Agency in Earth System Governance

‘Scholars in political science, international relations, legal studies, public administration, anthropology, sociology, geography, and ecology will find in this work an instructive literature review and valuable instrument for theory building.’ M. Gunter Jr., Choice

Michele M. Betsill is a professor of Political Science at Colorado State University. She has more than twenty years’ experience in researching non-state and sub-national actors in global environmental governance. Her books include Transnational Climate Change Governance (co-authored with members of the Leverhulme Network on Transnational Climate Change Governance, Cambridge, 2014), NGO Diplomacy: The Influence of Nongovernmental Organizations in International Environmental Negotiations (co-edited with Elisabeth Corell, 2007), and Cities and Climate Change: Urban Sustainability and Global Environmental Governance (with Harriet Bulkeley, 2002). She was one of the founding leaders of the Earth System Governance Research Network and served on the scientific steering committee from 2008-18.

Tabitha M. Benney is an assistant professor in the University of Utah’s Department of Political Science and affiliated faculty in the Environmental and Sustainability Studies Program and the Center on Global Change and Sustainability. Her research focuses on mapping interactions within complex coupled systems. She is also a research fellow for the Earth Research Governance Network and an affiliated researcher with the Evolving Securities Initiative (ESI) at the University of Cape Town, South Africa. Her books include Making Environmental Markets Work: The Varieties of Capitalism in Emerging Economies (2014) and Toward a New Energy Future with Jan Froestad, Cameron Holley and Clifford Shearling (forthcoming).

Andrea K. Gerlak is an associate professor at the School of Geography and Development and research professor with the Udall Center for Studies in Public Policy at the University of Arizona. Her research examines the causes of - and innovative solutions to - some of our world’s most pressing water problems. Her work focuses on how we can better design institutions to promote adaptive, flexible policies to improve human and ecosystem well-being and produce fair and equitable decisions. She is the author of Mapping the New World Order (co-authored with Thomas J. Volgy, Zlatko Sabič and Petra Roter, 2009). She is a research fellow with the Earth System Governance project and a lead author of the ‘Earth System Governance Science and Implementation Plan’ (2018).