Der Band thematisiert die Beziehungen zwischen Governance, Partizipation und Demokratie und stellt die Ergebnisse eines von der EU geförderten Forschungsprojektes vor. Dabei ging es um die Frage, unter welchen Bedingungen partizipative Entscheidungsprozesse zu nachhaltigen und innovativen Ergebnissen führen. Inhalt: Introduction: Hubert Heinelt: Achieving Sustainable and Innovative Policies through Participatory Governance in a Multi-level Context (17-32). The Theoretical Debate: Bob Jessop: Governance and Meta-governance in the Face of Complexity: On the roles of Requisite Variety, Reflexive Observation, and Romantic Irony in Participatory Governance (33-58); Rainer Schmalz-Bruns: The Normative Desirability of Participatory Governance (59-74); Roland Roth: Participatory Governance and urban Citizenship (75-82); Thomas Saretzki: Technological Governance - Technological Citizenship? (83-105). The Empirical Arena: Erik Swyngedouw / Ben Page / Maria Kaïka: Sustainability and Policy Innovation in a Multi-Level Context: Crosscutting Issues in the Water Sector (107-131); Brita Meinke: EMAS: An Instrument for Realising Sustainable Innovations? Messages from Empirical Research (133-153). Conclusion: Panos Getimis / Grigoris Kafkalas: Empirical Evidence and Comparative Analysis of Policy-making in the Pursuit of Innovation and Sustainability (155-171).