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A Relational Approach to Governing Wicked Problems

From Governance Failure to Failure Governance

  • Book
  • © 2023

Overview

Authors:
  1. Peeter Selg

    1. School of Governance, Law & Society, Tallinn University, Tallinn, Estonia

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  2. Georg Sootla

    1. School of Governance, Law and Society, Tallinn University, Tallinn, Estonia

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  3. Benjamin Klasche

    1. School of Governance, Law and Society, Tallinn University, Tallinn, Estonia

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  • Brings a relational and transactional perspective to bear on governance and policy studies
  • Brings a deeply theorized perspective to governance and policy studies drawing on sources not usually seen
  • Analyzes the ongoing crises of COVID-19 and climate change to illustrate theoretical arguments

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

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Table of contents (14 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xv
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  2. Introduction: A Relational Approach to Governing Wicked Problems

    • Peeter Selg, Georg Sootla, Benjamin Klasche
    Pages 1-17

  3. A Relational Definition of Wicked Problems of Governance

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 19-19
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    2. Aren’t All Problems Wicked? Addressing the Constructive and Destructive Critiques of the Concept of Wicked Problems

      • Peeter Selg, Georg Sootla, Benjamin Klasche
      Pages 21-47

    3. From Categorical Distinctions of Policy Problems to a Relational Approach to Wicked Problems

      • Peeter Selg, Georg Sootla, Benjamin Klasche
      Pages 49-76

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

      • Peeter Selg, Georg Sootla, Benjamin Klasche
      Pages 77-101

  4. Part II

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 103-104
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    2. A Genealogy of Self-Active Governance in Policy Theories

      • Peeter Selg, Georg Sootla, Benjamin Klasche
      Pages 105-122

    3. Problematizing Theoretical Understandings of Problems: From Self-actionalist to Inter-actionalist Approaches in Policy Sciences

      • Peeter Selg, Georg Sootla, Benjamin Klasche
      Pages 123-165

    4. The (Re)turn to the Political: Deepening the Grasp of Contingency in the Theories of the Policy Process

      • Peeter Selg, Georg Sootla, Benjamin Klasche
      Pages 167-197

    5. Speaking Truth to Power? The (Political) Constitution of Knowledge and Rationality in Policy-Making and Governance

      • Peeter Selg, Georg Sootla, Benjamin Klasche
      Pages 199-221

    6. From De-Problematized Expert Knowledge to Politics of Critical Dialogue: Toward Process-Relational Policy Theories

      • Peeter Selg, Georg Sootla, Benjamin Klasche
      Pages 223-263

  5. Theory and Practice of Failure Governance and Governance Failure

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 265-265
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    2. A Theory of Governance as Problematization and De-problematization

      • Peeter Selg, Georg Sootla, Benjamin Klasche
      Pages 267-292

    3. The Whole-of-Nation-Failure-Governance: Taiwan’s Politics of Problematization of COVID-19

      • Peeter Selg, Georg Sootla, Benjamin Klasche
      Pages 293-313

    4. Making America Do Their “Own Research” Again? Trump’s Politics of De-problematization of COVID-19

      • Peeter Selg, Georg Sootla, Benjamin Klasche
      Pages 315-334

    5. Germany’s Road from Failure Governance to Governance Failure

      • Peeter Selg, Georg Sootla, Benjamin Klasche
      Pages 335-361

  6. Concluding Remarks

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 363-363
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    2. In Place of Conclusions: Failing Better or Waiting for Godot in a Clumsy World of Wicked Problems?

      • Peeter Selg, Georg Sootla, Benjamin Klasche
      Pages 365-383

  7. Back Matter

    Pages 385-390
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Keywords

About this book

The book initiates a relational turn in policy making and governance by developing further relational political analysis and by taking relational thinking to bear on not just analytic/descriptive issues, but also to normative/prescriptive issues. The need for such a turn, this book argues, comes from the ever-increasing relevance of addressing the so-called wicked problems of governance like climate change, COVID-19 kinds of pandemics, global economic recessions and refugee crises. The book argues for a need to rethink governance as a process from the relational point of view to spur its potential for addressing these problems. What needs to be rethought is not so much the specific tools or resources of governance, but the very issue of whether governance should be seen in terms of tools and resources in the first place. This book contributes to this discussion by consolidating the relational approaches to governance thus far and by taking them to a next – normative/prescriptive– level.

Authors and Affiliations

  • School of Governance, Law & Society, Tallinn University, Tallinn, Estonia

    Peeter Selg

  • School of Governance, Law and Society, Tallinn University, Tallinn, Estonia

    Georg Sootla, Benjamin Klasche

About the authors

Peeter Selg is Professor of Political Theory in the School of Governance, Law and Society at Tallinn University, Estonia.

Georg Sootla is Distinguished Professor of Public Policy, School of Governance, Law and Society at Tallinn University, Estonia.

Benjamin Klasche is Lecturer of Politics and IR, at the School of Governance, Law and Society at Tallinn University, Estonia and Kone Foundation Fellow at the Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies.

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: A Relational Approach to Governing Wicked Problems

  • Book Subtitle: From Governance Failure to Failure Governance

  • Authors: Peeter Selg, Georg Sootla, Benjamin Klasche

  • Series Title: Palgrave Studies in Relational Sociology

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

  • Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham

  • eBook Packages: Social Sciences, Social Sciences (R0)

  • Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-031-24033-1Published: 14 December 2023

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-3-031-24036-2Due: 14 January 2024

  • eBook ISBN: 978-3-031-24034-8Published: 13 December 2023

  • Series ISSN: 2946-4110

  • Series E-ISSN: 2946-4129

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XV, 390

  • Number of Illustrations: 8 b/w illustrations, 3 illustrations in colour

  • Topics: Sociological Theory, Political Sociology, Governance and Government, Political Theory

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