Governance for Transformative Change. Lessons from the EU’s Sustainability Transition

An event in the CIVICA Research Excellence Tours series.
Speaker: Jerneja Penca, Associate Professor and Head of Academic Affairs at the Euro-Mediterranean University (EMUNI), Slovenia.
Transformative change relates to deep and systemic shifts in values, institutions and practices, required to bring about sustainable futures and long-term human well-being. The concept has roots in scientific literature and is increasingly becoming a policy goal at various governance levels. While there is a growing consensus about the need for transformative change, relatively little is known about how to bring it about. Specifically, what can public authorities do to introduce new trajectories of human-nature relations at technological, economic and social scales?
This talk will draw on the existing knowledge about governance for transformative change as well as on the analysis of the recent EU’s policy and legal approaches to effecting change. The EU is among the most vocal promoters of transformative change as an urgent and tangible goal. Since 2019 and particularly since the Covid-19 pandemic, the EU has introduced a variety of policy approaches to that end, including the policy innovation of the do no harm principle across its post-covid recovery investments.
The talk will evaluate the EU’s efforts, particularly from the perspective of furthering governance for and through biodiversity, considering this area as indicative of the type of transformation required. Is the EU’s policy approach conducive to delivering on its strategic goal of putting the economy and society on a sustainable path, as defined by the European Green Deal? What lessons for transformative governance are valuable beyond the EU context?
Follow the event: #CIVICAExcellenceTours
Read more and register
©Shutterstock/Martin Bergsma