The New Regional Focus

2. A ‘regional’ focus in policy across urban, rural and remote areas of Australia relating to three core areas: environment (e.g. environmental protection and natural resource management policy) economic (e.g. industry and employment policy) social (e.g. integrated service delivery) The long-term sustainability of regions depends on the functionality and health of the overall system of regional governance across these core areas To achieve sustainable development, policy responses in these core areas cannot be considered in isolation Emerging regional governance approaches are experiencing considerable challenges in practice Our knowledge of what works, what doesn’t, and if it works why, and how could it work better is limited The New Regional Focus

3. On priorities and prospects for regional governance research and evaluation (with particular emphasis on sustainability) Decision making on regional governance for sustainability made by individuals, civil society, and the state involve questions of, e.g.: efficiency effectiveness equity political legitimacy These key questions are also integrative elements across a breadth of disciplines relevant to research on regional governance Decision making occurs within and is clearly influenced by the social, ‘cultural’, economic, environmental and political context in which the system of regional governance operates in practice Research on, &/or evaluation of, regional governance needs to be sensitive to this multi-dimensional context and to the multiple scales of relevance Focus of presentation

4. Multiple levels of policy implementation (national, state, regional, local) Involves a multiplicity of actors/agents Multiple perceptions of the problem(s) and the objectives of policy implementation exist Multiple strategies and policy instruments A multi-resourced and multi-organisational basis for implementation Incomplete scientific/technical knowledge to support decision-making Varying levels of actor/agent understanding of options and solutions Variable support from community and political leaders Regional Governance: A complex system

5. Conceptually, system comprises a complex set of (often poorly) linked institutions and arrangements (formal and informal): ‘horizontal’ between: different actors (e.g. industry, community and government) different sectors (e.g. social, economic, environmental) ‘vertical’ between: functional levels (e.g. spheres of government) In practice, these arrangements may have competing objectives and interests and can evolve independently of each other over different timeframes A simple example of the complexity involved in practice – institutional arrangements for wetlands management in a wet tropics regional environment System of Regional Governance

6. Voluntary Conservation Agreement: NCA Environmentally Relevant Activity: EPA Wet Tropics World Heritage Area Bed/banks River: RITA, WRA Major Rock Wall: WRA, RITA Wetland: Code of Practice for sustainable Cane Growing, Land Use Practices for Wet Tropical Floodplains, ICM & Landcare Voluntary Conservation Agreement: NCA Grazing Land, leasehold: LA Freehold Land Sugar Cane: Sugar Industry Act, Sugar Industry Code of Practice Land Use Practices for Wet Tropical Floodplains Wetland: ICM Local Gov’t Boundary: IPA Coastal Control District Marine Plants: FA Regional Coastal Management Plan CMPA Fish Habitat Code of Practice Recreation Area Management Act Works in tidally affected areas: BPA Declared Fish Habitat Area: FA

7. New generation of governance institutions emerging for resolving collective action problems in response to the need to address issues, e.g.: Multidimensional and inequitable impacts Technical uncertainty and ignorance Evolving and conflicting values and priorities Urgency Mistrust Commonly based on public/private partnership models that reflect a global trend in devolving decision-making closer to its source or context New Governance Frameworks

8. Participatory and discursive approaches designed to: Promote deliberation about the problems that regional communities and not only ‘technical experts’ see as important Give greater status and respect to ‘grass roots’ or societal knowledge Foster deliberation about values, priorities and actions Embrace new forms of knowledge and multiple sources of information Stimulate local innovation and emphasise principles and processes rather than recipes and technological prescriptions Support collaborative learning and adaptive institutions Challenge conventional thinking on success, failure and effectiveness of governance arrangements – and require a new approach to research and evaluation Emerging Partnership Approaches

9. System of regional governance comprises numerous 'nested' discrete components/activities carried out concurrently across : a range of functional levels (e.g. national, state, regional, local) a number of different dimensions (e.g. social, economic and environmental) Phenomenon at any one level are affected by: other mechanisms at the same level the level above the level below At each ‘functional’ level: Different problems exist Different questions need to be asked Different theories can be formulated Understanding the essential properties of this complex system comes from an understanding of how the components work collectively together – not from an examination of the parts themselves in isolation The Research Challenge

10. Economic Social Resource and environment National Economic Social Resource and environment State Economic Social Resource and environment Functional level/scale Regional Weeds / pests Water Regional NRM Planning (statutory and non-statutory Regional body Coastal Biodiversity Vegetation Local government Local implementation State agencies, local government, industry, NGOs, business managers and other individual decision makers Regional Governance System – multiple lenses Devolution Feedback Constitutional and legal process Statutory compliance Policy matters (e.g.. public interest) Program $s Accountability etc Local program / policy decisions Aggregate impact results Engagement and involvement Politics etc

11. Shift in research culture • From academic ‘silos’ to complex systems thinking and adaptive management • Traditional/collegial research may recognise the regional governance system as a set of 3 ‘domains of action’ but research based on: • a single disciplinary or academic ‘silo’ approach • quality control dominantly through peer review • New inter- or trans-disciplinary research agendas emphasise: • the dynamic interaction and interconnectedness of these domains • emergent properties associated with these intersections • quality control through social accountability and reflexivity and peer review Social economic environment social economic environment

12. Regional ‘knowledge production’ system Adapted from Leydesdorff et al. 1996

13. ‘Triple helix model’ – knowledge production An emerging ‘network’ layer of relations Adapted from Leydesdorff et al. 1996; 2006

14. In contrast to a double helix (or co-evolution between two dynamics) a triple helix system is not expected to be stable Environment is dynamic and evolving Actors/players take on multiple roles Possibility of rapid change in the configuration of relations and unintended consequences Model developed mainly for studying the knowledge infrastructure in networks of relations (e.g. Leydesdorff 1997) Through the overlay of relations it is expected that networks and hybrid organisations among the helices emerge – which in turn will be in a state of transition Conceptually, the overlay that emerges from the interaction of the helices has the potential to integrate the complex system The Triple Helix Thesis

15. Economic Social Resource and environment Federal Economic Social Resource and environment State Economic Social Resource and environment Functional level/scale Regional Implementation Weeds / pests Water Regional NRM Planning (statutory and non-statutory Regional body Coastal Biodiversity Vegetation Local government Local implementation State agencies, local government, industry, NGOs, business managers and other individual decision makers Regional Governance System – multiple lenses Devolution Feedback Constitutional and legal process Statutory compliance Policy matters (e.g.. public interest) Program $s Accountability etc Local program / policy decisions Aggregate impact results Engagement and involvement Politics etc

16. Framework for research and evaluation of regional governance? An emerging ‘network’ layer of relations Adapted from Leydesdorff et al. 1996; 2006

17. Decision making on the evolution of systems of regional governance involve multidimensional outcomes relating to: efficiency (e.g. economic) effectiveness (e.g. environmental & social outcomes) equity (e.g. distributive justice, distributional consequences) legitimacy (e.g. political – procedural justice and acceptability) Require new frameworks for research and evaluation that address concurrently and interactively: institutions (structure and process) context scale outcomes as they are interdependent in reality The future for regional governance research and evaluation?