14 Chapter 1 knowledge gap exists regarding how different conceptions of the future, as embedded in processes of anticipation, steer actions in the present to realize sustainability transformations (Vervoort & Gupta, 2018). Therefore, this thesis aims to examine how conceptions of the future steer governance actions to be taken in the present, and their implications for realizing sustainability transformations. This is done by examining anticipation processes in various sustainability domains and in diverse global contexts through the lens of anticipatory governance. I comprehensively analyze approaches to anticipatory governance in the literature and in practice and critically examine their implications for steering sustainability transformations in diverse contexts across the globe. Empirically, this thesis focuses on four regions in the Global South, since most research on anticipatory governance has focused on the Global North (Biermann & Möller, 2019; Vervoort & Gupta, 2018), although many parts of the Global South are highly vulnerable to challenges such as climate change (Adger & Vincent, 2005; Okereke, 2018). Therefore, researchers have called for a better representation of the diverse ways in which futures and pasts are imagined in the many socially, culturally, and politically diverse contexts of the world (Appadurai, 2013; Escobar, 2020). Such critique of Global Northern-focused future images complements calls for more equity and justice in global environmental governance (Kashwan et al., 2020; Okereke, 2006) and better representation in norm-setting institutions such as the SDGs (Sénit & Biermann, 2021), which are also crucial elements in light of the need for more inclusive and democratic anticipatory governance. 1.3. Research questions and structure The central question in this thesis is ‘How do conceptions of the future steer anticipatory governance actions in the present, and with what implications for realizing sustainability transformations?’ I break this main question up into four research sub-questions. The first question I ask is: ‘How do different approaches to anticipatory governance in the literature relate to practice?’ In answering this question, I address a theoretical knowledge gap by giving insight into how different theoretical strands conceive the future in processes of anticipation and their implications for steering actions in the present, as well as an empirical knowledge gap by examining how these understandings relate to anticipatory governance in practice in diverse sustainability contexts across the globe, beyond the Global North. The second question is: ‘Which approaches to anticipatory governance dominate and why?’ This question is important to understand underlying factors that explain why certain
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