Chairs
Sia Spiliopoulou Akermark sia.spiliopoulouakermark@abo.fi
Francesco Palermo francesco.palermo@eurac.edu
Elisabeth Alber elisabeth.alber@eurac.edu

In times when traditional democratic legitimacy is increasingly challenged, multi- level governance and federalism could be expected to be gaining momentum politically and scientifically, as they emphasize participation, separation of powers, subsidiarity and democratic accountability. Until now, however, research on federalism and other territorial governance institutions is mostly confined to collection and description of a limited number of case studies, while use of such tools is often seen as a means to avoid (further) conflicts by granting self- government arrangements to certain groups. Even though such work can be viewed as a necessary step, the present workshop poses the question whether and, if so, under which conditions, federalism, and more broadly symmetric and asymmetric territorial governance institutions, can be pragmatic and adaptable tools for governance, to practically deal and conceptually intersect with both institutional and societal pluralism, including in terms of diversity accommodation, demographic change, political cultures, democratic innovations, regional (and cross-border) mobilization, international agreements, and intergovernmental relations as well as environmental challenges.