Professor, author and former Dutch Minister of Housing, Spatial Planning and Environment Jacqueline Cramer has been a frontrunner in advancing the circular transition in the Netherlands through an approach she refers to as network governance. With network governance, she refers to a way of building coalitions of the willing, where each partner fulfils a specific function and where the alignment through transition brokers, enable both worlds, public and private, to strengthen the positive forces in society (Cramer, 2020).

While her experience and examples relate to the circular economy, they are just as applicable to other systemic challenges in the broad sphere of societal change. In her book How Network Governance Powers the Circular Economy, Cramer shares ten guiding principles for bottom-up circular initiatives that should figure as additions to conventional public governance processes. Cramer describes a focused, iterative process that she has now applied in several areas, for example, the concrete and clothing industry in the Netherlands.

When Cramer describes the coalition of the willing, she points to the importance of including willing and able individuals in systemic change processes representing the sector where changes need to be made.