2016 Articles

Private Mainstreaming: Using Contracts to Promote Organizational and Institutional Adaptation

Keenan, Jesse M.

This article develops the concept of 'Private Mainstreaming,' which is a process for developing intra-organizational capacities to horizontally identify, manage and diffuse value-add innovation primarily through the utilization of contracts. Private Mainstreaming is an extension of the concept of 'Public Mainstreaming' wherein climate policies are horizontally integrated across a variety of divisions and agencies with the intent to build cross-linkages across heterogeneous actors based on the emergence of common values and language. While adaptation scholarship has focused almost exclusively on public law and policy, understanding the nature and mechanisms of private sector adaptation through contracts is critical to understanding larger dimensions of socio-ecological and institutional adaptation. This article sets the stage for future research into the operationalization of organizational mainstreaming in the promotion of more robust adaptive capacities in the private sector.