The Elusive Boundary: A Study on Institutional Evolution of Cross-border Sustainable Governance
Date Issued
2005
Date
2005
Author(s)
Lin, Hsi-Chuan
DOI
zh-TW
Abstract
The Elusive Boundary:
A Study on Institutional Evolution of Cross-border Sustainable Governance
Lin, Hsi-Chuan
A Doctoral Dissertation from the Graduate Institute of Building and Planning, National Taiwan University
Abstract
Sustainable development has become a popular policy-issue worldwide since the latter years of the 20th century. Nevertheless, it has been problematic and paradoxical in puting such a popular policy approach into practice. Especially, the cross-border problems of environmental development at different scale levels have forcefully defied and challenged conventional political institutions. Basically, they are both issues of environment development and the question how to make democracy work efficiently. Therefore, this research attempts to explore the social and political significances hidden in the phenomena of cross-border governance in order to understand both the possibility of implementing sustainable development and democratic governance in human society. The study explores this possibility through studying four domestic cases that possess preliminary experiences of cross-border governance. Adopting a methodology of hermeneutics and an approach of life politics to understand the phenomena of institution, the study pays much attention to capture the intentionality with which the institutional participants realize the meanings of the life world and institutional experiences. That is, the study tries to realize how institutional participants understand the significances of their actions and the relationships between their actions and social structures. Thus the author could comprehend its social psychology and better understand the sources of new institutional evolution.
After investigating the institutional experiences of the four cases, this study clarifies the human-geographical relationship in cross-border events, finds the key agencies that prompt the evolution of cross-border governance institutions, and appreciates the new meanings of boundaries that are the basis of creating and interpreting a new space of governance. Moreover, the study also discovers the profound implications of the dialectical relationships between nation and society, the modern and postmodern, as well as people and environment in the phenomena of the elusive boundary. These dialectical meanings are exactly where the structural predicaments and chances lie for the possibility of sustainable governance. Furthermore, the thesis offers two theoretical propositions: “a theory of deep integration in sustainable practicing” and “the revolving wheel model of democratic governance”, to elaborate on the possibility. Finally, based on the inspirations from the four cases, the author makes suggestions relevant to the environmental planning and governance in this country.
Keywords: cross-border, sustainable governance, democratic governance, hermeneutics, integration, life politics, institution, postmodern
Subjects
後現代
體制
永續治理
跨界
民主治理
詮釋學
生活政治
postmodern
institution
integration
life politics
hermeneutics
democratic governance
sustainable governance
cross-border
Type
thesis