Seminar on qualitative analysis by Dr. Ingrid Visseren-Hamakers – April 14, 2016

You are invited to a talk this upcoming Thursday, April 14th on Designing and implementing qualitative environmental social science research: The example of analyzing global biodiversity partnerships. The speaker is ESP Associate Professor Dr. Ingrid Visseren-Hamakers. She is a guest lecturer for a course on qualitative analysis and we would like to open up the talk to everyone in the department.

Date: Thursday April 14th
Time: 6:30pm – 7:30pm
Location: Exploratory Hall Room L-509

~~~ Abstract ~~~

Over the past decade, partnerships have increasingly become a popular governance instrument for sustainable development. This article aims to improve our understanding of this instrument, and its contributions to and consequences for international sustainable development politics, by providing the lessons learned from international biodiversity governance. The article analyses 24 international partnerships working on forests, fisheries, conservation and climate change, using perspectives based on regime, governance and partnership literature. It concludes that the contribution of the partnerships should be evaluated as varying: only seven ’gems’ of partnerships fulfill important governance functions; the others play less paramount roles. Partnerships have, however, contributed to the ongoing change in the manner in which biodiversity is governed, namely the institutionalization of intersectoral governance. The article promotes a more strategic use of the partnership instrument, taking into account its opportunities and limitations, to strengthen its contributions to international sustainable development.

The current seminar schedule can be found at http://esp.gmu.edu/news/events/seminars/