Policy Deliberations Research Articles

ISSUES, QUESTIONS AND COMMENTARIES IN; Origins of Policy, Theories of Policy Cycle, Qualitative – Interpretive Methods in Policy Research, Deliberative Policy Analysis, Street-Level Bureaucracy, Managing Policy Networks, Advocacy Coalition Framework, Managing the Commons and Policy Decision-Making

ISSUES, QUESTIONS AND COMMENTARIES IN;Origins of Policy, Theories of Policy Cycle, Qualitative – Interpretive Methods in Policy Research, Deliberative Policy Analysis, Street-Level Bureaucracy, Managing Policy Networks, Advocacy Coalition Framework, Managing the Commons and Policy Decision-Making

‘The San Antonio River Doesn’t Start in San Antonio, It Now Starts in Burleson County’: Stakeholder Perspectives on a Groundwater Transfer Project in Central Texas

Water insecurity concerns drove San Antonio, Texas to pursue a controversial $3.4 billion groundwater transfer project from central Texas aquifers. The 228 km Vista Ridge Pipeline (VRP) would increase water supplies by 20%. Analysis through Q-Method revealed three social perspectives surrounding the VRP. Project Advocates offer particular views of urban water security, risk, and accountability. The creation of new hydro-social territories helps to explain Landowner Opposition, while Governance Failure offers a foundational criticism of the underlying assumptions and the institutional innovation of private-public partnership that advanced the VRP. Overall, our paper demonstrates that the VRP is differentiated according to views of risk, water law, and groundwater science. Policy deliberations on future urban water security should include these perspectives as a means to improve water governance, especially as policies and infrastructure for urban water security creates new hydro-social territories.

Who are legitimate stakeholders? National and local perceptions of environmental change in the Lofoten islands, Norway

ABSTRACTDebates on future resource policy in northern regions raises the question of who are the legitimate stakeholders to include in policy deliberations? The Lofoten archipelago in Northern Norway is a world-class nature tourism destination, the key spawning ground for North Atlantic cod as well as a reservoir of large unexploited off-shore oil and gas deposits. We surveyed the resident Lofoten population and the larger Norwegian public to ascertain to what extent local and national perceptions of the value of selected environmental attributes and the importance of drivers of environmental change align across geographic scales. Lofoten residents and the national public both assign high value to environmental attributes, but local residents place more emphasis on harvesting marine and agricultural resources than the national public, which is more concerned with the status of individual species and conservation symbols. Our results show that the national public expresses so much interest in Lofoten that they should be considered a legitimate stakeholder in discussions about its future development paths, and while they relate to the area in a broadly similar way, there may be some specific areas of conflict that need to be considered.

Environmental analyses to inform transitions to sustainable diets in developing countries: case studies for Vietnam and Kenya

Sustainable diets are an environmental, economic, and public health imperative, but identifying clear intervention points is challenging. Decision-making will require descriptive analyses from a variety of perspectives, even under the inevitable uncertainty introduced by limited data. This study uses existing data to provide a diet-level perspective on environmental impact from food production in the case study countries of Vietnam and Kenya. FAO food supply data at decadal time steps were used as a proxy for national average diets in Vietnam and Kenya. We combined these data with estimates of the greenhouse gas emissions (GHGE) and water use impact associated with producing food commodities. Generic GHGE factors were derived from a survey of the life cycle assessment literature. Country- and commodity-specific blue water use estimates were used, reflecting country-of-origin for import-dominated commodities. The AWARE characterization model was used to offer a diet-associated water scarcity footprint. Trends in diet-associated environmental impacts were interpreted in light of diet shifts, economic development trends, and other factors. Increasing per capita food supply in Vietnam, and in particular increases in meat, have led to rising diet-associated per capita GHGE. While supply of beef remains 5.2 times smaller than pork—the dominant meat—increases in beef demand in the past decade have resulted in it becoming second only to rice in contribution to diet GHGE. The water use and water scarcity footprint in Vietnam follow an increasing trend comparable to food supply. On the other hand, historically consistent levels of dairy and beef in Kenya dominate diet-level GHGE. Water use associated with the Kenyan diet shows marked increases between the 1990s and 2000s due to imports of wheat and rice from water-stressed regions. Environmental performance data for characteristic food production systems in these and other developing countries are needed to improve the representativeness and reliability of such assessments. Despite data limitations, the methods and results presented here may offer a fresh perspective in sustainable development policy deliberations, as they offer an entry point to linking environmental impact and consumption behaviors and can elucidate otherwise obscure or unexpected outcomes. A clear need emerges for further environmental analysis of dominant production systems within both Vietnam and Kenya.

Structuring an integrated water-energy-food nexus assessment of a local wind energy desalination system for irrigation

Desalination is increasingly put forward as a sustainable local solution to water scarcity in combination with the exploitation of renewable energy sources. However, the complexity of the resource nexus entails the unavoidable existence of pros and cons across its various dimensions that can only be assessed at different scales of analysis. In turn, these pros and cons entail different winners and losers among the different social actors linked through the nexus. To address these challenges, a novel approach to resource nexus assessment is put forward, based on multi-scale integrated analysis of societal and ecosystem metabolism (MuSIASEM) and recognizing the resource nexus as a wicked problem. The integrated representation identifies the existence of biophysical constraints determined by processes both under human control (in the technosphere) and beyond human control (in the biosphere). The approach is illustrated with a local case study of desalination in the Canary Islands, Spain. The material presented has been generated in the context of the project “Moving towards adaptive governance in complexity: Informing nexus security” (MAGIC) for use in participatory processes of co-production of knowledge claims about desalination, a prerequisite for informed policy deliberation.

Studying democratic innovations: toward a problem-driven approach to case study research

ABSTRACTHajer and Wagenaar (2003. Deliberative Policy Analysis: Understanding Governance in the Network Society. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, xiv, 16) advanced a conception of policy analysis – “Deliberative Policy Analysis” – that “rests on three pillars: interpretation, practice and deliberation.” This form of policy analysis, they argued, supports “more direct, participatory forms of democracy” involving “democratic deliberation on concrete issues” (xv, 29). Since their writing, empirical research on such initiatives – “democratic innovations,” for short – has blossomed. However, while deliberative policy analysis is itself post-positivist in orientation, many researchers bring a (quasi-) positivist orientation to their work on democratic innovations. A key challenge for deliberative policy analysts is, then, how to participate in this field of inquiry while maintaining a post-positivist orientation. Pragmatist philosophy, I submit, can help them to meet this challenge. Pragmatism rejects a number of positivist assumptions about the nature of empirical inquiry. Relatedly, it supports the claim that policy analysis should be interpretive, practice-oriented, and deliberative. Indeed, it suggests that policy analysis cannot avoid being so. By way of illustration, I indicate how pragmatism points to an approach to case study research that rests on the three pillars.

Enacting reflective and deliberative practices in action research

ABSTRACTWe consider action research as a form of deliberative policy analysis. This analysis explores a “reconstruction clinic” in which stakeholders and public officials engaged memories, hopes and obligations as they sought to resolve controversies over details of policy implementation. We ask how institutional design shaped participants’ reflective and deliberative progress. Reflection in action can prompt not only changes in cognitive frames, but new behavioural capacities for action. Deliberative practices can shape new relationships between parties through the work of apology, recognition, appreciation, and emergent collaboration.

From Judicial Transplants to Judicial Translations: Constitutional Courts in Southern Africa – A Comparative Review

Summary The contemporary legal landscape in Southern Africa and its responsiveness to the challenges in the region can be explained in many ways. Part of the explanation has been the idea of legal transplants—which entails borrowing and adapting legal norms, and structures from different legal systems in order to resolve legal problems in the region. The end of apartheid and other rapid changes in the region—political, racial, economic and social—has directly placed the courts on the frontlines of human rights protection especially on socio-economic rights and other overarching concerns of law reform. The adoption of constitutional courts in some of the countries, and consequent judicial activist turn in the jurisprudence of courts in the region generally; has inserted the courts into the mainstream of policy deliberations. Thus, this paper claims that legal transplant per se does not explain the full reality of what is going on in the region—in terms of nomativization, transmission, adoption, and adaptation of legal ideas within the respective systems in the region. It further claims that a mesh of different understandings and approaches to legal comparison and development is more suitable as a method of studying pluralist complex systems as we see in the region. Hence, the notion of judicial translation—the judiciary forming the membrane, purveyor and capillary of legal transmission—as an essential lens through which we can better view and understand the legal evolution in the region. Taking the institution of courts – particularly constitutional courts—and examining their jurisprudence as epitomized in some of their decisions of finality—the work seeks to begin a meaningful deliberation about the role of courts in law, social change, and policy in the region. It is divided into three major parts for ease of discourse. It is hoped that this would be a fitting exordium into the more significant meaning of legal transplant through judicial intervention in otherwise predominantly policy questions in the Southern African region.

Transgender Policy in Sport, A Review of Current Policy and Commentary of the Challenges of Policy Creation.

This review starts with a brief history of sex policy in sport followed by an exploration of the current state of transgender sport policies. Transgender in sport, from the high school to the professional level, is a frequent news topic. Fairness in women's athletics is at the center of transgender sport policy deliberations and public debate. Despite a long history of policy attempts and revisions, the female category in sport is not precisely and universally established, complicating transgender athlete policy development. Scientific evidence is scant on fairness for transgender athletes. For a variety of social factors, many transgender athletes do not have a positive experience in sports and the younger is the athlete the more challenging it becomes to create inclusive rules. Challenges remain in making competition rules fair, but inclusive, so that transgender athletes participate in sport. The medical and scientific community will continue to provide key input.

The complex ethical landscape of biobanking

The complex ethical landscape of biobanking

Improving the approach to conflict in action research through deliberative policy analysis: a territorial development case in the Basque Country

ABSTRACTThis paper focuses on how theoretical work developed in deliberative policy analysis (DPA) can contribute to action research (AR) through a better understanding of the policy world. It is based on a programme in Gipuzkoa, Basque Country (Spain) where action researchers have been collaborating with policymakers since 2009. Our paper shows how concepts like pluralism, agonism and escalation have helped to reframe the approach to conflict in action research for territorial development (ARTD). The aim of the case is not exclusively to demonstrate how this can be done at a micro level, but also to show the usefulness of further interaction between the fields of DPA and AR, based on this experience.

Revisiting deliberative policy analysis

It has been 15 years since Hajer and Wagenaar published Deliberative Policy Analysis (hereafter DPA). The book’s publication was one of the major developments in the post-positivist policy movement...

Conclusion: building new momentum for deliberative policy analysis

As we showed in the Introduction to this special issue (Li and Wagenaar 2019), since the publication of the seminal work (Hajer and Wagenaar 2003), Deliberative Policy Analysis (DPA) has enjoyed co...

Revisiting deliberative policy analysis through systemic co-inquiry: some experiences from the implementation of the Water Framework Directive in England

ABSTRACTWater governance is central to the crisis of the Anthropocene as climate change, population growth and changing demands for water are predicted to exacerbate threats to food, water and energy security and river functioning. Since 2000 the major policy setting in Europe for the governance of water has been the European Water Framework Directive (WFD). Empirically grounded post-positivist water governance research strongly anchored in interpretivist and constructivist systems’ traditions akin to deliberative policy analysis (DPA) is reported. The case is made, based on the UK (England), that an opportunity to transform water governance has been lost because WFD implementation has been prescriptive, top-down and fails to engage with dynamic complexity. Some changes have emerged from the adoption of a Catchment-Based Approach (CaBA), partly triggered by threat to government of a judicial review, but governance praxis and trajectory remain contested. The paper reports on new pathways and options for change emerging from a systemic co-inquiry, a deliberative instrument, which emphasises the importance of institutionalising community action at catchment scale and re-framing the enactment of the Directive as part of an iterative social learning system for water governance. In the light of our findings, implications for future DPA scholarship are explored.

Deliberative policy analysis: towards a methodological orientation

ABSTRACTDeliberative policy analysis (DPA) has become a new branch of post-positivist policy inquiry since the release of a book edited by Hajer and Wagenaar fifteen years ago. The status quo of this field, however, is not satisfactory. Particularly, there is apparent shortage of exploration on how to apply DPA to generate insights for policy making. This article undertakes a critical revisit of DPA’s development and to explore the road ahead, especially through the lens of practice. It starts with a brief review of DPA study, mainly focusing on its characteristics, suitable context, and functions. The next section discusses three challenges facing the emerging field: how to render the DPA approach more operable, the absence of “analysis,” and the lack of purposeful and designed pilot practice. It proceeds to argue that the research on DPA will likely take a methodological turn, and offers several considerations for future study: understanding and framing DPA from a practice-oriented perspective, underscoring the importance of DPA’s consulting function, taking a procedural perspective and incorporating consensus building into the process, providing organizational solutions for practicing DPA, and conducting purposeful pilot practices with prior DPA design.

The practice of deliberative policy analysis in the context of political and cultural challenges: lessons from Thailand

ABSTRACTThis article draws upon insight from a study of those involved in introducing deliberative policy analysis in Thailand at the city scale and presents lessons for both policy practitioners and scholars. The design of each deliberative forum differed, depending on lessons learned from previous forums and the consensus that emerged as a result of deliberation amongst forum facilitators. The underlying principle of this kind of deliberative design is to make deliberative processes authentic, by avoiding coercion, inclusive, by engaging stakeholders who bring forth different ideas, and impactful. To make these forums more exciting, deliberative practices are often linked to other attractive discourses, such as those surrounding smart cities, creative spaces and inclusive development. The case of Thailand sheds light on emerging challenges involved in the practice of deliberative policy analysis in the context of both national political regimes that are not democracies and those in the East.

Communicating more clearly about deaths caused by air pollution

How can scientists and risk assessors best communicate with each other, the media, the public, and policy makers what is known, what is guessed, and what is still unknown or uncertain about how changes in air pollution affect human mortality? Current practice includes emphatic pronouncements, striking headlines, and colorful infographics about deaths attributed to air pollution. Important qualifications, uncertainties, and unverified assumptions are often buried deeply in technical paper if they are stated at all. Although some sensational claims about air pollution mortalities have proved to be mistaken, errors and corrections receive little or no attention from media, policy makers, or interest groups who helped to spread the original sensational claims. More encouragingly, substantial recent progress has been made in technical methods for quantifying and communicating what is known about how reducing exposure affects health risks and uncertainties. These advances make it possible to better describe and explain both what we now know and what we are still uncertain about for human health effects of interventions that reduce pollution levels. We review progress in accurate communication about deaths caused by air pollution and discuss how advances in quantitative risk assessment and risk communication can provide a more useful basis for informing public opinion and policy deliberations – one that is more accurate and that answers more relevant questions – than the infographics and sensational claims that dominate risk communication about air pollution deaths today.

Genethics and Human Reproduction: Religious Perspectives in the Academic Bioethics Literature

The successes of the human genome project and genomics research programs portend great potential to improve upon health and enhance life. As scientific advancements continue, bioethicists and policy makers deliberate over the social and ethical implications of genetic and genomic technologies and information (ggT/I). The application of ggT/I to human reproduction raises conceptual and moral questions about being human and the links between offspring, parents, and society. Given ggT/I’s ability to significantly affect the biological constitution of humans and future human generations thinking through such issues is fundamental to ethical and policy analysis. By means of a systematic literature review and accompanying content analysis, this paper highlights the dominant ethical concerns raised within recent bioethics discourse over the use of ggT/I for human reproduction. Based on these findings it aso offers a framework through which, and demarcates where, religious perspectives can add value to genethics debates and policy deliberation.

Language and environmental justice: articulating intersectionality within energy policy deliberations

ABSTRACT The widespread practice of shale gas extraction via high volume hydraulic fracturing (HVHF) has created challenges for communities who attempt to understand HVHF risk. This study uses a critical discourse lens to understand how intersectionality, and environmental justice language frames might be more clearly established in tools that stakeholders must use to engage in energy policy deliberation. I examine how stakeholders in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York navigate public comment tools in an attempt to understand environmental risk. Using both interview and think aloud protocol, I find that possibilities to voice concern about HVHF risk vary by locality and state. HVHF policy deliberation that does not often include ‘intersectional’ and ‘environmental justice’ frameworks results in an uneven distribution of HVHF risk across and within states. By understanding various discourse frames within policy tools in different states, a more just system of risk identification might emerge.

Doing advisory work: the role of expert advisers in national reviews of teacher education

ABSTRACTThe role and activities of national advisers engaged in the translation of globally mobile ideas on effective teacher education has received little attention. Drawing on in-depth semi-structured interviews, this article explores how government-appointed advisers acted as intermediaries in the translation of policy ideas in national reviews of teacher education in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland (2010–2015). Three themes are addressed: (1) the localisation of international good practice; (2) the significance of time and temporality in local policy deliberation; and (3) the autonomy–engagement dynamic in government-commissioned reviews of public policy fields. The article reports how advisers exhibited transgressive competence in the re-assembly of policy ideas in local spaces. With attention to time, space and positionality, the article concludes by emphasising the significance of localised political strategies in shaping policy choices and prospects for enactment.