2024-03-28T10:14:46Zhttps://repository.ubn.ru.nl//oai/requestoai:repository.ubn.ru.nl:2066/2824282023-03-09T19:34:05Zcom_2066_13798col_2066_119645col_2066_13799col_2066_91383col_2066_119644
Partnerships for Sustainable Development: Emergence, Adaptation and Impacts in Global and Domestic Governance Contexts
Chan, S.
Biermann, F.
Pattberg, Philipp
Doctoral thesis
NON-RU research
Onderzoek niet-RU
Contains fulltext :
282428.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Open Access)
Partnerships have emerged as important instruments in a multifaceted and complex global sustainability governance. At the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg more than two hundred partnership initiatives registered as ‘Partnership for Sustainable Development’, a process which featured as an official outcome of that conference. Commentators are divided over this process. Proponents argue that partnerships effectively address deficits in (state-centered) global sustainability governance, by being solutions-oriented, and by promoting greater inclusiveness of non-state actors. Others have taken a strong stance against partnerships because they ostensibly undermine intergovernmental agreements, challenge public authority, and facilitate the privatization of sustainability governance without the prospect of achieving sustainable development.
The vast majority of empirical research on Partnerships for Sustainable Development however fails to vindicate the role of partnerships in global sustainability governance. Most case studies effectively illustrate the potential and limitations of partnerships, but they also suffer from selection biases. The focus on the most visible partnerships, and the emphasis on the newness (new actors, new approaches, and new coordination mechanisms) they bring into global governance leads to an exaggerated view that an alternative and better sustainability governance is dawning.
This dissertation fills two gaps in present partnership literature. First, by applying a large-n approach, it vindicates general emergence and effectiveness patterns of Partnerships for Sustainable Development. Second, this dissertation discusses partnerships in specific implementation contexts, rather than discussing them as a feature of multilateral governance. To this end this dissertation focuses on the question:
Why did Partnerships for Sustainable Development emerge in global sustainability governance; how were they adapted to domestic governance contexts; and what has their impact been on global and domestic governance?
The research featured an iterative research approach, combining large-n database analyses with qualitative approaches. Large-n analyses provided with an aggregated view of the Partnerships for Sustainable Development process, while more specific datasets and one specific case were analyzed to examine the adaptation of partnerships to specific implementation contexts.
The second part of this dissertation focuses particularly on the Chinese implementation context for Partnerships for Sustainable Development, adding an important geographic dimension to the inquiry. Therefore, this dissertation also supplements the few dedicated studies on partnerships in China’s sustainable development. While most previous studies speculated on the potential of partnerships in China, the present study goes beyond a discussion of potential and constraints by observing actual adaptation patterns of Partnerships for Sustainable Development. This dissertation is structured along two successive lines of inquiry; the first is related to partnerships in the context of global governance; the second is related to partnerships in domestic implementation contexts. These lines of inquiry answer three secondary research questions.
• Why did Partnerships for Sustainable Development emerge in global sustainability governance?
• How were partnerships adapted to domestic governance contexts?
• What has been the impact of partnerships on global and domestic sustainability governance?
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, 11 september 2014
Promotor : Biermann, F. Co-promotor : Pattberg, Philipp
367 p.
Amsterdam : Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
2014
https://repository.ubn.ru.nl//bitstream/handle/2066/282428/282428.pdf
https://repository.ubn.ru.nl/handle/2066/282428
9789462036321
https://research.vu.nl/en/publications/partnerships-for-sustainable-development-emergence-adaptation-and