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Geographies of dynamic governance assemblages in development cooperation civil society spaces

Project description

Inclusive governance in development cooperation for civic spaces

Practices to achieve sustainable development objectives and respond to humanitarian needs are changing. With enhanced efforts to drive locally led and owned solutions, the size, scale, diversity, and density of non-governmental and civil society transnational collaborations and partnerships have increased substantially. However, little is known about the governance processes and ecosystems supporting this community of practitioners in the civic space. The ERC-funded GEOFORMATIONS project seeks to enhance the efficacy of governance processes supporting collaborative civic actions by examining how and why multi-partner arrangements form; the nature and structure of partnerships and power relations; how governance arrangements are evaluated in civic spaces; and the extent to which the voices of affected populations influence decision-making and strategic goals of collaborating partnerships.

Objective

Interacting socio-political, economic, and environmental crises are destabilizing efforts to attain the global vision entailed in UN Agenda 2030. The need for adaptive and inclusive development cooperation governance has never been stronger. As complex needs accelerate due to the coronavirus pandemic, rapidly changing climates, and increasing levels of conflict and human insecurity, trust and legitimacy in traditional institutions and actors is weak and declining. In efforts to achieve greater development effectiveness, the international development cooperation sector is shifting towards new ways of working, including increased localization, decolonization, greater coherence across the humanitarian-development-peace nexus, and adapting development practice to support deeper engagement with civil society actors. However, how these changes affect governance structures and processes within non-profit non-governmental and civil society organizations (CSOs) is not well understood. With an estimated 37,000 autonomous entities, understanding how, why, and in what ways CSOs assemble governance structures and interact to ensure effective and appropriate governance of development programs is critically important to trust and legitimacy in this sector. To date, no research has systematically examined the relational and spatial dynamics of CSO governance chains. Nor have comprehensive evaluation frameworks for such assemblages yet been developed. Using core geographical concepts of place, space, and scale, drawing upon ground-breaking methodologies of assemblage thinking and critical realist evaluation, combined with innovations in organizational theory through issue framing, GEOFORMATIONS will provide radical new insights into the governance geographies of place-based development cooperation practices which can be used to radically redesign international development cooperation governance theory, policy, and practice.

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Host institution

THE PROVOST, FELLOWS, FOUNDATION SCHOLARS & THE OTHER MEMBERS OF BOARD, OF THE COLLEGE OF THE HOLY & UNDIVIDED TRINITY OF QUEEN ELIZABETH NEAR DUBLIN
Net EU contribution
€ 1 499 745,00
Address
COLLEGE GREEN TRINITY COLLEGE
D02 CX56 Dublin
Ireland

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Region
Ireland Eastern and Midland Dublin
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
Links
Total cost
€ 1 499 745,00

Beneficiaries (1)