are potent tools for promoting green sustainability transitions at the local level based on emergent forms of learning, innovation and joint ownership (Ansell & Torfing, 2021, 2022, 2024; Szetey, 2021; Horan, 2022; Glass et al., 2023; Newig et al., 2023; Widerberg, 2023; Ohnishi et al., 2024). 

Still, we have limited knowledge of the different constellations of governance factors (policies, goals, platforms, financing, trust, leaderships etc.) that prompt, support and scaffold the collaborative innovation process and its green outcomes (Ansell, Sørensen and Torfing, 2024). Structural, strategic and tactical-operational governance factors may combine in different ways to support local green co-creation, but we need to know what combinations of governance factors are conducive for local green co-creation. 

The impactful constellations of governance factors may vary between countries, regimes and localities around the globe as socio-economic, political and cultural conditions influence the presence or absence of different governance factors. This explains why we need a global comparative perspective on the governing of local green co-creation partnerships (Ansell, Sørensen and Torfing, 2022).

To that end, this panel aims to gather public administration, governance and policy scholars to conduct global comparative studies of the governance factors supporting local green co-creation to better understand how to govern local partnerships aiming to achieve the green Sustainable Development Goals.

References

Ansell, C., & Torfing, J. (2021). Public Governance as Co-creation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Ansell, C., Sørensen, E., & Torfing, J. (2022). Co-creation for Sustainability. Bingley: Emerald Group Publishing.

Ansell, C., Sørensen, & E. Torfing, J (2024). Metagoverning the Co-Creation of Green Transitions: A Socio-Political Contingency Framework. Sustainability, 16(16), 6776.

Glass, L.-M., J. Newig and S. Ruf (2023). MSPs for the SDGs – Assessing the collaborative governance architecture of multi-stakeholder partnerships for implementing the Sustainable Development Goals. Earth System Governance, 17, 100182.

Horan, D. (2022). A framework to harness effective partnerships for the sustainable development goals. Sustainability Science, 17(4), 1573-1587.

Newig, J., Jager, N.W., Challies, E., & Kochskämper, E. (2023). Does stakeholder participation improve environmental governance? Global Environmental Change, 82, 102705.

Ohnishi, S., Osako, M., Nakamura, S., Togawa, T., Kawai, K., Suzuki, K., ... & Tsuji, T. (2024). A Framework for Analyzing Co-Creation Value Chain Mechanisms in Community-Based Approaches. Sustainability, 16(7), 2919.

Szetey, K., Moallemi, E. A., Ashton, E., Butcher, M., Sprunt, B., & Bryan, B. A. (2021). Participatory planning for local sustainability guided by the Sustainable Development Goals. Ecology & Society, 26(3).

Widerberg, O., Fast, C., Rosas, M. K., & Pattberg, P. (2023). Multi-stakeholder partnerships for the SDGs: is the “next generation” fit for purpose? International Environmental Agreements/International Environmental Agreements (Print), 23(2), 165–171.

This panel welcomes scholarly papers based on empirical case studies of local networks and partnerships allowing public, private and civic actors to collaborate and co-create green sustainability transitions in areas such as renewable energy production, sustainable agriculture, waste management, compact cities, green transport, etc. The case studies should focus on the governance factors that prompt, support and scaffold the local co-creation of green outcomes.

We hope to attract papers with case studies drawn from all parts of the world and welcome studies of local green co-creation in the Global North as well as the Global South. Comparisons may be made within or across countries and within or across the Global North and South. Single case studies are also welcome if they serve to test hypotheses about their conditions of emergence.

The case studies may be conducted based on mixed methods including document studies, qualitative interviews, observations, statistics, mini-surveys etc. The comparative analysis may have a classical small n cross-case analysis format or use Qualitative Comparative Analysis or other suitable methodologies to analyse medium n case studies.

We shall appreciate papers written by young and emerging scholars as well as papers written by experienced senior scholars.

Paper givers should be prepared to act as discussants in the panel.