Clumsy solutions for a complex world. Governance, politics and plural perceptions

Abstract

Clumsy Solutions for a Complex World is a powerful and original statement on why well-intended attempts to alleviate pressing social ills too often derail, and how effective, efficient and broadly acceptable solutions to social problems can be found. It takes its cue from the idea that our endlessly changing and complex social worlds consist of ceaseless interactions between organizing, justifying and perceiving social relations. Each time one of these perspectives is excluded from collective decision-making, governance failure inevitably results. Successful solutions are therefore creative combinations of four opposing ways of organizing and thinking. This book, jointly written by leading political scientists, anthropologists, economists, lawyers, sociologists, a geographer and an engineer, shows the force of these theoretically sophisticated, yet simple and practical ideas for a number of pressing issues from around the globe. The case for clumsiness / Marco Verweij [and others] -- Is the Kyoto Protocol merely irrelevant, or positively harmful, for the efforts to curb climate change? / Marco Verweij -- Hype and hydro (and, at last, some hope) in the Himalaya / Dipak Gyawali -- Segregation through anti-discrimination : how the Netherlands got divided again / Mark Bovens and Margo Trappenburg -- What Russia can learn from China in its transition to a market economy / Michael D. Intriligator, Janine R. Wedel and Catherine H. Lee -- The failure of seat belts legislation / John Adams -- Gunfight at the consequentialist corral : the deadlock in the United States over firearms control, and how to break it / Dan M. Kahan, Donald Braman and John Gastil -- Floods and fairness in Hungary / Joanne Linnerooth-Bayer, Anna Vári and Michael Thompson -- Inclusive by design : the curious case of the Internet / Tommy Tranvik and Michael Thompson -- You never miss the water till the well runs dry : crisis and creativity in California / Denise Lach, Helen Ingram and Steve Rayner -- Clumsy conclusions : how to do policy and research in a complex world / Marco Verweij, Michael Thompson and Christoph Engel.