Policy learning in crisis governance: translating narratives and reframing actions for co-evolving futures

Abstract

ABSTRACT Most policy learning literature assumes identifiable lessons, comparable points of consideration, transferable solutions, and expectable performative changes. However, all these assumptions are challenged in the context of crises, where complexity makes learning across contexts difficult, if not impossible. This article aims to bring in policy learning from critical perspectives. It argues that, in the face of complexity, policy learning that can support crisis governance is instead an internal process involving the translation of lessons and the co-evolution of interrelated actors. In this lens, policy learning goes beyond the conventional understanding of lessons, drawing on actual practices within the learning loops of the particular policy cycle. Such loops and cycles, in this view, are not truly present. Grounded in Hyogo, Japan’s empowered participatory governance in responding to the crisis, policy learning is instead a complex everyday practice for translating narratives about past actions that, in turn, help frame future directions. With that framework, it can stimulate the co-evolution of state and societal actors without clear changing points, leading to more robust governing practices.