Relational Elements and Framing Processes in Implementation of New Policy Issues in Planning Practice

Today´s society is continuously exposed to demands for flexibility and change for meeting current and future challenges such as climate change, loss of biodiversity and increasing numbers of refugees. Crucial environmental and social issues, perspectives and problems often imply introduction of new policies, reformulation of policies, or proposition of new policy measures. Those policy formulations and measures are expected to be transformed into practical results within different societal contexts. This implementation is often expected to occur in a relatively uncomplicated way. However in real life practice the introduction of new policy issues seems to be a much more delicate task often loaded with uncertainty and conflicts. In planning, new policy issues are often introduced top-down with expectation to be implemented bottom-up. In this implementation policy actors involved in the process interpret the policy and give it meaning within their policy context. Consequently the actors translate and adapt the policy into their specific situation through framing processes. In this paper it is argued that policy communities and individual actors framing of policy issues and their own responsibilities in respect of it is a crucial phase in the implementation process and for the planning outcome. The paper is based on two recent Swedish studies, which have deeply engaged with theory development and application focusing on everyday planning practice, the challenges and opportunities that emerge when new policy issues are introduced. The first study investigates the implementation process of the European Landscape Convention (ELC) applying a relational approach. Relevant policy communities at different policy levels (national, regional and local) are identified along their use of framing concepts in developing strategies for implementation actions. The second study investigates actors’ possibilities, or space for action, for influencing integration of new policy issues in environmental assessment (EA). The study emphasizes individual actors’ framing processes and interactions between actors as well as frames well established in practice. Both studies build on earlier work by planning theorists and circular around elements from frame theory. In the paper we will draw on common experiences of relational elements that shed light on policy communities’ and individual actors’ framing processes and interactions. The restrictions and openings for interaction between individual actors and policy communities (at different policy levels) and their possibilities for influencing the implementation will be used to mirror the dynamic process of implementing and making meaning (framing) of new policies in the context of everyday planning practice. This approach contributes to the ‘interpretative turn’ in policy analysis.