Democracy and Governance for Resourcing the Commons: Theory and Practice on Rural-Urban Balance (Contemporary Systems Thinking)

This book promotes the well-being of the commons through representation and accountability through monitoring from below in order to operationalize engagement. This book views the commons as a legal concept, a transformative governance concept, and a basis for systemic ethics. The chapters focus on practical responses to address complex problems that comprise many interrelated variables and are perceived differently by stakeholders with different values and life experiences. By considering these different stakeholders, the goal is to highlight ways to regenerate and invigorate employment opportunities. The book identifies pathways towards ethical vocational education to enable lifelong engagement by active citizens which requires action learning to address areas of perceived policy concern. Throughout the chapters in this book, the authors discuss transformative research and its implications on stakeholders. They focus on re-presentation and its implications for thinking and practice.One author makes the case for fostering non anthropocentric approaches to ethical development. In addition, the chapters cover case studies including governance challenges associated with water management using a mixed method approach and also production of mushrooms in collaboration with coffee growers in Jakarta. The book focuses on ways to de-colonialise knowledge formation in public policy and makes the case for an alternative approach to governance and democracy that takes into account a range of local people’s perspectives.  

Janet McIntyre-Mills, Flinders University (nee Mills; publish as McIntyre-Mills) is Associate Professor at Flinders University, Honorary Professor at the University of South Africa in the College of Education, Training and Youth Development, an Adjunct Professor at the University of Indonesia. The adjunct appointments recognize over 30 years’ experience in policy research addressing complex social challenges.   Her recent research addresses non anthropocentric policy for living systems. In 2017 her volumes for the Springer Contemporary Systems Series address the challenge to re-generate living systems. The sole authored volume is  entitled: ‘Planetary Passport for Representation, Accountability and Re-Generation  and the edited volume together with Professors Romm and Corcoran Nantes is entitled:  ‘Balancing Individualism and Collectivism: Social and Environmental Justice’. The latter comprises collected papers from the Special Integration Group for International Systems Sciences which McIntyre chairs together with 16 international contributors, including early career researchers. The research seeks a better balance across social, cultural, political, economic and environmental interspecies concerns to ensure a sustainable future for current and future generations. The ecological citizen uses a ‘planetary passport’ to track the distribution and redistribution of resources in the interests of social and environmental justice. Engagement links high level challenges with individual perspectives, facilitating nuanced investigation of the complex ethical challenge of closing the gap in life chances. The central argument looks for ways to hold the powerful to account so as to enable virtuous living by the majority in a ‘planetary passport’ that demonstrates a careful use of resources and a way to protect habitat for living systems.