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From Governance Failure to Failure Governance: A Relational Approach to Governing Wicked Problems

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A Relational Approach to Governing Wicked Problems

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Relational Sociology ((PSRS))

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Abstract

In this chapter we outline the form of governance that, we argue, should be the preferred form of governing wicked problems: the trans-active governance as politics of problematization which would be governing them without reducing them as processes, and treating them as un-owned processes. This leads us to discussing the contingency of the socio-political world, and the role of failure in governance. Consequently, we put forth an approach that we call “failure governance,” which would not see governance failure as an aberration, but as something to be presumed from the beginning and governed through self-reflective irony, requisite variety of responses and reflexive orientation. Here we draw heavily on Bob Jessop’s notion of metagovernance. Finally, we discuss why governance failure often happens, when it comes to wicked problems. This is the concluding chapter of Part I of the book, whose aim was to set the stage for a relational understanding of wicked problems.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Mayer et al. (2012, 2013) summarizes this trend at least tentatively.

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Correspondence to Peeter Selg .

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Selg, P., Sootla, G., Klasche, B. (2023). From Governance Failure to Failure Governance: A Relational Approach to Governing Wicked Problems. In: A Relational Approach to Governing Wicked Problems. Palgrave Studies in Relational Sociology. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-24034-8_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-24034-8_4

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