ABSTRACT
In a world where groups, organizations, and countries are simultaneously fragmenting and integrating, where the two contrary forces are pervasive, interactive, and feed on each other, are the resulting tensions subject to governance? If the deaths of time, distance, and sequentiality are taken seriously, can they operate as stimuli to a renewal of creative thought about what governance may mean in the twenty-first century? Can multi-level governance serve as a prime mechanism to steer the tensions in constructive directions? Except for qualifying the “multilevel” concept, the ensuing paper answers these questions in the affirmative and addresses them in the context of continuing processes that are disaggregating authority, rendering traditional boundaries increasingly obsolete, and fostering strong and widespread demands for governance.
