Abstract
This article aims at contributing to governance conceptualization and its application to case study analyses. Two of the challenges which the theoretical and empirical work in the present article address concern a specification of universal dimensions of governance systems and an identification of selected mechanisms of governance formation and transformation – specifying a few key drivers that explain how governance systems are established, maintained or changed through power, knowledge, and contestation/conflict processes. These tools are applied to empirical cases of governance structures as well as cases of governance transformation.