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Global change and governance scholars frequently highlight polycentricity as a feature of resilient governance, but both theoretical and empirical knowledge about features and outcomes of the concept are lacking at the global scale. Here we investigate the structural properties of governance of global nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) cycles, two processes in the 'planetary boundaries' framework. We have used a mixed-methods approach to institutional analysis, integrating polycentric theory with social network theory in environmental policy and legal studies. We include an actor collaboration case study, the Global Partnership on Nutrient Management (GPNM), to explore governance challenges associated with global N and P cycles. We set the scope for selection of relevant legal instruments using an overview of global N and P flows between Earth system 'components' (land, water, atmosphere, oceans, biosphere) and the major anthropogenic N and P perturbations. Our network analysis of citations of global N and P governance exposes the structural patterns of a loose network among the principal institutions and actors, in which legal instruments of the European Union serve as key cross-scale and cross-sectoral 'gateways'. We show that the current international regimes in place for regulating N- and P-related issues represent a gap in governance at the global level. In addition, we are able to show that the emergence of GPNM provides synergies in this context of insufficient governance. The GPNM can be viewed as a structure of polycentric governance as it involves deliberate attempts for mutual adjustments and self-organised action.

Chapter 1. Introduction -- Chapter 2. Jefferson's Laws of Nature -- Chapter 3. From Natural Law to Natural Inferiority -- Chapter 4. Seasteading and Polycentric Law -- Chapter 5. Justice Holmes and Pragmatic Pluralism -- Chapter 6. Pragmatic Conservatism -- Chapter 7. Dissenting Opinions Within the Pragmatic Common Law Tradition -- Chapter 8. Justice Brandeis as Jeffersonian Jurist -- Chapter 9. Justice Holmes and Natural Law.

This study illustrates a key existing challenge to realizing trilingualism as a major nation-building language ideology: the ideological polycentricity of multilingual signs—that is, the simultaneous orientation of multilingual signs to several authority centers. Combining diverse linguistic landscape (LL) methodologies such as code preferences (language choices and placement on a sign), indexical orders (patterns that index meta-messages), and polycentricity (a simultaneous orientation toward multiple centers), I examine how three state-approved languages (Kazakh, Russian, and English) are positioned on 346 state and private signs in a small town in northern Kazakhstan. The analysis reveals a range of indexical orders at the level of sign type: monolingual, bilingual, and trilingual sign types of horizontal, vertical, and centralized code combinations. At the level of signage group, bilingual Kazakh-Russian and trilingual Kazakh-Russian-English signs dominate in the top-down group, while monolingual Russian and bilingual Kazakh-Russian signs with centralized Russian dominate in the bottom-up group. The identified indexical orders indicate ideological polycentricity in town public signage, which presents a challenge for the nation-building process.

The paper analyses with a case study the use of a widely applied normative concept of polycentricity as spatial imaginary. The case study of Helsinki City Plan and the conflict over its city-boulevard scheme draws on qualitative content analysis of planning documents and expert interviews. It demonstrates the instrumental role of multiple interpretations of polycentricity in tension-ridden metropolitan and city-regional spatial planning. The conflict reveals how the conceptual ambiguity of polycentricity and the institutional vagueness of city-regional planning have together enabled advancing contradictory political aims under their guise. In conclusion, the paper emphasizes the persuasive performativity and fluidity of polycentricity as a spatial imaginary in multi-scalar planning settings. ; Peer reviewed

The coordination of relief in international humanitarian crises has long been viewed as fraught with problems of inadequate oversight and coordination. Contrary to this claim, this article argues that the international relief system, viewed as interdependent actors, is better understood on the basis of the principle of polycentricity. The authors sketch the conditions necessary to secure a polycentric social order and compare these to the international humanitarian relief framework. They argue that polycentricity may be a more apt aspiration for participants in the international relief system than are calls for new and more stringent forms of monocentric coordination, but its conditions too may be difficult for the relevant participants to realize. The authors explore the tensions and possibilities implicit in this reframing at both the strategic and operating scales.

Commons governance is complex and polycentric, involving a range of actors, working at different scales with different concepts of 'development', and different types of power. Multi-stakeholder platforms (MSPs) have generated considerable attention as a way to address these tensions among multiple and overlapping decision-making centers operating on different administrative levels and scales. Yet establishing MSPs that effectively involve both community, government, and private sector actors is far from straightforward. This paper analyzes the Indian NGO Foundation for Ecological Security's (FES) experience of strengthening polycentric governance through case studies of two MSPs in Gujarat and Odisha, at the block (subdistrict) level—a meso-level encompassing multiple communities situated around a commons landscape (hill range or small rivulet). By comparing local environments, institutional arrangements, stakeholder interactions, governance processes and the evolution of MSPs in the two states, it distills lessons on the tangible and intangible benefits of multi-stakeholder engagement, scale, and enabling conditions. We argue that the groundwork carried to build community level collective action supports effective polycentric governance of resources on the landscape level, especially through block-level MSPs that facilitate inter-community collaboration and learning, strengthening local voices and building trust between stakeholders over time. The cases also highlight that MSPs can evolve in different ways as the various actors interact and aim to influence the agenda. External actors like NGOs thus play an important role as facilitators and through mobilizing communities to help them claim their agency. ; Non-PR ; IFPRI1; CRP2; 1 Fostering Climate-Resilient and Sustainable Food Supply; 4 Transforming Agricultural and Rural Economies; 5 Strengthening Institutions and Governance; DCA ; EPTD; PIM ; CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM)