ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the limits of a concept of network governance solely based on self-organization for implementing sustainable development policies. Indeed, as extensive research on self-organizing solutions to the management of common resources has shown, the sustainability of these initiatives depends on background beliefs in the broader institutional environment in which the networks are operating. The network governance approach adopted in the European Commission's White Paper on governance relies on self-organization. This approach does in fact aim to reform our modes of governance, by delegating a number of tasks to networks of self-regulated actors who negotiate their own collective coordination agreements. The ambivalence of the environmental self-regulation policies of the European Commission's Fifth Environmental action Programme. The aim was to organize environmental self-regulation through a set of incentive mechanisms such as eco-labels, voluntary agreements and environmental management systems.
