Policy-relevant Knowledge Research Articles

Exploring the usefulness of scenario archetypes in science-policy processes: experience across IPBES assessments

Scenario analyses have been used in multiple science-policy assessments to better understand complex plausible futures. Scenario archetype approaches are based on the fact that many future scenarios have similar underlying storylines, assumptions, and trends in drivers of change, which allows for grouping of scenarios into typologies, or archetypes, facilitating comparisons between a large range of studies. The use of scenario archetypes in environmental assessments foregrounds important policy questions and can be used to codesign interventions tackling future sustainability issues. Recently, scenario archetypes were used in four regional assessments and one ongoing global assessment within the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). The aim of these assessments was to provide decision makers with policy-relevant knowledge about the state of biodiversity, ecosystems, and the contributions they provide to people. This paper reflects on the usefulness of the scenario archetype approach within science-policy processes, drawing on the experience from the IPBES assessments. Using a thematic analysis of (a) survey data collected from experts involved in the archetype analyses across IPBES assessments, (b) notes from IPBES workshops, and (c) regional assessment chapter texts, we synthesize the benefits, challenges, and frontiers of applying the scenario archetype approach in a science-policy process. Scenario archetypes were perceived to allow syntheses of large amounts of information for scientific, practice-, and policy-related purposes, streamline key messages from multiple scenario studies, and facilitate communication of them to end users. In terms of challenges, they were perceived as subjective in their interpretation, oversimplifying information, having a limited applicability across scales, and concealing contextual information and novel narratives. Finally, our results highlight what methodologies, applications, and frontiers in archetype-based research should be explored in the future. These advances can assist the design of future large-scale sustainability-related assessment processes, aiming to better support decisions and interventions for equitable and sustainable futures.

How Traditional Knowledge Comes to Matter in Atlantic Salmon Governance in Norway and Finland

The article compares different models for knowledge production, all of which include traditional knowledge, as part of Norwegian and Finnish Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) research and management projects. Our hope is to contribute constructively to more socially robust knowledge production in Arctic environmental governance. Through investigating how traditional knowledge comes to matter at local, regional (national), and international levels in different Atlantic salmon research and governance projects in Norway and Finland, we examine the social robustness of different approaches to knowledge co-production. In general, the projects that seem to fulfill Arctic expectations of traditional knowledge co-production with science (projects with high legitimacy) seem to have the least impact on policy, and vice versa. We argue that expectations at the international policy level towards traditional knowledge integration with science are at times unrealistically high and hard to meet at local levels and in national policy contexts. We therefore argue for rethinking how a legitimate and policy-relevant knowledge co-production process should be conducted. Arctic policy levels, Norwegian and Finnish environmental authorities, and salmon conservation science could fruitfully draw lessons from the Näätämö co-management project, which is already referred to as an example of best practice in Arctic environmental governance. To achieve social robustness, projects need to balance scientific credibility with legitimacy among local and Indigenous rights holders. This balance might entail giving up on expectations of integrating traditional ecological knowledge with science and embracing the undefined spaces within Arctic and Indigenous knowledge production.

Objectivity as standardization in data-scientific education policy, technology and governance

ABSTRACTNew data-driven technologies appear to promise a new era of accuracy and objectivity in scientifically-informed educational policy and governance. The data-scientific objectivity sought by education policy, however, is the result of practices of standardization and quantification deployed to settle controversies about the definition and measurement of human qualities by rendering them as categories and numbers. Focusing on the emerging policy agenda of ‘social and emotional learning and skills,’ this paper examines the practices of ‘objectivity-making’ underpinning this new field. Objectivity-making depends on three translations of (1) scientific expertise into standardized and enumerable definitions, (2) standardization into measurement technologies, and (3) the data produced through measurement technologies into objective policy-relevant knowledge, which consolidates a market in SEL technologies. The paper sheds light on knowledge-making practices in the era of big data and policy science, and their enduring reliance on the precarious construction of objectivity as a key legitimator of policy-relevant scientific knowledge and ‘evidence-based’ education governance.

From climates multiple to climate singular: Maintaining policy-relevance in the IPCC synthesis report

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has provided periodic assessments of the state of knowledge on climate change for 30 years. While these assessments have been central to the making of international climate policy, their relevance has been questioned in the post-Paris era. Can the IPCC’s global kinds of knowledge match the demands of an increasingly decentralized and polycentric policy landscape? In this paper we respond to this question by analysing how the IPCC renders a multiple object such as climate change amenable to political intervention. We are particularly interested in the socio-material practices undertaken to translate a complex body of knowledge into a synthesis relevant to climate policy-making. To that end we trace the production of the Synthesis Report (SYR) to the IPCC’s 5th Assessment Report (AR5), from scoping, to chapter crafting and final plenary approval, using author interviews, document analysis and observations. We argue that the writing of an IPCC synthesis is a constitutive process that rests upon numerous practices of standardization, aggregation and simplification. While these practices allow the authors to produce a coherent story of global climate change, they are less attuned to demands for geographically-sensitive representations of climate impacts, vulnerabilities and a diversity of response options. As the ways of responding to a changing climate multiply, we argue, so should the understanding and making of policy-relevant knowledge.

Public policy and nuclear disarmament

Only Belarus, Kazakhstan, South Africa, and Ukraine have completely surrendered nuclear weapons and then signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). Although a declining security threat marks the decision-making process in all four countries, it is not clear advocates of disarmament understand the factors that caused the perception of a more cooperative security environment, and whether the lessons from those cases are applicable to the non-NPT nuclear weapons states. The literature lacks an analysis of the lessons learned from previous disarmament cases, but this study argues that the analysis cannot provide actionable, policy-relevant knowledge to further the cause of global disarmament.

Opening the black box of implementation feedback: An analysis of reloading strategies in EU water governance

Abstract Throughout the legal and practical implementation of the European Union (EU) Water Framework Directive (WFD), subnational implementing agents experience how this policy works in practice. The feedback, or reloading, of these experiences is an important contribution to create resilient EU water governance and to further elaborate the flexible requirements of this framework directive. However, a gap exists concerning our knowledge on the strategies that implementing actors use to mobilize experiential knowledge. Our objective is therefore to understand the reloading of implementation experiences in the WFD's policy process, by studying the conditions that affect strategic mobilization behavior of implementing agents. We build upon existing studies to explore which mobilization strategies are used in WFD reloading cases, and assess which conditions contribute to the identified strategic agency choices. The main finding of this study is that the mobilizing agents often use a smart combination of framing, coalition-building, venue shopping and timing strategies for reloading implementation experiences as policy-relevant knowledge. The choice of such combinations is affected by agency and institutional structure-related conditions, that is, a mobilizing agent's interests, resources and capacities plus the existing EU water governance network contribute to strategic mobilization behavior. Our study is a first exploration of the topic. We therefore conclude this paper with some suggestions for further research.

Organizing international experts: IPBES’s efforts to gain epistemic authority

ABSTRACTWhat role do organizational preconditions play in the constitution of expertise? This is the guiding question for this paper, which studies how expertise is shaped in the Intergovernmental Science–Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). By organizing the world’s experts on biodiversity, IPBES sets out to produce policy-relevant knowledge. However, in contrast to many other international expert bodies such as the IPCC, IPBES assesses not only scientific knowledge, but also other forms of knowledge, including indigenous and local knowledge. In light of IPBES’s ambition to become an epistemic authority by synthesizing heterogeneous knowledge forms, it is of great interest to investigate how this expertise is constructed. What does ‘expertise’ mean for IPBES, and how are experts selected? Based on documents studies, this study explores the organizational structure through which IPBES assesses and selects experts. The analysis finds that the construction of expertise involves scientific as well as political dimensions. In the conclusions, problems are raised that are related to the outcome of this process and may threaten the epistemic authority of IPBES.

Institutional capacity to generate and use evidence in LMICs: current state and opportunities for HPSR

BackgroundEvidence-informed decision-making for health is far from the norm, particularly in many low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Health policy and systems research (HPSR) has an important role in providing the context-sensitive and -relevant evidence that is needed. However, there remain significant challenges both on the supply side, in terms of capacity for generation of policy-relevant knowledge such as HPSR, and on the demand side in terms of the demand for and use of evidence for policy decisions. This paper brings together elements from both sides to analyse institutional capacity for the generation of HPSR and the use of evidence (including HPSR) more broadly in LMICs.MethodsThe paper uses literature review methods and two survey instruments (directed at research institutions and Ministries of Health, respectively) to explore the types of institutional support required to enhance the generation and use of evidence.ResultsFindings from the survey of research institutions identified the absence of core funding, the lack of definitional clarity and academic incentive structures for HPSR as significant constraints. On the other hand, the survey of Ministries of Health identified a lack of locally relevant evidence, poor presentation of research findings and low institutional prioritisation of evidence use as significant constraints to evidence uptake. In contrast, improved communication between researchers and decision-makers and increased availability of relevant evidence were identified as facilitators of evidence uptake.ConclusionThe findings make a case for institutional arrangements in research that provide support for career development, collaboration and cross-learning for researchers, as well as the setting up of institutional arrangements and processes to incentivise the use of evidence among Ministries of Health and other decision-making institutions. The paper ends with a series of recommendations to build institutional capacity in HPSR through engaging multiple stakeholders in identifying and maintaining incentive structures, improving research (including HPSR) training, and developing stronger tools for synthesising non-traditional forms of local, policy-relevant evidence such as grey literature. Addressing challenges on both the supply and demand side can build institutional capacity in the research and policy worlds and support the enhanced uptake of high quality evidence in policy decisions.

What Explains Short Spells on Child-Care Subsidies?

AbstractChild-care assistance is a critical safety net program that directly benefits families and society. But short spells and program churning raise concerns about the effectiveness of the child-care subsidy program to support stable employment and contribute to long-term family economic stability. On the basis of data that link administrative child-care assistance records with survey data on a sample of subsidy recipients in Illinois and New York, we examine demographic, employment, child-care, and subsidy program characteristics associated with the risk of experiencing child-care subsidy instability. As we hypothesized, these factors relate to exit risk, confirming and extending past research on determinants of subsidy instability. The study contributes new policy-relevant knowledge about how employment instability and public benefit rules and practices shape clients’ program experiences and in turn how subsidy (in)stability may operate as a mechanism through which stable employment and economic secu...

“Identifying enabling factors of science-policy interaction in a developing country context: A case study of South Africa's environment sector”

The integration of science into environmental policymaking has become a prime topic of decision-makers and scholars worldwide. The current body of research, however, is characterised by a narrow focus on the global North; moreover, the impact of meso- and macro-level conditions on science-policy interaction is largely ignored.In light of these gaps, the aim of this paper is to highlight enabling factors of ‘boundary work’ in a developing country context, using South Africa's environment sector as empirical case. The findings are based on qualitative document analysis and expert interviews.Taking the South African National Biodiversity Institute as a starting point, the paper identifies three factors related to the policy domain that seem decisive for its effectiveness: supportive law that constitutes a crucial source of legitimacy for boundary work; the availability of an absorptive administration, which is willing and able to take up expertise; and the existence of a strong science community producing policy-relevant knowledge that deals with the country's specific problems. Without such conducive conditions, the author infers, boundary work in the sector would not have the same level of impact. The paper calls for more research on the context of science-policy interaction, not only but particularly in developing countries.

Critical geographies of education: an introduction

Critical geographies of education: an introduction

Moving towards Mode 2? Evidence-based policy-making and the changing conditions for educational research in Germany

The ‘Mode 2’ approach is among the most widely used to analyze changes in contemporary science and innovation systems. This approach suggests that application-driven, transdisciplinary, reflexive, and contextualized scientific knowledge will be produced by an increasingly heterogeneous set of organizations, with universities no longer as dominant. Analyzing the case of educational research (ER) in Germany, which has undergone profound institutional and paradigmatic change since 2000, allows us to ask whether the Mode 2 thesis holds. Considerable investments in ‘empirical’ research and the top-down setting of the research agenda have, we argue, fundamentally altered the research infrastructure of this increasingly diverse multidisciplinary field, challenging the traditional humanities-based Padagogik. Especially based on waves of large-scale assessments of school performance, the rapidly-growing ‘empirical’ ER field is characterized by quantitative and policy-relevant (applied) knowledge claims. Finally, we identify risks associated with rapid and policy-induced shifts in ER from Mode 1 to Mode 2.

Forging a paradigm shift in disaster science

Despite major advancements in knowledge on disaster risks and disasters caused by natural hazards, the number and severity of disasters are increasing. Convolving natural, engineering, social and behavioral sciences and practices with policymaking should significantly reduce disaster risks caused by natural hazards. To this end, a fundamental change in scientific approaches to disaster risk reduction is needed by shifting the current emphasis on individual hazard and risk assessment dominant in the geoscientific community to a transdisciplinary system analysis with action-oriented research on disaster risk reduction co-produced with multiple stakeholders, including policymakers. This paradigm shift will allow for acquisition of policy-relevant knowledge and its immediate application to evidence-based policy and decision making for disaster risk reduction. The need for the paradigm shift is more critical now than ever before because of the increasing vulnerability and exposure of society to disaster risk and the need for cross-cutting actions in policy and practice related to climate change and sustainability.

Honest advocacy for nature: presenting a persuasive narrative for conservation

Conservation scientists are increasingly recognising the value of communicating policy-relevant knowledge to policy-makers. Whilst considerable progress has been made in offering practical advice for scientists seeking to engage more closely with decision-makers, researchers have provided few tangible examples to learn from. This paper uses an English case study, but draws out important high-level messages relevant to conservation scientists worldwide. The case study looks at how the Lawton Review presented knowledge persuasively about the suitability of England’s ecological network to deal with future pressures. Through skilful framing of rigorous scientific knowledge it was able to make a significant impact on government policy. Impact was achieved through: (1) selecting politically salient frames through which to communicate; (2) using clear, accessible language, and; (3) conducting rigorous science using an authoritative team of experts. Although its publication coincided with a favourable policy window, the Lawton Review seized on this opportunity to communicate a rigorously argued, persuasive and practical conservation message; in other words, it performed ‘honest advocacy’. Thus, whilst it remains important to conduct scientific research with technical rigour, conservation scientists could also benefit from identifying salient frames for conservation and communicating clearly.

Partnering Healthy@Work: an Australian university-government partnership facilitating policy-relevant research.

Research funding is increasingly supporting collaborations between knowledge users and researchers. Partnering Healthy@Work (pH@W), an inaugural recipient of funding through Australia's Partnership for Better Health Grants scheme, was a 5-year partnership between the Menzies Institute for Medical Research, University of Tasmania and the Tasmanian State Service (TSS). The partnerships purpose was to evaluate a comprehensive workplace health promotion programme (Healthy@Work) targeting 30 000 public sector employees; generating new knowledge and influencing workplace health promotion policy and decision-making. This mixed methods study evaluates the partnership between policy-makers and academics and identifies strategies that enabled pH@W to deliver key project outcomes. A pH@W document review was conducted, two partnership assessment tools completed and semi-structured interviews conducted with key policy-makers and academics. Analysis of the partnership assessment tools and interviews found that pH@W had reached a strong level of collaboration. Policy-relevant knowledge was generated about the health of TSS employees and their engagement with workplace health promotion. Knowledge exchange of a conceptual and instrumental nature occurred and was facilitated by the shared grant application, clear governance structures, joint planning, regular information exchange between researchers and policy-makers and research student placements in the TSS. Flexibility and acknowledgement of different priorities and perspectives of partner organizations were identified as critical factors for enabling effective partnership working and research relevance. Academic-policy-maker partnerships can be a powerful mechanism for improving policy relevance of research, but need to incorporate strategies that facilitate regular input from researchers and policy-makers in order to achieve this.

Credit where credit is due: Pakistan's role in reducing the global burden of reproductive, maternal, newborn, and child health (RMNCH).

Factors contributing to Pakistan’s poor progress in reducing reproductive, maternal, newborn, and child health (RMNCH) include its low level of female literacy, gender inequity, political challenges, and extremism along with its associated relentless violence; further, less than 1% of Pakistan’s GDP is allocated to the health sector. However, despite these disadvantages, Pakistani researchers have been able to achieve positive contributions towards RMNCH-related global knowledge and evidence base, in some cases leading to the formulation of WHO guidelines, for which they should feel proud. Nevertheless, in order to improve the health of its own women and children, greater investments in human and health resources are required to facilitate the generation and use of policy-relevant knowledge. To accomplish this, fair incentives for research production need to be introduced, policy and decision-makers’ capacity to demand and use evidence needs to be increased, and strong support from development partners and the global health community must be secured.

The challenge of knowledge exchange in national policy impact assessment – A case of Finnish climate policy

Abstract Impact assessment (IA) is one of the most widely applied instruments for generating policy-relevant knowledge. However, the step-wise process, logic of linear knowledge transfer and influence of IA has frequently been criticised. Current IA procedures do not adequately address complex and unpredictable policy processes, such as the preparation of climate policies. Drawing on a framework of science–policy interface problems, we analyse knowledge exchange in a national climate policy IA case and discuss the reasons for the problems. We demonstrate various problems in knowledge use and production as well as in the balance between the demand for and supply of knowledge, such as ignoring the knowledge involved in the policy process, the monopoly held by certain knowledge providers and models, insufficient scoping and framing of the IA, poor interaction with knowledge providers and users, and inadequate planning and coordination of the process. We highlight the need for adding context-sensitive and tailored knowledge exchange practices to IA processes to enhance the use of existing knowledge in climate policy.

Health system research in Vietnam: Generating policy-relevant knowledge

Vietnam's health system continues to make great progress in improving its capacities and performance. However, despite the many significant achievements that have been made, this paper summaries 11 health system research papers from different perspectives with the aim of providing scientific evidence for policy actions in Vietnam. Health system research is ultimately concerned with improving the health of people and communities, by enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of the health system as an integral part of the overall process of socioeconomic development, with full involvement of all actors. We hope the findings from this cluster of papers provide some insights into issues of importance for the continued advancement and strengthening of the health system in Vietnam and can be considered a valid and reliable resource to inform planning, management and policy-making decisions.

Environmental Governance and Technology: Opening the Black Box

Reducing greenhouse gas emissions to the levels needed to achieve climate stabilization – currently believed to be at least 60%, globally, by 2050 – will require many industries to undergo very rapid technical change directed toward sustainability. Theory and experience suggest that without well-considered environmental governance, the private sector will not reach its full innovative potential in this area. The three papers included in this symposium take different empirical approaches to build policy-relevant knowledge regarding the relationship between technical change and environmental governance. Following the presentations, Magali Delmas, a major contributor to the field of environmental governance, and Stuart Graham, an influential thinker and researcher in technical change, will lead an interactive group discussion of the papers as well as of the broader space for research in this important area. Getting Beyond Reputation: Toward Supply Chain Level Sustainability Standards Presenter: Timothy M. Smith; U. of Minnesota Presenter: Jennifer Schmitt; U. of Minnesota Confronting Expectations with Empirical Evidence in Product Regulation and Innovation Presenter: Margaret Taylor; Stanford U. Presenter: C. Anna Spurlock; Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Presenter: Hung-Chia Yang; Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Avoiding premature technology lock-in through deployment policies Presenter: Tobias Schmidt; ETH Zurich Presenter: Benedikt Battke; ETH Zurich Presenter: David Grosspietsch; ETH Zurich Presenter: Volker H. Hoffmann; ETH Zurich

The case for policy-relevant conservation science.

Drawing on the “evidence-based” (Sutherland et al. 2013) versus “evidence-informed” debate (Adams & Sandbrook 2013), which has become prominent in conservation science, I argue that science can be influential if it holds a dual reference (Lentsch & Weingart 2011) that contributes to the needs of policy makers whilst maintaining technical rigor. In line with such a strategy, conservation scientists are increasingly recognizing the usefulness of constructing narratives through which to enhance the influence of their evidence (Leslie et al. 2013; Lawton & Rudd 2014). Yet telling stories alone is rarely enough to influence policy; instead, these narratives must be policy relevant. To ensure that evidence is persuasive alongside other factors in a complex policy-making process, conservation scientists could follow 2 steps: reframe within salient political contexts and engage more productively in boundary work, which is defined as the ways in which scientists “construct, negotiate, and defend the boundary between science and policy” (Owens et al. 2006:640). These will both improve the chances of evidence-informed conservation policy.El Caso para la Ciencia de la Conservación con Relevancia PolíticaResumenA partir del debate “con base en evidencia” (Sutherland et al. 2013) versus “informado con evidencia” (Adams & Sandbrook 2013), debate que se ha vuelto prominente en la ciencia de la conservación, argumento que la ciencia puede ser influyente si mantiene una referencia dual (Lentsch & Weingart 2011) que contribuya a las necesidades de quienes hacen la política a la vez que mantiene un rigor técnico. En línea con dicha estrategia, los científicos de la conservación cada vez reconocen más la utilidad de construir narrativas con las cuales pueden mejorar la influencia de sus evidencias (Leslie et al. 2013; Lawton & Rudd 2014). Sin embargo, sólo contar historias rara vez es suficiente para influir sobre la política; en su lugar, estas narrativas deben ser políticamente relevantes. Para asegurar que la evidencia sea persuasiva junto con otros factores en un proceso complejo de fabricación de políticas, los científicos de la conservación pueden seguir dos pasos: rediseñar el marco de trabajo a partir de contextos políticos salientes y participar con mayor productividad en el trabajo fronterizo, que se define como los métodos con los cuales los científicos “construyen, negocian y defienden la frontera entre la ciencia y la política” (Owens et al. 2006:640). Estos pasos incrementarán la oportunidad de políticas de conservación informadas con evidencias.