Localising and democratising goal-based governance for sustainability

Sustainability is now promoted through goal-based governance at the international scale and there is growing recognition of the need to localise this approach. This raises questions about how existing institutions can engage in new and reflexive ways of working in order to tackle the novel challenges of the Anthropocene. There are also related debates about democratising the process of goal setting in order to increase public engagement and achieve significant change. Doing both requires statutory institutions working alongside a wide range of organisations that have complementary interests, roles and capacity, at a range of spatial scales.
This talk reports on an active research relationship with statutory organisations in Cornwall, UK,  and it explores some of the opportunities and challenges of localising and democratising goal-based governance for socio-ecological sustainability. The talk aims to provide the intellectual tools and practical context for this work. It highlights: (1) the importance of institutional culture and relationships; (2) the need to adopt innovative methods to engage civic and civil society organisations; and (3) the importance of delivery for successfully localising and democratising goal-based governance. The findings provide insights that have relevance for other contexts as local leaders experiment to better recognise, reflect and respond to the social and ecological challenges of the Anthropocene.

Based on a research project funded by Cornwall Council and the British Academy, including Rishika Mukhopadhyay, Claire Collins and Elliot Honeybun-Arnolda.