How Do Meta-Organizations Make Grand Challenges Actionable? the Case of the Scientific Organization for the Prevention of Adverse Impacts on Vulnerable Marine Ecosystems
To answer this question, we look at a particular grand challenge and a specific type of meta-organization. We choose a grand challenge that has been on the UN agenda since at least 2004, but which has received relatively little public attention. This grand challenge is related to the oceans: the prevention of adverse impacts on vulnerable marine ecosystems (VMEs). The specific type of meta-organization we look at is one that generates knowledge on this topic and makes it available to political decision-makers.
We draw on a single case study and trace how the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea identify VMEs on behalf of its clients. Based on different components of organization as developed by Ahrne and Brunsson, we show how a comparatively abstract and ambiguous Grand Challenge is made actionable and what difficulties arise in this process.
The VME case is particularly suitable because the challenge appears relatively clear in abstract terms, but at the same time poses difficulties in terms of implementation: the definition and identification of VMEs are just as complicated and controversial as the measures to safeguard them. Not only political and scientific, but also economic and ecological actors influence this process. Such a constellation almost inevitably leads to ‘unsatisfactory’ compromise solutions, which are quickly criticized for good reasons, but on closer inspection turn out to be more ‘reasonable’ for equally good reasons than is sometimes portrayed. With this in mind, this presentation attempts to provide a rather sober account of organizational processes required for making grand challenges actionable.