Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-sh8wx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-19T06:29:21.367Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

4 - Designing environments for experimentation, learning and innovation in public policy and governance

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2024

Arwin van Buuren
Affiliation:
Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam
Jenny M. Lewis
Affiliation:
University of Melbourne
B. Guy Peters
Affiliation:
University of Pittsburgh
Get access

Summary

Introduction

Research on how the public sector can become more innovative and deliver public value more effectively and efficiently has proliferated over the past two decades (Borins, 2014). Most of this research focuses on innovations in policies and instruments. Moore and Hartley (2008) argue that an important but still understudied category is innovation in governance. Institutional arrangements for nominating complex public problems, developing multi-agency responses and evaluating societal outcomes can themselves be innovations.

Given the complexities of reconciling perspectives and interests across institutions and sectors, designing innovations in governance to achieve improved social outcomes is challenging (Bardach, 2001; Cels et al, 2012; Forrer et al, 2014). Ansell and Torfing (2014) highlight the importance of setting the right conditions for design processes in collaborative governance contexts. Working in collaborative governance arrangements requires much more attention to questions of composition, role and structure than in traditional government, where these questions are mostly settled and the focus is primarily on policies and instruments. It remains unclear, though, what conditions are conducive to the design of innovative governance arrangements, and how to create them.

Recent design science research has advanced our understanding of the value of design thinking and using the design process for public policy innovations (Bason, 2010; 2017). Existing work tends to focus either on conceptual and theoretical explorations of design processes (Dorst, 2011; Howlett, 2014; Mintrom and Luetjens, 2016) or on case studies (Hillgren et al, 2011; Bryson et al, 2013). It does not formulate and test propositions about the conditions for effective design in today's collaborative governance contexts. Simultaneously, collaborative governance theorists have explored conditions influencing the success of collaborative processes (Ansell and Gash, 2008; Emerson et al, 2012), but this work does not say whether these conditions are conducive for collaborative innovation engaged in policy design nor how to change these conditions in a dynamic design environment.

Bason (2010: 19) claims that for public sector innovation, ‘random incrementalism still seems to be the rule rather than the exception. New thinking often happens by chance and against the odds, and the potential of a more conscious, strategic and systematic approach to innovation across public organisations and sectors is not realised’.

Type
Chapter
Information
Policy-Making as Designing
The Added Value of Design Thinking for Public Administration and Public Policy
, pp. 72 - 97
Publisher: Bristol University Press
Print publication year: 2023

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×