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This paper examines the European Union's strategy of governing the economy through financial markets by focusing on the largely unacknowledged role of public development banks, including the multilateral European Investment Bank. It argues that these state-owned financial institutions have moved into a key position in the recent evolution of the European financial system and economic governance. Since the crisis, policy makers have used them to address the intrinsic volatility and excess liquidity of contemporary financial markets, as well as offset the constraints on public investment imposed by institutionalized fiscal austerity. The paper provides evidence for this claim through an analysis of the emergent policy nexus between the Investment Plan for Europe and the Action Plan on Building a Capital Markets Union. Based on official documents and interview data, it specifically traces the risk-sharing devices for small- and medium-sized enterprise and infrastructure finance set up by development banks within these initiatives. Equipped with public guarantees, they have been instrumental for the promotion of securitization markets and public–private partnerships through increased multilevel collaborations among development banks. The anchor role of such quasi-fiscal state actors in shaping capital markets, the paper concludes, has profound political implications, and therefore warrants further scholarly attention.

This paper examines the European Union's strategy of governing the economy through financial markets by focusing on the largely unacknowledged role of public development banks, including the multilateral European Investment Bank. It argues that these state-owned financial institutions have moved into a key position in the recent evolution of the European financial system and economic governance. Since the crisis, policy makers have used them to address the intrinsic volatility and excess liquidity of contemporary financial markets, as well as offset the constraints on public investment imposed by institutionalized fiscal austerity. The paper provides evidence for this claim through an analysis of the emergent policy nexus between the Investment Plan for Europe and the Action Plan on Building a Capital Markets Union. Based on official documents and interview data, it specifically traces the risk-sharing devices for small- and medium-sized enterprise and infrastructure finance set up by development banks within these initiatives. Equipped with public guarantees, they have been instrumental for the promotion of securitization markets and public–private partnerships through increased multilevel collaborations among development banks. The anchor role of such quasi-fiscal state actors in shaping capital markets, the paper concludes, has profound political implications, and therefore warrants further scholarly attention.

This report is intended to complement the 2011 CCAFS publication "State of Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation Efforts for Agriculture in Ghana" (Domozoro 2011). It provides relevant updates regarding the policies, projects, or initiatives introduced therein, and an assessment of the evolving political scenario. Specifically, this document presents an objective look at 17 key policy documents within three thematic areas: (1) governance, (2) agriculture, and (3) climate change institutions in Ghana. Several key projects are also included in this analysis given their relevance and status within Ghana's agricultural adaptation regime. A discussion of the institutional arrangements in each of the thematic areas is provided first, along with a short description of each of the 17 policies and projects. Then, in the following analysis section, objectives and priorities for each of the policies are outlined, together with their evolution over time, intending to identify the temporal shifts in agricultural climate change policy direction in the country. Policy interplay between and within these thematic areas is also addressed. Power and influence dynamics between actors in Ghana's climate change adaptation regime are discussed in the following section and the results of a Multilevel Stakeholder Influence Mapping (MSIM) exercise are provided. Finally, a discussion of key challenges and recommendations are provided, as identified through semi-structured interviews with actors across the country's adaptation regime.

Work-life balance policies represent an interesting case in the perspective of 'second welfare', which imply the participation of a number of non-public actors for the co-production of welfare. Compared to European figures, Italian women display high levels of inactivity, hiking after the birth of the first child, unbalanced care responsibilities with respect to men, inadequate childcare support and work arrangements. However, thanks to a number of stimuli from the EU, in the last decade work-life balance policies have gained some salience within the domestic political debate. In particular, at the sub-national level we have observed a proliferation of initiatives. Building on this framework, the research investigates the co-production of reconciliation policies in a multidimensional, multilevel, and multi-stakeholder perspective, by shedding light on innovative dynamics. In this respect, the Lombardy Region represents an intriguing case. In 2011, with the Regional White Paper on reconciling work and family, the territory was divided into 13 areas, and each one is now experimenting a network for the governance at the local level of work-life balance policies named Territorial Network for Conciliation, TNC - participated by public institutions, trade unions and employers representatives, as well as private companies, cooperatives and the Third sector - in charge of monitoring the needs of each territory, coordinating efforts, setting up new and innovative conciliation services.

The Burdur Lake basin in Turkey's Mediterranean region has been facing severe environmental damage in the form of increased pollution and a decrease in water volume, despite its Ramsar status as a major wintering site for the endangered white-headed duck ( Oxyura leucocephala). In fact, after the basin was granted Ramsar status it was made the subject of a 'hard-park' conservation policy. This in practice disenfranchised and alienated local people but did not lead to the effective preservation of the basin. We aim to shed light on the political ecology of the ongoing degradation, which has layers at local, national, and international levels, by using both quantitative and qualitative methods (consisting of in-depth interviews, focus groups, and face-to-face, randomly selected interviews with 625 people). We specifically explore the possible reasons why local people by and large did not—despite their high level of environmental concern about the site—demand conservation policies or voluntarily take action to preserve their site. Acknowledging that the sources of the problem are multilayered in nature, thus requiring a multilevel solution, we then propose a governance modality tailored for the case at hand. Since many of the problems that Burdur Lake faces are not unique, it is hoped that the conducted analysis will be relevant to other similar sites.

Landmines and unexploded ordnance (UXO) affect communities and individuals long after conflicts end and therefore have a profound effect on opportunities for post-conflict peacebuilding. In the immediate post-conflict phase the presence, or simply the threat, of landmines can hamper refugee return and the implementation of humanitarian assistance programmes. They pose a long-term social, economic and environmental threat that denies the use of fertile land and access to water and affects flows of people, goods and services. There is also an important security risk from abandoned explosive ordnance stockpiles or caches which, if not properly secured or destroyed following the end of hostilities, offer rich pickings for insurgents, rebel groups, criminals and other disaffected elements that mark the post-conflict landscape. This chapter assesses the complexities of governing mine action generally as well potential and actual linkages to other elements of post-conflict peacebuilding by analysing two interrelated governance issues. First, the multi-actor, multilevel nature of mine action creates barriers between different stakeholders, potential democratic deficits in decision-making processes and a knowledge gap between constituencies both at the strategic level and in the field. Second, in post-conflict peacebuilding, the involvement of the international community offers important opportunities, but also creates particular challenges.

In the past the European Union was perceived as a functional and ideal polity despite media coverage pointing to the contrary and academic literature featuring its complexities. This article agrees with the assessment that the EU is not quite the ideal polity of yore and its functionality is the product of intense interstate bargains and policy coordination between member states. The absence of these would comprise a critical juncture, which would usually mean stagnation in the process of integration. These junctures were especially poignant between 1997 and 2005 but were also frequent in the period leading up to the institutional overhaul made possible by the Treaty of Lisbon (2009). Because it is of recent implementation, assessments of institutional refit are mere speculations at this point; the passage of time being the only recourse for procurement of data necessary to provide adequate assessment of the new EU regime. This does not exempt the polity from experimenting cyclical periods of crisis nor does it invalidate past recommendations for approaching the study of politics and policy in the EU. That is, taking into account the constant interaction of the ontical and ontological when studying such a complex polity, a student of the European Union needs to consider various criteria. First, the institutional dynamics of this unique type of regime and the assumption of the EU as a multilevel entity and the integration process as running in multiple velocities (Europe aÌ€ deux vitesses). And second, as such, for the European Union to be understood it needs to be studied from various theoretical approaches. ; La noción de la Unión Europea (UE) como una entidad política ideal y funcional choca constantemente con la dificultad de su práctica cotidiana presentada en reseñas mediáticas y en el largo plazo a través de trabajos académicos que estudian el variopinto de aspectos de su andamiaje institucional. El argumento de este artículo sostiene que, si bien la UE contiene elementos funcionales, éstos son productos de intensas negociaciones interestatales a nivel comunitario y de una coordinación de política pública entre los Estados miembros. La ausencia de una o ambas, implicaría un estancamiento crítico prolongado que afectaría considerablemente el proceso de integración. La evidencia apunta parcialmente a que, entre 1997 y 2005 la UE sostuvo varios episodios de crisis, entre los cuales se distinguen dos pertinentes a la integración europea: las negociaciones que produjeron el tratado de Niza en 2000 y las negociaciones a partir de la cumbre de Laeken (2001) para la redacción de una Constitución Europea que en 2005 acabó en fracaso. Una mirada a reportajes periodísticos e investigaciones posteriores presentan el inventario de adversidades sobrellevadas por el binomio Estados Miembros/Instituciones Europeas para superar dificultades y reformular el proceso de integración europea concluyendo favorablemente en el Tratado de Lisboa (2009). Tomando en cuenta lo anterior se precisa en el estudio de la integración europea la consideración de una interacción dinámica (¿conflicto?) constante de lo óntico y lo ontológico de la UE. Se concluye con una serie de recomendaciones prácticas que giran en torno a asumir el proceso de integración a múltiples niveles y velocidades (Grasa 2007) y el acercamiento –igualmente multidimensional– a nivel teórico en la comprensión de la Unión Europea como objeto de estudio.

Los autores del presente artículo reflexionan sobre el rol potencial de las universidades en la generación de capacidades para la innovación y el desarrollo territorial. Se parte de concebir al territorio como espacio en el que se manifiesta la pluralidad de una sociedad y lugar donde se producen encuentros para la transformación de la misma. Desde diversas corrientes que estudian el desarrollo económico local y regional se hace especial hincapié en la importancia de las innovaciones como motor de dichos procesos. En el mismo sentido, el artículo destaca la influencia que tiene el territorio en la producción de esas innovaciones y el papel que en ello les cabe a las universidades. Se argumenta que las múltiples interacciones entre gobiernos, empresas, organizaciones, centros tecnológicos y universidades generan un entorno que facilita la creación y difusión de conocimientos, conformando territorios innovadores. El capital social que se construye mediante tales interacciones se potencia cuando se desarrollan nuevas formas de gobernanza, entendida como estilo de gobierno caracterizado por la interrelación entre Estado y actores en redes multinivel de articulación público-privada. En este sentido, la existencia de redes de gobernanza territorial contribuye a la construcción de entornos innovadores.Además de producir conocimientos científico-tecnológicos apropiables por otros actores regionales, las universidades pueden desempeñar un rol fundamental en la construcción de capacidades territoriales, cuando actúan como facilitadoras del encuentro y la articulación de actores, vale decir, como productoras de innovaciones sociales (entendidas como innovaciones en las interacciones) que posibiliten la co-construcción y apropiación de las innovaciones científico-tecnológicas. Desde esta perspectiva, el presente artículo procura aportar ideas sobre el modo en que las universidades pueden aportar a la generación de capacidades territoriales. ; : The authors of this article reflect on the potential role of universities in building capacity for innovation and regional development. It is part of conceiving the territory as a space in which the plurality of a society manifest and place where social interaction for transformation and development occur.From various currents studying local and regional economic development, special emphasis is place on the importance of innovation as a driver of these processes. In the same way, the article highlights the influence of the territory in the production of these innovations and the role of universities in them. It is argued that multiple interactions between governments, businesses, organizations, technology centers and universities create an environment that facilitates the formation and dissemination of knowledge, giving place to innovative territories.The capital that is built through such interactions is enhanced when new forms of governance, understood as a style of government characterized by the interplay between state and actors in multilevel networks of public-private partnerships, is developed. In this sense the existence of networks of territorial governance contribute to building innovative environments. In addition to producing scientific and technological knowledge appropriated by other regional actors, universities can play a key role in building regional capacities, when acting as facilitators of the meeting and articulation of actors, for example, as producers of social innovations (understood as innovations in interactions) that enable the co-construction and appropriation of scientific and technological innovations. From this perspective, this article seeks to provide ideas on how universities can contribute to the generation of territorial capabilities.

The field of science and technology studies (STS) has introduced and developed a "sociotechnical" perspective that has been taken up by many disciplines and areas of inquiry. The aims and objectives of this study are threefold: to interrogate which sociotechnical concepts or tools from STS are useful at better understanding energy-related social science, to reflect on prominent themes and topics within those approaches, and to identify current research gaps and directions for the future. To do so, the study builds on a companion project, a systematic analysis of 262 articles published from 2009 to mid-2019 that categorized and reviewed sociotechnical perspectives in energy social science. It identifies future research directions by employing the method of "co-creation" based on the reflections of sixteen prominent researchers in the field in late 2019 and early 2020. Drawing from this co-created synthesis, this study first identifies three main areas of sociotechnical perspectives in energy research (sociotechnical systems, policy, and expertise and publics) with 15 topics and 39 subareas. The study then identifies five main themes for the future development of sociotechnical perspectives in energy research: conditions of systematic change; embedded agency; justice, power, identity and politics; imaginaries and discourses; and public engagement and governance. It also points to the recognized need for pluralism and parallax: for research to show greater attention to demographic and geographical diversity; to stronger research designs; to greater theoretical triangulation; and to more transdisciplinary approaches.

International audience ; Artificial light at night (ALAN) is nowadays recognized as a major anthropogenic pressure on the environment on a global scale and as such is called light pollution. Through its attractive or deterrent effects, and its disruption of the biological clock for many animal and plant taxa, ALAN is increasingly recognized as a major threat to global biodiversity, which ultimately alters the amount, the quality, and the connectivity of available habitats for taxa. Biodiversity conservation tools should, therefore, include ALAN spatial and temporal effects. The ecological network, i.e., the physical and functional combination of natural elements that promote habitat connectivity, provides a valuable framework for that purpose. Understood as a social-ecological framework, it offers the opportunity to take into account the multiple uses of nocturnal spaces and times, by humans and nonhumans alike. Here we present the concept of "dark ecological network." We show this concept is able to grasp the effects of ALAN in terms of habitat disturbances and integrates temporal dimensions of ecological processes into biodiversity conservation planning. Moreover, it is also intended to trivialize the practices of darkness protection by turning them into the ordinary practices of land use planning. From an operational point of view, the challenge is to translate the levers for reducing ALAN-induced effects into a political method for its "territorialization." To achieve this objective, we propose a course of action that consists of building an interdisciplinary repertoire of contextualized knowledge (e.g., impacts on wildlife, human/lightscape relationship, existing legal tools, etc.), in order to deduce from it a number of practical supports for the governance of the dark ecological network in response to societal and ecological issues.

International audience ; Artificial light at night (ALAN) is nowadays recognized as a major anthropogenic pressure on the environment on a global scale and as such is called light pollution. Through its attractive or deterrent effects, and its disruption of the biological clock for many animal and plant taxa, ALAN is increasingly recognized as a major threat to global biodiversity, which ultimately alters the amount, the quality, and the connectivity of available habitats for taxa. Biodiversity conservation tools should, therefore, include ALAN spatial and temporal effects. The ecological network, i.e., the physical and functional combination of natural elements that promote habitat connectivity, provides a valuable framework for that purpose. Understood as a social-ecological framework, it offers the opportunity to take into account the multiple uses of nocturnal spaces and times, by humans and nonhumans alike. Here we present the concept of "dark ecological network." We show this concept is able to grasp the effects of ALAN in terms of habitat disturbances and integrates temporal dimensions of ecological processes into biodiversity conservation planning. Moreover, it is also intended to trivialize the practices of darkness protection by turning them into the ordinary practices of land use planning. From an operational point of view, the challenge is to translate the levers for reducing ALAN-induced effects into a political method for its "territorialization." To achieve this objective, we propose a course of action that consists of building an interdisciplinary repertoire of contextualized knowledge (e.g., impacts on wildlife, human/lightscape relationship, existing legal tools, etc.), in order to deduce from it a number of practical supports for the governance of the dark ecological network in response to societal and ecological issues.

International audience ; Artificial light at night (ALAN) is nowadays recognized as a major anthropogenic pressure on the environment on a global scale and as such is called light pollution. Through its attractive or deterrent effects, and its disruption of the biological clock for many animal and plant taxa, ALAN is increasingly recognized as a major threat to global biodiversity, which ultimately alters the amount, the quality, and the connectivity of available habitats for taxa. Biodiversity conservation tools should, therefore, include ALAN spatial and temporal effects. The ecological network, i.e., the physical and functional combination of natural elements that promote habitat connectivity, provides a valuable framework for that purpose. Understood as a social-ecological framework, it offers the opportunity to take into account the multiple uses of nocturnal spaces and times, by humans and nonhumans alike. Here we present the concept of "dark ecological network." We show this concept is able to grasp the effects of ALAN in terms of habitat disturbances and integrates temporal dimensions of ecological processes into biodiversity conservation planning. Moreover, it is also intended to trivialize the practices of darkness protection by turning them into the ordinary practices of land use planning. From an operational point of view, the challenge is to translate the levers for reducing ALAN-induced effects into a political method for its "territorialization." To achieve this objective, we propose a course of action that consists of building an interdisciplinary repertoire of contextualized knowledge (e.g., impacts on wildlife, human/lightscape relationship, existing legal tools, etc.), in order to deduce from it a number of practical supports for the governance of the dark ecological network in response to societal and ecological issues.

International audience ; Artificial light at night (ALAN) is nowadays recognized as a major anthropogenic pressure on the environment on a global scale and as such is called light pollution. Through its attractive or deterrent effects, and its disruption of the biological clock for many animal and plant taxa, ALAN is increasingly recognized as a major threat to global biodiversity, which ultimately alters the amount, the quality, and the connectivity of available habitats for taxa. Biodiversity conservation tools should, therefore, include ALAN spatial and temporal effects. The ecological network, i.e., the physical and functional combination of natural elements that promote habitat connectivity, provides a valuable framework for that purpose. Understood as a social-ecological framework, it offers the opportunity to take into account the multiple uses of nocturnal spaces and times, by humans and nonhumans alike. Here we present the concept of "dark ecological network." We show this concept is able to grasp the effects of ALAN in terms of habitat disturbances and integrates temporal dimensions of ecological processes into biodiversity conservation planning. Moreover, it is also intended to trivialize the practices of darkness protection by turning them into the ordinary practices of land use planning. From an operational point of view, the challenge is to translate the levers for reducing ALAN-induced effects into a political method for its "territorialization." To achieve this objective, we propose a course of action that consists of building an interdisciplinary repertoire of contextualized knowledge (e.g., impacts on wildlife, human/lightscape relationship, existing legal tools, etc.), in order to deduce from it a number of practical supports for the governance of the dark ecological network in response to societal and ecological issues.

International audience ; Artificial light at night (ALAN) is nowadays recognized as a major anthropogenic pressure on the environment on a global scale and as such is called light pollution. Through its attractive or deterrent effects, and its disruption of the biological clock for many animal and plant taxa, ALAN is increasingly recognized as a major threat to global biodiversity, which ultimately alters the amount, the quality, and the connectivity of available habitats for taxa. Biodiversity conservation tools should, therefore, include ALAN spatial and temporal effects. The ecological network, i.e., the physical and functional combination of natural elements that promote habitat connectivity, provides a valuable framework for that purpose. Understood as a social-ecological framework, it offers the opportunity to take into account the multiple uses of nocturnal spaces and times, by humans and nonhumans alike. Here we present the concept of "dark ecological network." We show this concept is able to grasp the effects of ALAN in terms of habitat disturbances and integrates temporal dimensions of ecological processes into biodiversity conservation planning. Moreover, it is also intended to trivialize the practices of darkness protection by turning them into the ordinary practices of land use planning. From an operational point of view, the challenge is to translate the levers for reducing ALAN-induced effects into a political method for its "territorialization." To achieve this objective, we propose a course of action that consists of building an interdisciplinary repertoire of contextualized knowledge (e.g., impacts on wildlife, human/lightscape relationship, existing legal tools, etc.), in order to deduce from it a number of practical supports for the governance of the dark ecological network in response to societal and ecological issues.

International audience ; Artificial light at night (ALAN) is nowadays recognized as a major anthropogenic pressure on the environment on a global scale and as such is called light pollution. Through its attractive or deterrent effects, and its disruption of the biological clock for many animal and plant taxa, ALAN is increasingly recognized as a major threat to global biodiversity, which ultimately alters the amount, the quality, and the connectivity of available habitats for taxa. Biodiversity conservation tools should, therefore, include ALAN spatial and temporal effects. The ecological network, i.e., the physical and functional combination of natural elements that promote habitat connectivity, provides a valuable framework for that purpose. Understood as a social-ecological framework, it offers the opportunity to take into account the multiple uses of nocturnal spaces and times, by humans and nonhumans alike. Here we present the concept of "dark ecological network." We show this concept is able to grasp the effects of ALAN in terms of habitat disturbances and integrates temporal dimensions of ecological processes into biodiversity conservation planning. Moreover, it is also intended to trivialize the practices of darkness protection by turning them into the ordinary practices of land use planning. From an operational point of view, the challenge is to translate the levers for reducing ALAN-induced effects into a political method for its "territorialization." To achieve this objective, we propose a course of action that consists of building an interdisciplinary repertoire of contextualized knowledge (e.g., impacts on wildlife, human/lightscape relationship, existing legal tools, etc.), in order to deduce from it a number of practical supports for the governance of the dark ecological network in response to societal and ecological issues.