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Christine Wamsler. Photo

Christine Wamsler

Professor, Docent, appointed Excellent Teaching Practitioner (ETP)

Christine Wamsler. Photo

Transforming urban water governance through social (triple-loop) learning

Author

  • Åse Johannessen
  • Åsa Gerger Swartling
  • Christine Wamsler
  • Kim Andersson
  • Julian Timothy Arran
  • Dayana Indira Hernández Vivas
  • Thor Axel Stenström

Summary, in English

The sustainable development of cities is threatened by a worldwide water crisis. Improved social learning is urgently needed to transform urban water governance and make it more integrated and adaptive. However, empirical studies remain few and fragmented. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to analyse how social learning has supported or inhibited sustainable transformations in urban water governance. On the basis of multiple case studies conducted in urban, flood-prone areas in Colombia, the Philippines, South Africa, India, and Sweden, we study learning processes related to different aspects of water management and governance. Our results show that transformations in water governance are often triggered by crises, whereas other potentials for transformation are not tapped into. Furthermore, learning is often inhibited by “lock-ins” created by powerful actors. We conclude that there is a need for more proactive design of governance structures for triple-loop learning that take into account the identified barriers and supporting principles.

Department/s

  • Division of Risk Management and Societal Safety
  • Lund University Centre for Risk Assessment and Management (LUCRAM)
  • LUCSUS (Lund University Centre for Sustainability Studies)
  • Lund University Centre for Risk Assessment and Management (LUCRAM)

Publishing year

2019-01-10

Language

English

Pages

144-154

Publication/Series

Environmental Policy and Governance

Volume

29

Issue

2

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Wiley-Blackwell

Topic

  • Public Administration Studies
  • Sociology (excluding Social Work, Social Psychology and Social Anthropology)

Keywords

  • climate change adaptation
  • disaster risk reduction
  • flood risk
  • integrated water resources management
  • social learning
  • transformation
  • urban water services
  • water governance

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 1756-932X