The idea for this book emerged gradually. In 1989, in my inaugural address at the University of Amsterdam, I made the case for a less solution-oriented and relatively more problem-oriented approach in the discipline of public administration. I introduced the problem typology, which also organises this book; and on this basis proposed a more problem-oriented heuristic for policy design by arguing from problem sensing through problem definition to problem solving.

Two decades and many publications later, these seminal ideas have worked their way into the discourse, and some of the practice for policy making in the Dutch public sector. For example, the problem typology and its implications for practical policy making were spelled out in guidelines for interactive technology assessment, published in 1997 by the Rathenau Institute (Grin, Van de Graaf and Hoppe, 1997). Later, the problem types were included as a tool for policy/risk analysis in the Dutch Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) and the (then) Environment and Nature Assessment Agency's (MNP) (2003) joint Guidance for uncertainty assessment and communication (van der Sluijs et al, 2003). More recently, the problem typology and the notion of more problem-oriented policy making organises and informs the Scientific Council for Government Policy's advice entitled Learning government. The case for problem-oriented politics (Lerende overheid: Een pleidooi voor probleemgerichte politiek) (WRR, 2006).

It was only logical, then, to think that it might be useful to put all my major, single- as well as co-authored, publications on this theme between the covers of one book. A research leave grant by the Dutch Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) ‘Shifts in Governance’ research programme offered the opportunity to start writing; a subsequent sabbatical leave granted me the time to finish a first draft. Although the title The governance of problems was in my mind from the very beginning, only while writing it did it dawn on me that doing the concept full justice implied much more than just updating earlier publications and writing some new connecting texts. Thus, from a mere rearrangement of previous publications, the book evolved into its present shape: a sustained reflection on the Lasswellian idea of a problem-oriented policy analysis adapted to governance for the 21st century; and a policy analysis adapted to today's vastly more complex practices of boundary work between science, society, policy and politics.