Interpretative Analysis of Decentralised Policy with the Use of an Online Delphi

Public administration now faces the process of constructing policies and action strategies while refering to a plural reality: how do we come to a shared view on the situation is we consider our knowledge as the result of a social construction and that a shared consciousnesses of relevant actors could provide a common ground for identifying and defining the nature of a particular problem (Jun 2006). How is it possible to organise the conditions leading the participants to share their thoughts and experiences through processes of deliberation, and discourse, and argumentation grounded in social practices (Hajer and Wagenaar, 2003). The article will present a new methodology used in several occasions for the evaluation of the quality of implementation of decentralised local social or cultural policies : this methodology is based on the principles of the Delphi method (see François et al., 2012; www.mesydel.com). The Delphi technique is an iterative and anonymous participatory method used for gathering “expert” knowledge with an efficient, inclusive, and structured approach, with reduced social pressures among respondents (Mukherjee et al, 2015). It can achieve a communication process wich minimizes hierarchical relationships, and promotes intersubjective understanding between the decentralized units and with the centralized management. The evaluation processes lead to the unexpected emergence of new forms of collaborative gouvernance and the sharing of socially distributed and fragmented knowledge, fostering innovative ways to adapt public administration. The article starts from a very concrete experience on the evaluation of the recent reforms in public lecturing in Belgium to present the responsiveness of the online Delphi method and the possibilities offered by such tools to develop new perspectives where the central administration is invited to integrate the visions from the decentralised offices and their practitioners for a critical synthesis.