Symposium: Governing the sustainability transition by promoting joint action

Effective and legitimate governance of societal transitions requires arrangements that facilitate ecosystems of citizens, community initiatives, service organizations, social enterprises and companies in contributing to these transitions. Appreciating the dynamics of these ecosystems calls for insight into human processes of coordination and cooperation that allow people to make autonomous choices and, at the same time, care for each other in fostering engagement with these transitions.

Building on this approach of contextually embedded governance, the symposium ‘Beyond the Climate Imperative: Governing the sustainability transition by promoting joint action’addressed the critical issue of how we can create conditions that provide citizens and civil society organizations with opportunities to shape, design, and implement innovative solutions to the pressing case of the transition towards an inclusive and sustainable society.The symposium was chaired by prof. Denise de Ridder and prof. Lars Tummers and involved an international multidisciplinary group of scholars, policy makers, and stakeholders.