Social capital and collaborative environmental governance
Date
2013-06
Authors
Muller, Kobus
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
The African Consortium of Public Administration (ACPA)
Abstract
To cope with the increasing complexities of environmental challenges, innovative
models of governance that are capable of greater fl exibility, speed and adaptability
have emerged. Following international trends, new collaborative partnerships
varying greatly in form and purpose have developed over the last 15 years. The
Western Cape Province, world renowned for the Cape Floristic Region and one
of the world’s 25 most threatened biodiversity hotspots, has also experienced a
proliferation of ‘collaboratives’. In an effort to contribute to the knowledge and
understanding of building social capital and institutional capacity in these types
of governance settings, this article focuses on the evolution of one of the more
successful of these new forms – the Cape West Coast Biosphere Reserve – from an
organisational learning perspective before refl ecting on the question of whether
the concepts of social capital and organisational learning are useful to explain its
apparent success. Although the fi ndings are inconclusive, a suffi cient number of
pointers have emerged from the exploration of the case study to warrant further
research on the role of social learning and social capital as explanations of why
particular collaboratives seem to be more successful in achieving desirable
outcomes than others.
Description
The original publication is available at :
Muller, K. 2013. Social capital and collaborative environmental governance: the case of the Cape West Coast Biosphere. African Journal of Public Affairs, Vol. 6(2):68-78.
Muller, K. 2013. Social capital and collaborative environmental governance: the case of the Cape West Coast Biosphere. African Journal of Public Affairs, Vol. 6(2):68-78.
Keywords
Evironmental management -- South Africa, Environmental policy -- South Africa, Natural resources -- South Africa -- Management, Intergovernmental cooperation -- South Africa
Citation
Muller, K. 2013. Social capital and collaborative environmental governance: the case of the Cape West Coast Biosphere. African Journal of Public Affairs, 6(2):68-78.