Practices of connecting knowledge and governance: Case studies in the Dutch Wadden Sea

This research project has as its starting point the diagnosis that science and policy in the Wadden Sea area are insufficiently attuned or connected to one another. We investigate this diagnosed mismatch from the perspective of governance. In the last decade, many governance processes have emerged in the Dutch Wadden Sea, for instance in the domains of mussel fisheries and recreation. These processes are characterized by collaborative agreements between governmental and societal actors, the formation of collaborative and knowledge-sharing networks, and interdependent relations between the actors involved. We argue that recent shifts in modes of governance have consequences for the ways in which connections between knowledge and policy can be optimized. In order to investigate these consequences, we study the co-production of knowledge within collaborative knowledge – governance practices in the Dutch Wadden Sea area. These are practices in which knowledge and governance are connected to each other in the collaborative work between policy-makers, experts and stakeholders. We study these practices both in terms of their formation as a ‘policy arrangement’ and in terms of the different ‘knowledge systems’ of different groups of actors that are involved. The aim of the research is to identify factors and conditions that are of influence on the stability of knowledge – governance practices. This presentation focuses on our approach towards studying the connections between knowledge and governance, and sheds light on some tentative findings from the exploratory phase of the research project.