Current post
Systems thinking in public policy: Making space to think differently
By Catherine Hobbs
Why does public policy go wrong? How can researchers who are systems thinkers begin to create the conditions in which those involved in public policy may flourish within their possible spheres of ‘horizontal’ influence?
The public policy context and why it goes wrong
Jake Chapman’s System Failure: Why Governments Must Learn to Think Differently (2002; 2004) remains a much-quoted report. In his second (2004) edition, however, Chapman reflects that, despite an enthusiastic reception, there had been “very little substantive shift in either policy or management styles within government” (2004: p.10). Chapman identified a number of difficulties, including:
Recent posts
What transdisciplinary researchers should know about evaluation: Origins and current state
By Wolfgang Beywl and Amy Gullickson
2. Amy Gullickson (biography)
Efforts to develop evaluation in transdisciplinary research have mostly been conducted without reference to the evaluation literature, effectively re-inventing and re-discussing key concepts. What do transdisciplinary researchers need to know to build on the in-depth knowledge available in evaluation science?
Here we add to other key contributions about evaluation in i2Insights, especially:
– Belcher and colleagues, who provide a tool for evaluating transdisciplinary research
Multidisciplinary perspectives on unknown unknowns
By Gabriele Bammer
This is part of a series of occasional “synthesis blog posts” drawing together perspectives on related topics across i2Insights contributions.
How can different disciplines and practitioners enhance the ability to understand and manage unknown unknowns, also referred to as deep uncertainty?
Seventeen blog posts have addressed these issues, covering:
- how unknown unknowns can be understood
- exploiting unknown unknowns
- accepting unknown unknowns
- reducing unknown unknowns.
Stakeholder engagement: Learning from Arnstein’s ladder and the IAP2 spectrum
By Gabriele Bammer
What can researchers interested in stakeholder engagement learn from two classic frameworks on citizen involvement in government decision making – Arnstein’s ladder and the IAP2 (International Association for Public Participation) spectrum of public participation?
Arnstein’s ladder
Sherry Arnstein (1969) developed an eight-rung ladder, shown in the figure below, to illustrate that there are significant gradations of citizen participation in government decision making.
Pause… How art and literature can transform transdisciplinary research
By Jane Palmer and Dena Fam
2. Dena Fam (biography)
What might make us stop and think differently about the ways in which we interact with our environment and others, human and nonhuman? What kind of knowing about acute threats to the natural environment will sufficiently motivate action?
We suggest that art and literature can offer us a pause in which we might, firstly, imagine other less anthropocentric ways of being in the world, and secondly, a way into Basarab Nicolescu’s “zone of non-resistance” (2014, p. 192), where we become truly open to new transdisciplinary forms of collaboration.
Highlighted posts
Ten insights on the interplay between evidence and policy
By Kat Smith and Paul Cairney
2. Paul Cairney (biography)
How can we improve the way we think about the relationship between evidence and policy? What are the key insights that existing research provides?
1. Evidence does not tell us what to do
It helps reduce uncertainty, but does not tell us how we should interpret problems or what to do about them.
2. There is no such thing as ‘the evidence’
Instead, there is a large number of researchers with different backgrounds, making different assumptions, asking different questions, using different methods, and addressing different problems.
HIBAR research: What is it and how can it be reinvigorated?
By Lorne A. Whitehead, Scott H. Slovic and Janet E. Nelson
2. Scott H. Slovic (biography)
3. Janet E. Nelson (biography)
How can we recognize and encourage investigations that holistically fuse fundamental and applied research on a problem of interest in a manner that is both (a) integrative and recursive and (b) highly collaborative with non-university experts?
Recognition
We refer to this form of research as “Highly Integrative Basic And Responsive” (HIBAR). It adds deep university-society engagement to the work that Donald Stokes named “Pasteur’s quadrant” (Stokes 1997) and others have called “use-inspired basic research”.
Transdisciplinary action research: A guiding framework for collaboration
By Steven Lam, Michelle Thompson, Kathleen Johnson, Cameron Fioret and Sarah Hargreaves
How can graduate students work productively with each other and community partners? Many researchers and practitioners are engaging in transdisciplinarity, yet there is surprisingly little critical reflection about the processes and outcomes of transdisciplinarity, particularly from the perspectives of graduate students and community partners who are increasingly involved.
Implementation during a time of crisis: The critical role of trusting relationships
By Allison Metz
Are there lessons we can learn from the current response of service systems which have galvanized into action to meet the needs of children and families during the COVID-19 pandemic? How does the response of service systems affect our hypotheses about how change happens at scale?
In my professional role providing implementation support to public service systems, I’ve observed these systems responding to the COVID-19 pandemic with urgency and agility. The urgency is to be expected, but the agility has inspired me.
The agility runs counter to accepted wisdom in implementation science that implementation takes time. Depending on the scope and complexity of the change effort, it can take up to five years for initiatives to reach full implementation.