Duisburg - 30 November–1 December 2017
The Käte Hamburger Kolleg/Centre for Global Cooperation Research – together with the Institute for Environmental Studies (IVM) of Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, the Earth System Governance Project, and the political science department of Lund University – invited researchers for an international workshop on 'Theory and Methods of Institutional Complexity in Global Governance'. Scholars from research traditions as different as international relations, complexity sciences, institutional economics and network analysis, came togehter for two days to identify suitable theories and methods – as well as conflicts and synergies between them – that are fundamental in moving the research on institutional complexity in global governance forward.
Global governance today is increasingly characterized by a proliferation of both intergovernmental and transnational institutions. Although the importance of this development is widely recognized, complexity in global governance still poses significant challenges in terms of theory and methodology. Some of these challenges go back to a core question: how can we navigate an increasingly complex political environment to address urgent transboundary problems?
It is still too little known about the main drivers behind this increasing complexity, its differences across policy fields, or its consequences for crucial governance aspects like legitimacy of effectiveness. Therefore the workshop programme offered room to discuss various think pieces in different breakout groups that enganged with conceptual, theoretical and methodological positions to the study of complexity.
Venue: Käte Hamburger Kolleg/Centre for Global Cooperation Research, University of Duisburg-Essen, Schifferstr. 44, 47059 Duisburg
