Theorising Governance, Politics and Change

Abstract

In Chapter 1 I stated that governance is a broad topic, and that it might be appropriate to use different conceptualisations in different contexts. I quoted Andy Stirling distinguishing between appraisal and commitment while advocating for the following broad approach when focusing on opening up debates:

The starting point for this analysis is a distinction between parallel, interlinked, and mutually coconstituting processes of commitment and appraisal in technology governance. Here, ‘governance’ is taken to encompass the diverse totality of actors, discourses, structures, and processes implicated in guiding and shaping technological configurations (Kooiman, 1993). In these terms, appraisal is about informing, and commitment is about forming tangible social choices in the governance of science and technology. (Stirling, 2008, p. 265)