ICPP Panel on Thermostatic Institutions - deadline extended to Feb 14th
Benjamin William Cashore
Hi all,
We have had submissions for the panel on thermostatic institutions extended until Feb 14th. If you are interested in submitted an abstract, please let us know.
Best
Ben
T14P17 / Uncovering and Prescribing Thermostatic Institutions
for the Climate Crisis: A Research Agenda
Topic : T14 / GLOBAL WARMING, SDG, ENVIRONMENT, ENERGY AND POLICY
Chair : Benjamin Cashore (National University of Singapore)
Second Chair : Charlotte Halpern (Sciences Po, Centre for European studies and comparative politics (CEE))
Third Chair : Philippe Zittoun (LAET-ENTPE, University of Lyon)
For over 30 years sustainability practitioners and scholars have sought to generate policy pathways which to
foster transformative climate friendly behaviours and just transitions. Despite significant strides being made in
understanding how low carbon transitions might be nurtured, there remains universal concern about how to
accelerate changes consistent with the 1.5/2 degree imperative.
The propose of this call for papers is to focus attention analytical attention on the role of “thermostatic institutions”
in helping foster transformative change. Cashore and Howlett (2007) first conceptualized, and defined,
thermostatic institutions as well entrenched systems of governing authority whose sole purpose is to maintain a
clearly specified policy objective (just the way a house’s thermostat is designed to maintain a constant internal
temperature). Drawing on the case of successful management of an endangered species, Cashore and Howlett
challenged extant characterizations of policy as either being in, or out, of equilibrium, to instead focused attention
on what aspects of a policy elements were changing and which were being stable or “resilient”.
Our panel seeks to foster a research agenda capable of uncovering, explaining, and prescribing thermostatic
institutions with which to assist in managing the climate crisis.
Our point of departure is that while transitions and
path dependency scholarship has made important breakthroughs, much more empirical and conceptual work
needs to be placed on identifying durable institutional arenas with which to manage for particularly important
policy objectives. Indeed, Auld, Bernstein, Cashore and Levin (2021) found that successful cases of covid
management around the world all seemed to share thermostatic institutional features – i.e. capable of adjusting
policy settings, calibrations and tools in order to maintain objectives focused on saving the most lives.
Drawing on Cashore’s book on sustainability governance (2022 In progress) we are particularly interested in
papers that will help contribute towards building a research agenda aimed at documenting and understanding
existing thermostatic institutions, with the goal of offering design principles to accelerate their development for
climate related challenges.
CALL FOR PAPERS
https://www.ippapublicpolicy.org/conference/icpp6-toronto-2023/17
Ben Cashore
Li Ka Shing Professor in Public Management
Director, the Institute for Environment and Sustainability (IES)
Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy
National University of Singapore
Recent publications
2022 Benjamin Cashore and Steven Bernstein. “Bringing the Environment Back In: Overcoming the Tragedy of the Diffusion of Commons Metaphor”, Perspectives on Politics
2022 Leehi Yona, Benjamin Cashore and Mark A. Bradford. “Factors Influencing the Development and Implementation of Greenhouse Gas Inventories,” Policy Design and Practice
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