Towards a New Knowledge for Governance of Complex Systems
The spatial developments of agri-ecosystems are determined by both natural as socio-economic processes. Population growth, technological developments, and globalization in terms of trade, people and information has shown the effect of human intervention on land-use. Effects of human intervention on land-use cannot be explained with one single universal theory. Consequently, simple trade-offs in ecological, socio-economic terms are non-existent. The natural system can be analyzed on different scales in which time and space are important variables. Every scale has its own system boundaries, components and structure.
 Both governance levels as bio-geographical scales vary between local, along regional and national to European and global terms. Empirical research demonstrated that levels of decision making almost never coincide with scale of impact. To make it more complex it appears that many direct and indirect links are important between scales and levels. Also observations are often disciplinary specific complicating interdisciplinary up and downscaling of results.
Scale can be defined in many ways but they all refer to the spatial, temporal, quantitative dimension to measure and study a phenomenon.
Governance is also defined in many ways but it relates to decisions that define expectations, grant power, or verify performance. Governance is often seen as policies and institutions aiming at regulating unwanted ‘environmental’ effects of certain human actions.
Within IPOP theme ‘Scaling and Governance’ the following research schools participate: PE&RC, WIMEK, CERES and Mansholt
|