TY - JOUR
T1 - Towards a global list of accepted species IV
T2 - Overcoming fragmentation in the governance of taxonomic lists
AU - Lien, Aaron M.
AU - Conix, Stijn
AU - Zachos, Frank E.
AU - Christidis, Les
AU - van Dijk, Peter Paul
AU - Bánki, Olaf S.
AU - Barik, Saroj K.
AU - Buckeridge, John S.
AU - Costello, Mark John
AU - Hobern, Donald
AU - Montgomery, Narelle
AU - Nikolaeva, Svetlana
AU - Pyle, Richard L.
AU - Thiele, Kevin
AU - Thomson, Scott A.
AU - Zhang, Zhi Qiang
AU - Garnett, Stephen T.
N1 - Funding Information:
This paper is one of a series published by the IUBS Working Group on the Governance of Taxonomic Lists. We are grateful for funding and support from the International Union of Biological Sciences and its Executive Officer Nathalie Fomproix, and administration of the grant by Roanne Ramsey (Charles Darwin University). Stijn Conix gratefully acknowledges funding from the Research Council Flanders (FWO Grant 3H200026).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021, Gesellschaft für Biologische Systematik.
Copyright:
Copyright 2021 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2021/12
Y1 - 2021/12
N2 - Governance is the act of governing or organizing, that is a system of rules, norms, or shared strategies to guide or regulate the actions of the governed. Since the initial development of Linnaean taxonomy, a diversity of approaches have been adopted for critical taxonomic decisions, introducing pluralism to taxonomic principles and resulting in disagreements about the development of species lists. These disagreements are in part a product of the fragmented governance structure that has developed for the creation of taxonomic lists. To address these challenges and achieve the goal of a single, accepted list of life on Earth, a new governance structure for the development of taxonomic lists is needed. Here, we introduce three high-level categories of governance structure—fragmentation, monocentric governance, and polycentric governance—which differ in the way decision-making power is distributed and coordinated. We then show the problems caused by the fragmented governance structure currently in place for the development of taxonomic lists and consider the potential for a new approach grounded in either monocentric or polycentric governance. Both monocentric and polycentric approaches have the potential to address the problems inherent in the existing fragmented system. Ultimately, the best governance system for taxonomic lists will be the one that the taxonomic community is prepared to accept.
AB - Governance is the act of governing or organizing, that is a system of rules, norms, or shared strategies to guide or regulate the actions of the governed. Since the initial development of Linnaean taxonomy, a diversity of approaches have been adopted for critical taxonomic decisions, introducing pluralism to taxonomic principles and resulting in disagreements about the development of species lists. These disagreements are in part a product of the fragmented governance structure that has developed for the creation of taxonomic lists. To address these challenges and achieve the goal of a single, accepted list of life on Earth, a new governance structure for the development of taxonomic lists is needed. Here, we introduce three high-level categories of governance structure—fragmentation, monocentric governance, and polycentric governance—which differ in the way decision-making power is distributed and coordinated. We then show the problems caused by the fragmented governance structure currently in place for the development of taxonomic lists and consider the potential for a new approach grounded in either monocentric or polycentric governance. Both monocentric and polycentric approaches have the potential to address the problems inherent in the existing fragmented system. Ultimately, the best governance system for taxonomic lists will be the one that the taxonomic community is prepared to accept.
KW - Fragmented governance
KW - Knowledge commons
KW - Monocentric governance
KW - Polycentric governance
KW - Taxonomic lists
KW - Taxonomy
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85110682096&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s13127-021-00499-8
DO - 10.1007/s13127-021-00499-8
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85110682096
VL - 21
SP - 645
EP - 655
JO - Organisms Diversity and Evolution
JF - Organisms Diversity and Evolution
SN - 1439-6092
IS - 4
ER -