Dear Colleagues,

Almost forty years ago, the Brundtland Commission argued for institutions through which “the peoples of the world may enlarge their spheres of cooperation” (p. 11). This call to action remains essential as continued environmental degradation and accelerating climate crises place communities at risk. This Special Issue seeks to explore how innovations in governance institutions shift from “independent, fragmented, working to relatively narrow mandates with closed decision processes” to become “interdependent and integrated, requiring comprehensive approaches and popular participation” (p.15).

Understanding how cooperation, participation, and integration work in institutional contexts that are multi-scalar – i.e., multi-layered, complex, and sometimes hierarchical – is essential to innovative governance. Thus, papers are encouraged to include a discussion of the linkages between institutional scales, even when the focus is on a particular scale. Papers may operate at a single scale (neighborhood, city, region, nation, etc.) or might explicitly work across scales, with the overall intent to include works that provide a diverse range of perspectives.

Papers are encouraged to submit that:

·        Address environmental or climate-related problems. These include but are not limited to those relating to sustainability, resilience, water, energy, and/or environmental/infrastructure justice.

·        Focus on some facet(s) of governance. This could include public policy and administration, local or regional planning, stakeholder networks, insurgent/community-led efforts, collaborative governance, etc.

Muddling from the Middle Out: Enabling Place-based and Adaptive Sustainability