ABSTRACT
Steering towards sustainability takes place in a dynamic political world. Nothing is static. Dynamism is, of course, an inherent feature of politics, but in contemporary liberal democracies we are witnessing change on many fronts. Actors and institutions are diversifying, rules and values are shifting, and political, market and social forces are evolving (Alexander, 1995; Kooiman, 1993). With these changes we have seen greater interdependencies between actors and institutions, as well as more uncertainties and ambiguities (Pierre, 2001; Rhodes, 1997). 1 Our starting point here is that these conditions are relevant not only to environmental matters but are symptoms of ongoing political modernization (Arts & van Tatenhove, 2004; Hajer, 2003). The question considered empirically in this contribution is: how does steering for sustainability work within this changing governance context?
