Global Governance and Sustainable Development: a Discussion from the Socio-Political and SocioEcological Perspectives

Abstract

This paper demonstrates sustainable development and governance as contested concepts, constructed, and appropriated, to meet diverse agendas. It  argues that sustainability and governance are inextricably linked. It examines how different disciplinary approaches have framed the relationship  between sustainability and governance and identifies and discusses two dominant perspectives: the socio-political and the socioecological. It argues that  these two viewpoints have framed debates about alternate approaches to promoting sustainable development and sustainability transitions through  governance. The study emphasises how each perspective has produced a unique vision of governance by emphasising power, scale, system dynamics,  uncertainty, involvement, and solutions. However, it reveals that the recent emergence of sustainability science has highlighted the need to transcend  these two prevailing viewpoints and rethink governance in terms of a solution-oriented strategy that supports structural reforms on both a socio-political  and a socioecological level.