No governance without conflicts. Time for the EGT project to explore the roles of conflicts in governance.
Based on insights from Actor-Network Theory (ANT) and Systems Theory, we conceptualise conflicts as self-referential modes of ordering. Like any mode of ordering, conflicts can disappear or get resolved, yet they have a tendency to endure. If they endure, they can become (temporarily) stabilised. In this paper we argue that conflicts can only be understood if one takes into account the history of their emergence and understands them as subject to path dependencies. Through our reconceptualization of conflicts in an Evolutionary Governance Framework, we stress that any attempt to manage or govern conflicts paradoxically enforces them.
Pellis, A., Duineveld, M., & Wagner, L. (2015). Conflicts forever. The path dependencies of tourism conflicts: the case of Anabeb Conservancy, Namibia, . In G. T. Jóhannesson, C. Ren, & R. van der Duim (Eds.), Tourism Encounters and Controversies. Ontological politics of tourism develepment: Ashgate
Leave a Reply