In the last thirty years research on global environmental governance and its architecture has focused on the formation, the changes, the effectiveness and the interlinkages of international institutions. However, the ‘global governance architecture’ – defined by Biermann et al. (2009) as clusters of norms, principles, institutions and regimes – also has strong potential implications for the fair and equitable distribution of costs and benefits of environmental change and the provision of global public goods. At the same time, scholars observe a trend from government to governance in international environmental politics. Exclusive inter-governmental negotiating forums are increasingly being replaced by more transparent, multi-stakeholder approaches to governance. Market-based approaches in the shadow of hierarchy are ever more preferred to regulatory and command-and-control policies. Regulatory responsibilities are increasingly reallocated from the public policy sphere to private governance schemes. Given the shortcomings and failures of traditional government approaches in global environmental governance, these shifts are believed to increase effectiveness of governance and expected to improve the common welfare.
However, neither the academic nor the political debate has considered in great detail the potential trade-offs that result from the shift from government to governance in the global governance architecture and its implications for the provision of global public goods. The move from government to governance may have ambivalent impacts on the conservation of and access to global public goods as well as the distribution of the costs and benefits of environmental change and governance. Against this background, the lectures and presentations in the training course focus on the following questions:
To what extent does the shift from government to governance increase the ability of the global governance architecture to ensure the provision of global public goods?
To what extent does the shift from government to governance improve the capacity of the existing global governance architecture in ensuring a fair and equitable distribution of costs and benefits of environmental change and governance?
How are distributional issues in contemporary global environmental governance dealt with?
Is the emerging global environmental governance architecture sufficiently reflecting equity and justice dimensions between the North and the South?
To generate answers to these and other related questions, the summer school seeks to bring together scholars from International Relations, Comparative Politics, Policy Studies, and Political Theory who work on governance mechanisms and equity issues in international environmental politics.
Structure of the training course
The training course offers thematic lectures and workshops with internationally renowned experts, forums for discussion of research results with the participating faculty, empirical and case study oriented modules, a simulation exercise, a field trip and many interactive elements and occasions for networking. Each day will have a thematic or methodological focus and will include empirical or practical lectures and interactive modules. The training course will be held in English. It will run over two weeks including the participation at the 2010 Berlin Conference.
Participants shall benefit from the training course by obtaining an overview of the latest research on governance procedures, its critiques as well as its distributional and equity effects. In addition the training course shall give an overview of challenges and principles of justice in global environmental politics. Furthermore the participants will be introduced to the controversial discussion about the measurement of common welfare. Last but not least the participants may also benefit from the presentation and in-depth discussion of their own research results and networking.
Participants
This training course is designed for Ph.D. students, and young post-docs at early stages in their careers in social and legal sciences. Participants should be involved in some form of research project (doctoral research, individual research or part of research team) on a closely related area to the theme of the training course or have a similar research background and a strong academic interest. Beyond the interest for the issues of the training course, we expect the participants to have a profound methodological knowledge in the study of global environmental politics (e.g. case studies and large n-studies, typological approaches and formal models or discourse analysis).
Host and Venue
The training course is hosted by the Environmental Policy Research Centre at Freie Universität Berlin and supported by the European Union Marie Curie Action. The series of training courses on the Human Dimension of Global Environmental Change are organised biannually in rotation with the Institute for Environmental Studies at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.
Application process and further information
Scholars, who are interested in participation, are expected to submit a resume/CV (1-2 pages), write a letter of motivation (max. one page) and provide an outline of ongoing research activities including methodological abilities (max. two pages). The letter of motivation and the outline paper should show the individual academic (and/or practical) qualification and a clearly visible research interest in the theme of the training course.
Applications should be submitted online before April 6, 2010 at: https://www.conftool.net/bc2010-mariecurie/. The applications will be reviewed by academic standards and coverage of the issues of the training course. Notification of the decision will be sent by e-mail no later than June 30, 2010. Further information will be posted at: http://www.berlinconference.org/2010/mariecurie/.
Participants whose applications are approved are asked to submit a research paper (15-20 pages) two weeks prior to the training course. The paper may be a detailed research exposé of an ongoing project or Ph.D. thesis as well as a research paper.
In addition to the training course, a presentation of a research paper at the Berlin Conference is possible. Please note, however, that all submissions for paper presentations to the Berlin Conference will be subject to a separate peer review process. Participants who do not present a paper at the Berlin Conference may prepare a poster of their research. A limited number of participants will also have the opportunity to present their poster at a poster session at the conference.
The Summer School covers the basic costs for all participants, including a limited travel subsidy, accommodation, breakfast, tea and coffee as well as a living cost per diem (for lunch and dinner), the teaching materials and a number of social events. In addition, the Summer School also includes participation at the 2010 Berlin Conference on the Human Dimensions of Global Environmental Change.
Environmental Policy Research Centre (FFU)
Freie Universität Berlin
European Union Marie Curie Action
Earth System Governance Project
Call for applications
[go directly to the download of the pdf-version]
In the last thirty years research on global environmental governance and its architecture has focused on the formation, the changes, the effectiveness and the interlinkages of international institutions. However, the ‘global governance architecture’ – defined by Biermann et al. (2009) as clusters of norms, principles, institutions and regimes – also has strong potential implications for the fair and equitable distribution of costs and benefits of environmental change and the provision of global public goods. At the same time, scholars observe a trend from government to governance in international environmental politics. Exclusive inter-governmental negotiating forums are increasingly being replaced by more transparent, multi-stakeholder approaches to governance. Market-based approaches in the shadow of hierarchy are ever more preferred to regulatory and command-and-control policies. Regulatory responsibilities are increasingly reallocated from the public policy sphere to private governance schemes. Given the shortcomings and failures of traditional government approaches in global environmental governance, these shifts are believed to increase effectiveness of governance and expected to improve the common welfare.
However, neither the academic nor the political debate has considered in great detail the potential trade-offs that result from the shift from government to governance in the global governance architecture and its implications for the provision of global public goods. The move from government to governance may have ambivalent impacts on the conservation of and access to global public goods as well as the distribution of the costs and benefits of environmental change and governance. Against this background, the lectures and presentations in the training course focus on the following questions:
To generate answers to these and other related questions, the summer school seeks to bring together scholars from International Relations, Comparative Politics, Policy Studies, and Political Theory who work on governance mechanisms and equity issues in international environmental politics.
Structure of the training course
The training course offers thematic lectures and workshops with internationally renowned experts, forums for discussion of research results with the participating faculty, empirical and case study oriented modules, a simulation exercise, a field trip and many interactive elements and occasions for networking. Each day will have a thematic or methodological focus and will include empirical or practical lectures and interactive modules. The training course will be held in English. It will run over two weeks including the participation at the 2010 Berlin Conference.
Participants shall benefit from the training course by obtaining an overview of the latest research on governance procedures, its critiques as well as its distributional and equity effects. In addition the training course shall give an overview of challenges and principles of justice in global environmental politics. Furthermore the participants will be introduced to the controversial discussion about the measurement of common welfare. Last but not least the participants may also benefit from the presentation and in-depth discussion of their own research results and networking.
Participants
This training course is designed for Ph.D. students, and young post-docs at early stages in their careers in social and legal sciences. Participants should be involved in some form of research project (doctoral research, individual research or part of research team) on a closely related area to the theme of the training course or have a similar research background and a strong academic interest. Beyond the interest for the issues of the training course, we expect the participants to have a profound methodological knowledge in the study of global environmental politics (e.g. case studies and large n-studies, typological approaches and formal models or discourse analysis).
Host and Venue
The training course is hosted by the Environmental Policy Research Centre at Freie Universität Berlin and supported by the European Union Marie Curie Action. The series of training courses on the Human Dimension of Global Environmental Change are organised biannually in rotation with the Institute for Environmental Studies at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.
Application process and further information
Scholars, who are interested in participation, are expected to submit a resume/CV (1-2 pages), write a letter of motivation (max. one page) and provide an outline of ongoing research activities including methodological abilities (max. two pages). The letter of motivation and the outline paper should show the individual academic (and/or practical) qualification and a clearly visible research interest in the theme of the training course.
Applications should be submitted online before April 6, 2010 at: https://www.conftool.net/bc2010-mariecurie/. The applications will be reviewed by academic standards and coverage of the issues of the training course. Notification of the decision will be sent by e-mail no later than June 30, 2010. Further information will be posted at: http://www.berlinconference.org/2010/mariecurie/.
Participants whose applications are approved are asked to submit a research paper (15-20 pages) two weeks prior to the training course. The paper may be a detailed research exposé of an ongoing project or Ph.D. thesis as well as a research paper.
In addition to the training course, a presentation of a research paper at the Berlin Conference is possible. Please note, however, that all submissions for paper presentations to the Berlin Conference will be subject to a separate peer review process. Participants who do not present a paper at the Berlin Conference may prepare a poster of their research. A limited number of participants will also have the opportunity to present their poster at a poster session at the conference.
The Summer School covers the basic costs for all participants, including a limited travel subsidy, accommodation, breakfast, tea and coffee as well as a living cost per diem (for lunch and dinner), the teaching materials and a number of social events. In addition, the Summer School also includes participation at the 2010 Berlin Conference on the Human Dimensions of Global Environmental Change.
Key dates
Application submission deadline: April 6, 2010
Notification of acceptance: June 30, 2010
Training course paper due: September 20, 2010
Download the Call for Application as pdf.