Huitema Dave, Boasson Elin Lerum, Beunen Raoul
1Institute for Environmental Studies (IVM), Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, De Boelelaan 1087, 1081 HV Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
2Department of Natural Sciences, Faculty of Management, Science and Technology, Open University of the Netherlands, Valkenburgerweg 177, 6419 AT Heerlen, the Netherlands.
Reg Environ Change. 2018;18(5):1247-1257. doi: 10.1007/s10113-018-1351-5. Epub 2018 May 9.
This editorial sets the scene for a special issue on climate governance entrepreneurship at the local and regional levels. To make climate governance work, much policy activity is needed at the local and regional levels. Entrepreneurs are actors who aim to affect change by using their agency. They target policy decisions at the local and regional levels, which might subsequently turn to other governance levels to expand their influence. The scientific discussion about governance entrepreneurs is characterized by a lack of conceptual clarity, by methodological challenges, and by several research gaps. Regarding the latter, at present, it is especially unclear when and why entrepreneurs become active, which factors they take into account when they select their strategies, and what explains the effects of entrepreneurial activity on the emergence of innovations in climate governance. All contributions to this special issue engage with one or several of these conceptual, methodological, and empirical challenges, thus advancing the state of art in the field. Highlights from the special issue include the development of a simple conceptual frame that connects actors, contexts, strategies, and outcomes in a systematic way. Some promising methodological avenues are described, since the special issue contains not only some qualitative case studies but also some studies that take a long-term perspective by following policy development for decades, and a study that proposes a census approach. Empirically, the contributions in this special issue shed light on a range of factors explaining levels of entrepreneurial activity, and they carefully trace impacts over time. We conclude by sketching an agenda for further work in this realm.
这篇社论为一期关于地方和区域层面气候治理创业的特刊奠定了基础。要使气候治理发挥作用，地方和区域层面需要大量的政策活动。企业家是旨在通过运用自身能动性来影响变革的行动者。他们将目标对准地方和区域层面的政策决策，这些决策随后可能会转向其他治理层面以扩大其影响力。关于治理企业家的科学讨论存在概念不清晰、方法上的挑战以及若干研究空白等问题。就后者而言，目前尤其不清楚企业家何时以及为何变得活跃，他们在选择策略时会考虑哪些因素，以及如何解释创业活动对气候治理创新出现的影响。本期特刊的所有投稿都涉及这些概念、方法和实证挑战中的一个或几个，从而推动了该领域的技术水平。特刊的亮点包括开发了一个简单的概念框架，以系统的方式将行动者、背景、策略和结果联系起来。文中描述了一些有前景的方法途径，因为本期特刊不仅包含一些定性案例研究，还包括一些通过追踪数十年政策发展而具有长期视角的研究，以及一项提出普查方法的研究。在实证方面，本期特刊的投稿揭示了一系列解释创业活动水平的因素，并仔细追踪了随着时间推移的影响。我们通过勾勒该领域进一步工作的议程来结束本文。
