Environmental Governance through Partnerships

Reviews / Votes

'Taking sustainable development as its central substantive area of concern, this important new book offers a compelling portrait of the global partnership regime in all its richness and complexity, revealing its logics of emergence and operation. Mert demonstrates the analytical and critical power of an antiessentialist discourse theoretical approach to the study of partnerships, examining a number of crucial mediating discourses drawn from economics, democratic theory and ecology. Her work embodies what all such studies aspire to be: an ontological and not merely an ontical inquiry. The novel concepts developed - particularly "sedimentation of conflict" - makes this a potentially transformative study.' -- Jason Glynos, University of Essex, UK 'Mert's book offers a highly provocative treatment of public-private collaboration for sustainability. It follows the discourses of privatization, participation and sustainable development through the language and practices of the partnerships adopted at the World Summit for Sustainable Development. As such, the study opens a fresh inquiry on the discursive battles that surround new forms of environmental governance and their fit with broader norms of representation and effectiveness.' -- Liliana B. Andonova, Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva 'In sum, this volume is an important and timely step forward in our understanding of the emergence and legitimacy of public-private partnerships for sustainable development. The book's contribution is both theoretically refreshing, innovative and empirically well-grounded in a deep analysis of major global discourses. Given the still ongoing discussions on multisectoral partnerships in the UN system, this book offers important new perspectives on this partnership idea that will be valuable for both political theorists and policy practitioners.' -- From the foreword by Frank Biermann