Session at RGS 2018 // Understanding the Potential of Innovative Public-Private-Partnerships at the Nexus
This talk will present ongoing research exploring the role of new forms of public-private-partnerships in the governance and provision of Nexus infrastructure and services. It will consider the specific example of the South Lincolnshire Water Partnership (made up of a range of private, public, and third sector organisations) which is investigating options for multi-sector ownership and management of key water resources and assets.
In addition, examples from UK energy policy, where partnerships are being used to deliver renewable heat infrastructure and pilot new technologies, will also be presented. These examples will be used to consider how innovative partnership approaches are: (i) affecting Nexus interactions, (ii) using, or not, the Nexus approach, and (iii) supporting or hindering sustainable outcomes. Finally, time will be given to describe an emerging framework which is being developed for the appraisal and evaluation of these new partnerships, including their governance and use of the Nexus approach.
Presenters
- Pete Barbrook-Johnson, University of Surrey, UK
Chair: Kirsty Blackstock, James Hutton Institute, UK
About this Session
The concept of the food-energy-water-environment nexus has been in vogue since being identified as part of the ‘perfect storm’ of drivers on society by the UN in 2011. It has become a narrative to try to capture and explain the systemic nature of global wicked problems; and also to provide innovative solution to these wicked problems. For some, it is an invitation to grapple with the persistence of complex socio-ecological challenges and offer a site for transformation in our relationship to the material landscapes. For others, it remains a technical challenge to be resolved through optimisation of resource use in any given landscape. As social scientists, we are interested in how institutions, governance and management lie at the heart of either approach to the nexus in specific places and spaces.
The session "Adaptive management and governance of the food-energy-water-environment Nexus (1): Speed Talks" at the Annual Conference 2018 of the Royal Geographical Society involves contributions from those involved in Water-Energy-Food nexus research or those trying to manage or govern the nexus in practice, asking them to reflect on the following questions:
- To what extent can the nexus be managed or governed?
- To what extent does adopting a nexus perspective improve the governance of social-ecological systems?
- Has the narrative of the nexus simulated innovative approaches or do the same fundamental governance and management challenges apply?
- Are there new actors or sites for action emerging from taking a nexus lens?
- Are new methodologies emerging from taking a nexus lens?
- What can we learn from other governance and management domains; and what can nexus scholarship offer to others?
This session will consist of grouped speed talks followed by small group discussions with the presenters. The sister session Adaptive management and governance of the food-energy-water-environment Nexus (2) will involve a workshop based around a rapid synthesis of the main points.
Where and when
Part of Session "Adaptive management and governance of the food-energy-water-environment Nexus (1): Speed Talks"
31 Aug 2018
9:00-10:40
Glamorgan Building
Seminar Room -1.80
More information
Royal Geographical Society // Annual Conference 2018
The 2018 Annual International Conference will be held at Cardiff University from Tuesday 28 August to Friday 31 August 2018. This year's topic is "Geographical landscapes /…
Source: RGS AC2018 website