Staatliche Governance-Kapazität für Nachhaltigkeit: Konzeptualisierung und Anwendung eines Messinstruments in Schweizer Kantonen

Regierungen und Verwaltungen richten ihr Handeln vermehrt auf Nachhaltigkeit aus. Doch wie erfolgreich sind sie dabei? Wir stellen ein Instrument zur Messung nachhaltigkeitsbezogener interner Governance-Kapazität vor. Die Anwendung auf Schweizer Kantone offenbart deutliche Kapazitätsunterschiede und zeigt Möglichkeiten zur Stärkung staatlicher Governance-Kapazität auf.Sustainability has become an important guiding principle that has not only found its way into numerous policies, but also into the “engine rooms” of governance. Governments and administrations have established diverse governance arrangements orienting state actions towards sustainability. How does this integration of sustainability into governmental and administrative activity succeed? This paper proposes an instrument for the measurement and comparison of sustainability-oriented internal governance capacity and operationalizes it in the context of Swiss cantons. The application of the measurement tool documents the diversity of governance arrangements and their different capacities. It shows where, and how, the sustainability governance of governments and administrations can be further strengthened.

Assessing Sustainability Governance and Its Dimensions

Sustainable performance is essential to stakeholders. Organizations have invested resources to attain competitive advantage, and finally, they get success. But organizations fail to achieve sustainable performance despite having substantial resources. Thus, scholars have realized the need for sustainability governance (SUGO) as an alternative solution to resolve these challenges. The need for this empirical study has arisen due to a lack of validated measurements. The objective of this study is to evaluate and validate the SUGO and its dimensions. To validate the suggested model, this study uses a mixed-method approach. Content analysis (Nvivo-11) describes dimensions in qualitative research, and it explains that all measurements and items are valid and reliable. In addition, partial least squares (PLS)-based structural equation modelling (SEM) (SmartPLS-3) is used to analyse the data collected in the quantitative survey. The results show that all hypotheses are statistically significant, and measurements reflect the SUGO. Furthermore, the results prove that SUGO is a second-order construct, containing four key dimensions: corporate sustainability, knowledge integration, stakeholder collaboration and performance incentive. Finally, the implications of outcomes are argued in the context of theory and practice and suggest further research direction.

The ontological politics of freshness: Qualities of food and sustainability governance

Freshness is a key feature of contemporary food systems, however its industrial production as a quality of food carries adverse consequences. Accordingly, this paper approaches freshness as a matter of concern. Drawing on extensive fieldwork across sites of food production and consumption in the UK and Portugal, we identify four enactments of freshness. The analysis zooms in on the specific case of plastic food packaging and uses these enactments to consider a series of questions about realities and the relationships between them. Since packaging is an issue that readily overflows to encompass a broader suite of propositions about food, we argue that freshness is a suitable focus around which to assemble hybrid forums to debate future possibilities. Joining a body of recent work that brings relational-materialist sensibilities to bear on sustainability governance, we demonstrate that these ideas are not exhausted by a concern with the ways in which existing ontologies are brought together in policy. To conclude, we suggest that attention to the multiple ontologies of qualities complements and extends approaches that focus on objects by offering a conduit that brings understandings of markets into discussions of ontological politics.

Sustainable Agrifood Value Chain—Transformation in Developing Countries

To service high-value international markets, many agrifood value chains in developing countries are required to transform to meet the strict quality and safety standards. This transformation process has become further complicated by increased sustainability expectations. The key players in these countries, typically smallholders, are struggling to meet this new sustainability value focus. Economic drivers pervade in this context, whilst the lack of integration often decouples producers from the end market. To address these challenges, this paper develops a framework to enable sustainable agrifood value chain transformation in developing countries. A narrative review was used to analyse the major enablers and barriers in sustainable agrifood value chain transformation specifically in developing countries. The framework novelty lies in the synthesis and prioritisation of transformations actions, by integrating three central dimensions: sustainability, governance, and value addition. The incorporation of sustainability drivers into value chain governance provides a holistic approach that balances profit maximization with social and environmental impacts, thus enabling smallholders in developing countries to access higher value markets. The framework can assist these value chain actors in identifying their transformation trajectory and guide policymakers, along with the public sector, in prioritising their intervention to overcome barriers.

Steering the Nexus: iZindaba Zokudla and Governing for Sustainability

“iZindaba Zokudla” means we talk about the food that we eat. iZindaba Zokudla is a public innovation lab that uses stakeholder-engagement methods to create “opportunities for urban agriculture in a sustainable food system.” iZindaba Zokudla is presented as an extra-institutional means to govern the water, land, energy, and waste nexus. This reflective essay critically describes iZindaba Zokudla and applies this to the design of institutional steering mechanisms to govern the food, water, land, and energy nexus towards sustainability. Governance is an intersubjective and interactive process between the subjects of governance and governance itself. Sustainability, as an interactive process, implies the creation of autocatalytic and symbiotic communities in society that integrates diverse actors and stakeholders, inclusive of scientific and lay actors, and ecosystems. iZindaba Zokudla is a means to govern and create such communities, and this article describes and reflects on how iZindaba Zokudla has created and managed such symbiotic communities or autocatalytic networks in the food system. The article generalises how the activities conducted in iZindaba Zokudla can be used to govern the water, land, energy, and waste nexus for sustainability. The article shows how iZindaba Zokudla has realised a progressive governance through the facilitation of its Farmers' Lab and website; how it has created opportunities for participation; and how it enables critical reflection in society.

How to Repurpose the University: A Resilience Lens on Sustainability Governance

Universities have an important role in moving society towards a more sustainable future. However, this will require us to repurpose universities, reorienting and refocusing the different university domains (education, research, campus, and outreach) towards sustainability. The governance structures and processes used to embed sustainability into the activities and operations of the institution are critical to achieving the required transformation. Our current university systems which are seen as contributing to socio-ecological system unsustainability are resilient to change due to slow variables such as organisational and sector-wide prevailing paradigms and culture. Therefore, to repurpose a university requires us to destabilise our prevailing system, crossing a threshold into a new stable system of a ‘sustainable university' across all its domains. This paper utilises an adaptation of Biggs et al. (2012) resilience principles for the governance of social-ecological systems to provide a framework to consider aspects of university governance for sustainability that can be utilised to repurpose universities towards sustainability, and destabilize unsustainable elements of the system. This paper draws out examples relating to sustainability governance within universities with regards to the four principles of (i) managing diversity and redundancy, (ii) managing connectivity, (iii) managing slow variables and feedbacks, and (iv) encouraging learning and experimentation within the context of complex adaptive systems. In this article, we have shown that using resilience in a non-normative way is possible (to decrease resilience of an unsustainable system), and that it can also be valuable to help understand how to shift organisational governance towards a particular end-state (in this case, university governance that advances sustainability). This paper provides an example of how to operationalise resilience principles of relevance to the resilience literature as well as providing a practical framework to guide higher education institution governance for sustainability.