| Summary/Abstract |
The concept of governance has gained considerable attention over the last years. This is true for all parts of society, but very pronouncedly for space, where the increasing diversity of players is calling for ever better approaches to deal with the establishment and monitoring of policies and the management of humanity's most expansive global common. In this process, reference is almost always made to the term governance. In many cases, it is understood in rather specific technical and legal contexts, but it is also used very broadly and sometimes quite indiscriminately. In order to shed light on many of the hidden underlying dynamics of governance, the European Space Policy Institute (ESPI) addressed the topic at its 8th Autumn Conference on 11–12 September 2014. To capture the topic of governance from a wide variety of angles, speakers included representatives from space agencies, industry and academia – coming from different parts of the world. Main topics which were addressed during the conference included the relationship between space governance and international relations theory, the effects of liberalisation, regionalisation and geopolitics on space governance, and the evolution of space governance in the European context. This brief report captures the major findings of the two-day event and accentuates a number of trends recurring throughout the speakers' presentations.
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