Preface:

Abstract

We make our own history but we do not choose it. An indication of this statement is the fact that policy and public debate are primarily concerned with problems that arise from past economic, political, scientific and technological activities. Unemployment, social disintegration, ecological destabilisation, globalisation, migration, and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction are all examples of systemic effects of past decisions that individuals and collectives made to deal with problems for the actors concerned. Successively, the central and most pressing problems of modern society are those which are caused by the side effects of past problemsolving. Cognitive and institutional patterns of society build up around these problems. Their consequences bring about adaptations, and capacities are developed to restore where possible. Social policy, innovation assessment, environmental policy, humanitarian and development aid represent examples. The notion of reflexive modernisation as developed by Beck, Giddens and other authors captures this dynamism through a reconceptualisation of society which spirals around itself, stumbles over its own feet, and busies itself with self-created problems rather than heroically conquering the world, unfolding civilisation, and progressing towards truth and ideal order. The insight of reflexive modernisation gives rise to an understanding of societal development in which instrumental rationality and the search for best solutions take on an uncertain direction in shaping the course of societal development. If progress gets overthrown by unintended side effects, the ideals of certain knowledge, unambiguous evaluation as well as planning and control become revealed as illusionary. Governance practices, which are based on these illusions, appear as problem producers rather than problem solvers. An alternative orientation for governance is needed – as are new methods that can fill the gap which scientific prediction, analytic assessment, and control-oriented management approaches have left. Like society in general, governance is also thrown back on itself and forced to reflect its cognitive and institutional foundations in the idea of modernisation. But what could an alternative understanding and respective strategies and practices look like which might create a better future? This is the topic that this book confronts. It explores the concept of reflexive governance as a course for the shaping of societal development,