Exploring the pathways: Regulatory experiments for sustainable development – An interdisciplinary approach

Abstract

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by the United Nations provide normative orientation for many national and regional governments as well as actors from industry and other parts of the civil society. There is a growing consensus that the corresponding transformation processes needed – e.g., in the field of production and consumption patterns (SDG 12) – have to be fostered by a corresponding institutional framework. Properly designed experiments that generate a learning system for all actors involved may be an important building block. Based on an interdisciplinary approach, we provide an overview of the various terminologies for experimentation currently discussed in the social sciences, derive common criteria for a broader approach to the concept of “regulatory experimentation” in reflexive governance structures and present a novel conceptual framework for analysing empirical studies of regulatory experiments.

¿Cómo puede la regulación impulsar la innovación?: regulación habilitadora para la innovación en el sector agua, saneamiento y residuos sólidos de América Latina y el Caribe

“…Debe hacerlo en cooperación con diferentes actores sociales, de los cuales él es una parte importante. Además, el experimento debe permitir alguna forma de seguimiento y aprendizaje (Bauknecht, et al, 2019).…”

The Political Impact of the Sustainable Development Goals

“…The multi-level, multi-actor, multi-sector character of the Sustainable Development Goals has the potential to promote innovative public policy approaches giving a prominent role to civil society (Carneiro and Battistella 2019;Salim and Drenth 2020). The literature reveals many experiments with new forms of governance for delivering specific Sustainable Development Goals, sometimes building on frameworks also applied elsewhere, such as the Policy Coherence for Development Approach (Koff, Challenger and Portillo 2020), Transformative Partners Approach (Al Sabbagh and Copeland 2019), co-regulation experiences (Bentsen, Larsen and Stupak 2019), smart cities (Salim and Drenth 2020), regulatory experimentation (Bauknecht et al 2020), ecosystem approach (Bridgewater, Régnier and Cruz García 2015) or 'co-labs' .…”

Implementation at Multiple Levels

“…The multi-level, multi-actor, multi-sector character of the Sustainable Development Goals has the potential to promote innovative public policy approaches giving a prominent role to civil society (Carneiro and Battistella 2019;Salim and Drenth 2020). The literature reveals many experiments with new forms of governance for delivering specific Sustainable Development Goals, sometimes building on frameworks also applied elsewhere, such as the Policy Coherence for Development Approach (Koff, Challenger and Portillo 2020), Transformative Partners Approach (Al Sabbagh and Copeland 2019), co-regulation experiences (Bentsen, Larsen and Stupak 2019), smart cities (Salim and Drenth 2020), regulatory experimentation (Bauknecht et al 2020), ecosystem approach (Bridgewater, Régnier and Cruz García 2015) or 'co-labs' (Francis, Henriksson and Stewart 2020).…”