Abstract
One of the many master courses taught at Tilburg University is the Master Public Governance (located within Tilburg Law School). Within this master a course is offered on ‘The governance of societal and environmental transitions’. This course focuses on theoretical debates, practical problems, and policies regarding the governance, implementation and acceleration of crucial transitions in the societal and environmental domains. It discusses the need for those transitions and the essential preconditions for successful transitions from the perspectives
of key stakeholders, including citizens, government, business organizations and various partnerships and networks at the various governance levels, with an emphasis on the regional and local level.
The starting point is the international concept of well-being, or 'broad prosperity' (brede welvaart in Dutch). In short, ‘that which makes life worthwhile’, as Robert Kennedy put it in a famous campaign speech in 1968. Well-being has three dimensions: well-being in the here and now, well-being later, i.e. for future generations, and well-being elsewhere, i.e. in other countries. Broad prosperity is also the starting point of Tilburg University as an institution for its role in society (see the annex C to these student reports).
The argument here is that maintaining or strengthening well-being requires nothing less than fundamental social transitions, sometimes also referred to as transformations. The necessity of these transitions has not always been recognized in a timely manner, and furthermore there is no unequivocal recognition and acceptance in society of the need and the extent to make
transitions. Moreover, it is clear that there might be losers and winners in transitions, at least in the short term, and that the costs and benefits of transitions differ for social groups. For this reason, it is important that transitions are not only made efficient, but also fair and 'just'.
The course starts with defining and understanding the concepts of well-being and transitions from a theoretical, governance and organizational perspective. Important here is that both concepts go beyond the traditional definition of social progress as measured by Gross Domestic Product (GDP, in Dutch: Bruto Binnenlands Product) as a traditional measure of such performance and progress.
Following international (United Nations, OECD), national and regional trends, we adopt a broad social, ecological, health, and economic perspective on well-being and transitions. Moreover, the course introduces tools and techniques for the application of the perspective in policymaking and decision-making. The rationale of the course is that students are likely to be expected to work with the well-being perspective and get engaged, one way or another, with key
societal and environmental transitions in their further careers. We expect that the insights and tools dealt with in this course will be useful for that purpose.
In the lectures we confront and compare the governmental perspective on transitions with that of companies, including corporate principles such as ESG. Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) is short for an investing principle that prioritizes environmental issues, social issues, and corporate governance. Investing with ESG considerations is sometimes referred to as responsible investing or, in more proactive cases, impact investing. We also take into the
account the perspectives of societal actors and citizens.
In the tutorials during the academic year 2024/2025 a very relevant and nearby case stood center-stage, i.e. the case of the Brainport region (or Metropole Region Eindhoven), less than 40 kilometers from our university. Due to the fast expansion of the high tech industry in this region, notably the growth of the major semi-conductor company ASML which is not only requiring more space but also recruiting high numbers of expats, societal and environmental transitions need to be accelerated to prevent further pressure on social cohesion, health care, education, housing and the environment. Can a world class industry go hand in hand with a world class society, or is a trade-off inevitable?
The question at stake is how to accelerate these transitions (or schaalsprong, scale jump, as the region calls it). Is this even possible, considering that the respective transitions were already hard to make (not only in this region)? What are the governance, organizational, financial, legal, technical, environmental, social and other 'accelerators' that can enable this process? And what
are the effects on neighboring regions and perhaps also nationally?
Within the course we were very happy to welcome guest lecturers from five key stakeholders in the Brainport region: Brainport Development, Brainport voor Elkaar (Brainport Together), the Metropole Region Eindhoven (an association of 21 municipalities), the ASML Company and the Municipality of Eindhoven. The guest lectures gave excellent presentations on important themes, initiatives and dilemma’s with respect to the developments in the Brainport region. They interacted with the students by giving them micro-assignments during the lectures. At the same time we formed student teams that were asked, as a group assignment, to further study important areas of transition in the Brainport region, providing both an analysis and conclusions and recommendations. The four areas that were chosen are the following: the labor market, health, social cohesion and housing. This publication contains the four reports on these areas.
As coordinators of the course we are proud that our students really made an effort to contribute to the debate and even more to the practice of good transitions in the Brainport region. A summary in Dutch of the most important
recommendations from the reports is included in annex B.
Ton Wilthagen and Ronald Lievens
of key stakeholders, including citizens, government, business organizations and various partnerships and networks at the various governance levels, with an emphasis on the regional and local level.
The starting point is the international concept of well-being, or 'broad prosperity' (brede welvaart in Dutch). In short, ‘that which makes life worthwhile’, as Robert Kennedy put it in a famous campaign speech in 1968. Well-being has three dimensions: well-being in the here and now, well-being later, i.e. for future generations, and well-being elsewhere, i.e. in other countries. Broad prosperity is also the starting point of Tilburg University as an institution for its role in society (see the annex C to these student reports).
The argument here is that maintaining or strengthening well-being requires nothing less than fundamental social transitions, sometimes also referred to as transformations. The necessity of these transitions has not always been recognized in a timely manner, and furthermore there is no unequivocal recognition and acceptance in society of the need and the extent to make
transitions. Moreover, it is clear that there might be losers and winners in transitions, at least in the short term, and that the costs and benefits of transitions differ for social groups. For this reason, it is important that transitions are not only made efficient, but also fair and 'just'.
The course starts with defining and understanding the concepts of well-being and transitions from a theoretical, governance and organizational perspective. Important here is that both concepts go beyond the traditional definition of social progress as measured by Gross Domestic Product (GDP, in Dutch: Bruto Binnenlands Product) as a traditional measure of such performance and progress.
Following international (United Nations, OECD), national and regional trends, we adopt a broad social, ecological, health, and economic perspective on well-being and transitions. Moreover, the course introduces tools and techniques for the application of the perspective in policymaking and decision-making. The rationale of the course is that students are likely to be expected to work with the well-being perspective and get engaged, one way or another, with key
societal and environmental transitions in their further careers. We expect that the insights and tools dealt with in this course will be useful for that purpose.
In the lectures we confront and compare the governmental perspective on transitions with that of companies, including corporate principles such as ESG. Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) is short for an investing principle that prioritizes environmental issues, social issues, and corporate governance. Investing with ESG considerations is sometimes referred to as responsible investing or, in more proactive cases, impact investing. We also take into the
account the perspectives of societal actors and citizens.
In the tutorials during the academic year 2024/2025 a very relevant and nearby case stood center-stage, i.e. the case of the Brainport region (or Metropole Region Eindhoven), less than 40 kilometers from our university. Due to the fast expansion of the high tech industry in this region, notably the growth of the major semi-conductor company ASML which is not only requiring more space but also recruiting high numbers of expats, societal and environmental transitions need to be accelerated to prevent further pressure on social cohesion, health care, education, housing and the environment. Can a world class industry go hand in hand with a world class society, or is a trade-off inevitable?
The question at stake is how to accelerate these transitions (or schaalsprong, scale jump, as the region calls it). Is this even possible, considering that the respective transitions were already hard to make (not only in this region)? What are the governance, organizational, financial, legal, technical, environmental, social and other 'accelerators' that can enable this process? And what
are the effects on neighboring regions and perhaps also nationally?
Within the course we were very happy to welcome guest lecturers from five key stakeholders in the Brainport region: Brainport Development, Brainport voor Elkaar (Brainport Together), the Metropole Region Eindhoven (an association of 21 municipalities), the ASML Company and the Municipality of Eindhoven. The guest lectures gave excellent presentations on important themes, initiatives and dilemma’s with respect to the developments in the Brainport region. They interacted with the students by giving them micro-assignments during the lectures. At the same time we formed student teams that were asked, as a group assignment, to further study important areas of transition in the Brainport region, providing both an analysis and conclusions and recommendations. The four areas that were chosen are the following: the labor market, health, social cohesion and housing. This publication contains the four reports on these areas.
As coordinators of the course we are proud that our students really made an effort to contribute to the debate and even more to the practice of good transitions in the Brainport region. A summary in Dutch of the most important
recommendations from the reports is included in annex B.
Ton Wilthagen and Ronald Lievens
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Tilburg University |
| Number of pages | 61 |
| Publication status | Published - Jan 2025 |
Keywords
- transition
- Transition analysis
- Brainport Eindhoven
- labour market
- Talent
- health care
- social cohesion
- housing
- well-being
- Broad prosperity