The sustainability transition - Environmental and Human Security in the Arctic - page 90

that turn out to be well adapted to the attributes of specific problems is easier
said than done (Young 2002a). Misfits are common in this realm. Among
those that crop up again and again are regimes whose jurisdiction fails to
encompass the relevant biophysical systems, arrangements that emphasize the
creation of incentive mechanisms when the real problems centre on matters
of equity, and regulatory systems that lack adequate mechanisms to monitor
the behaviour of those subject to specific rules. Partly, this is attributable
to the facts that many problems giving rise to a demand for governance are
extremely complex and that governance systems tend to become path depend-
ent and difficult to adjust even when their shortcomings are widely known.
In part, however, these shortcomings are testimony to the fact that our under-
standing of governance systems - environmental or resource regimes as they
are often called in discussions of these issues - is crude. A major scientific
challenge during the immediate future for those concerned with the sustain-
ability transition will be to foster substantial gains in our understanding of
governance. We cannot expect to come up with simple recipes for crafting
regimes to govern the dynamics of complex socio-ecological systems, but
major improvements in this area are well within the realm of possibility.
Six lessons for policymaking
What can we learn from this discussion of the sustainability transition that
is relevant for policymaking? Two seemingly contradictory responses to this
question emerge at the outset. One emphasizes the absence of any basis for
assuming we can solve problems of the sort under consideration here through
the application of purely scientific procedures and new technologies. Not
only do ethical considerations and rent-seeking behaviour intrude on a regu-
lar basis, but also the socio-ecological systems involved are far too complex
and turbulent to allow for technocratic solutions. At the same time, however,
the argument presented in the previous sections of this chapter gives rise to a
number of important lessons for policymaking. Even though the sustainabil-
ity transition does not lend itself to purely scientific or technical treatment,
there is great scope for improving the quality of policymaking in this realm.
This section draws attention to six lessons that seem particularly pertinent to
this effort.
Use multiple sources and types of knowledge to
good advantage
There is a marked tendency today to treat Western scientific knowledge as
superior to other types of knowledge, a fact that gives those whose thinking
is rooted in other approaches to knowledge a strong incentive to cloak their
ideas in the terminology of science. But this is not a helpful way to proceed.
Not only is it the case that the capacity of science to understand turbulent