by Christopher Galik

Times are changing. Rapidly. New, increasingly complex environmental problems continue to emerge. Yet, it would seem that the tools we have to manage that environment often lag behind the need.

In our recent article published in Policy & Politics, Institutional stability and change in environmental governance, we set out to better understand if, how, and why existing governing frameworks—or, as we call them, institutions—seem to persist.

Institutions can be defined as ‘integrated systems of rules that structure social interactions‘. We can think of these institutions as both the formal laws that govern management of a particular environmental problem or resource, but also the informal norms and understandings that influence the ways we interpret and implement those laws. There is a rich body of research that can help us how to understand how and why these institutions might change. On the flip side, much less attention has been paid to why these institutions might stay the same.

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