Dear colleagues,
Allow me to send this reminder. The deadline (15th January) is approaching for 
the workshop call below.
All the best and Happy New Year,
Fari
—
Dr. Fariborz Zelli, Associate Professor
Department of Political Science
Lund University
Box 52
22100 Lund
Sweden
Phone: +46-46-222-4764
http://www.svet.lu.se/fariborz-zelli

Call for Papers:
International Workshop on
Enhancing Legitimacy in Polycentric Climate Governance:
Opportunities and Challenges
European University Institute, Florence, 19-20 May 2016

The European University Institute’s Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies, 
together with the political science departments of Lund University and 
Stockholm University, invites applications for their international workshop on 
legitimacy in polycentric climate governance. The workshop is financed by the 
COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology) Action INOGOV, an 
international network of research excellence on ‘Innovations in Climate 
Governance’.

Confirmed keynote speakers include Professor Robert Keohane from Princeton 
University. The workshop aims to bring together both established and early 
career scholars from a variety of disciplines that address questions of 
legitimacy and climate politics – including, but not limited to, international 
relations and political science, legal studies, economics, sociology, human 
geography.

It has been claimed that the 2009 United Nations climate summit in Copenhagen 
sparked a legitimacy crisis for global climate diplomacy, and reinforced the 
deadlock in negotiations as we head toward a potential new climate agreement in 
Paris 2015. At the same time, the emergence of governance innovations – clubs, 
subnational and transnational arrangements – alter the way in which climate 
governance is accessible, functioning and perceived today. New climate policies 
and institutions may provide new platforms to involve stakeholders, but may 
also exclude others by shifting centres of gravity towards specific policies or 
confined institutions, raising questions of accountability, representation and 
inclusion.

The purpose of this workshop is to offer the first systematic and comprehensive 
analysis of legitimacy in an increasingly complex climate governance landscape. 
Based on a broad concept that allows for different understandings and 
dimensions of legitimacy, we invite proposals – with a more theoretical focus 
as well as case studies – in the form of paper abstracts on the following 
themes and questions:

·      Taking stock: To what extent is the growingly complex climate governance 
architecture legitimate (in terms of normative legitimacy) or regarded as 
legitimate (in terms of sociological legitimacy) in normative or sociological 
terms? To what degree do new public and transnational institutions differ in 
terms of their normative or sociological legitimacy? How does the fragmented 
governance architecture comply with legal norms within the EU and beyond? And 
within this polycentric governance landscape, to what extent is the European 
Union perceived as a legitimate and effective climate leader with respect to 
its internal and external policies?  In methodological terms, how can we assess 
the standards – normative, sociological, and legal - against which the 
legitimacy of a complex governance landscape can be assessed?

·      Sources and Consequences:What are the sources of normative legitimacy by 
which new forms of climate governance should be measured? Which strategies of 
sociological legitimation or delegitimation are adopted in practice? How do 
policy innovation and polycentricity affect both the input and output 
legitimacy of the climate governance architecture? How does the emergence of 
governance innovations affect the legitimacy of established institutions, 
especially the UNFCCC?  To which degree has the design of governance 
innovations been shaped by the desire to increase sociological legitimacy? To 
what extent are institutions designed to meet or manage contested forms of 
legality across multi-level jurisdictions? How can we explain these 
developments with the help of theory-guided analysis from different 
disciplines? Which actors or objectives benefit from a changing climate 
governance landscape, and which ones might be disadvantaged?

·      New Directions: Which challenges does the growing polycentricity of 
climate governance set for prescriptive understandings of legitimacy? How can 
novel policies enhance different dimensions of legitimacy of the complex 
climate governance architecture? How can states or the EU provide 
legitimacy-building leadership in the polycentric system of climate governance, 
by acting in collective interests?



The workshop format allows for an intensive one-hour feedback for each 
submitted paper by a designated discussant and the other participants. To this 
end, we will restrict the number of papers for the workshop to 12-14, plus 
keynote speeches.

As a major product of this workshop, we plan a special issue in a prestigious 
academic journal in the field of international relations and / or global 
environmental governance. A second outcome will be a policy brief in which the 
convenors will summarize workshop results, including on novel policy options 
for enhancing legitimacy in global climate governance. Further details will be 
announced at the workshop.

To submit a proposal, send a 500 words abstract, a short biographical note, and 
full contact information by email to Ina Möller 
([email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>) before January 15, 2016. 
You may also indicate in your e-mail if you apply for travel funding of up to 
EUR 700 if you are based in a COST-INOGOV member 
country.[1]<applewebdata://A8EB1EC8-9A98-4B8A-8136-2AC8A1B230A4#_ftn1> But for 
limited cases, travel funding for participants from other countries is also 
available.

Authors will be informed of the outcomes of the review process by February 19, 
2016. Selected candidates are expected to send a complete version of their 
papers (between 6,000 and 10,000 words) by May 6, 2015 at the latest. Authors 
who fail to send their paper on time will be removed from the programme. Those 
authors interested in joining the envisaged special journal issue should 
provide final drafts of their contributions, based on the feedback they 
received at the workshop, by September 16, 2016.

Workshop organisers:

Dr. Fariborz Zelli, Associate Professor, Lund University

Professor Karin Bäckstrand, Stockholm University

Dr. Philip Schleifer, Max Weber Fellow, European University Institute



                       <mailto:[email protected]>



________________________________

[1]<applewebdata://A8EB1EC8-9A98-4B8A-8136-2AC8A1B230A4#_ftnref1> COST Action 
IS1309 INOGOV includes the following countries: Austria, Belgium, Croatia, 
Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, 
Ireland, Israel, Italy, Lithuania, Malta, The Netherlands, Norway, Poland, 
Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey United Kingdom.

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