Answering Transition and Transformation Challenges with Policy Process Research

Chair: Johanna Hornung Co-chair 1: Vilém Novotny Co-chair 2: Florence Metz Section proposal Processes of transition and transformation are a long-standing interest of policy process research. In recent years, policymakers face increasing challenges that call for substantial and far-reaching changes. The COVID-19 pandemic brings to light shortcomings of health care systems; climate change demands transformations of how to produce energy, how to preserve the environment, etc.; social challenges of inequality require a change of thinking in the redistribution of resources. Existing frameworks of policy process research provide different approaches that contribute to the understanding and explanation of transitions and transformations. The proposed section stimulates critical and ongoing dialogue, demonstrated during previous ECPR sections, of scholars working with various policy process frameworks (MSF, ACF, IADF, NPF, PAF, etc.) to evaluate the contribution they make to current policy challenges. In what way do these perspectives shed light on the processes of transitions and transformations in diverse thematic fields? What can we learn from them to provide answers to the arising challenges? Established and junior scholars from Europe and other continents are invited to present and discuss research with diverse methodological orientations in sub-national, national, international, or comparative settings, to advance the state of art on policy process research. The section: ● provides an opportunity for networking with scholars from different generations and countries sharing common interests in the policy process, ● assesses and develops the theoretical, empirical, and methodological knowledge concerning policy change within prominent and emerging policy process frameworks. Proposed Panels Addressing Policy Instruments Over Time: Trajectories, Mechanisms and Feedbacks? Chairs: Giliberto Capano, Johanna Hornung Discussant: Michael Howlett Policy Design encompasses the study of how public policies are conceived and how policy instruments are chosen by policy actors to achieve policy goals. This panel invites papers that focus on trajectories, mechanisms, and feedback effects in policy instrument choice: To what extent and with what effect are chains of mechanisms activated by design choices? In what way do previous design processes and resulting outputs and outcomes influence redesign and new design activities? Analyzing Transition and Transformation Using the IADF Chairs: Nora Schütze, Andreas Thiel Discussant: Tanya Heikkila Throughout processes of transition and transformation agency develops across different levels of institutional order, addressing day to day practices or ordering them at deeper levels of policy making, etc. The panel wonders a) what transition and transformation mean from an institutional perspective, b) how the IAD framework and interconnected Network of Adjacent Action Situations framework can be mobilized to understand transition and transformation, and c) what findings are concerning the institutional facilitators of transition and transformation. Antimicrobial Resistances from Public Policy Perspectives Chairs: Manuel Fischer, Colette S. Vogeler Discussant: Johanna Hornung Antimicrobial resistances are an emerging challenge at the intersection of many policy fields, including environmental policy, health policy, agricultural policy, etc. Its cross-sectoral nature requires a multi-theoretical view on how antimicrobial resistance policies are put on the agenda, formulated and designed, and under which conditions they are adopted and successfully implemented. The panel brings together different public policy perspectives to provide answers to these questions and advance the study of antimicrobial resistance policies. Covid-19 and the Policy Sciences Chairs: Florence Metz, Nils C. Bandelow The panel attracts scholarship in the policy sciences to understand country-specific policy responses to the COVID-19 pandemic as well as comparative research. Countries or sub-national entities vary in their policy responses to the COVID-19 crisis. In this panel, scholars present their research about the ways in which the shock of the COVID-19 pandemic impacts policy processes and decisions in national or local contexts. Discussing the Value of Policy Process Frameworks in Transitions and Transformations Chairs: Vilém Novotny, Johanna Hornung The section’s roundtable invites the representatives of various policy process frameworks to discuss how their framework's community addresses transitions and transformations. Multiple Streams Explanations of Transition and Transformation Chairs: Reimut Zohlnhöfer Discussant: Nikolaos Zahariadis Transition and transformation processes pose a challenging task for policymakers. During transition and transformation processes, the established order is questioned, and almost everything seems possible. With assumptions and concepts such as ambiguity, policy window, and policy entrepreneur, the Multiple Streams Framework is a promising in analyzing these processes, providing mechanisms of policy change and pointing out obstacles and reversals. Papers are welcome utilizing a multiple streams perspective to analyze these processes at different levels of governance and diverse national settings. Policy Change and Transitions from Advocacy Coalition Framework Perspective Chairs: Christopher M. Weible, Daniel Nohrstedt Discussant: Karin Ingold The panel welcomes applications of the Advocacy Coalition Framework to policy changes that promote or delay transitions pathways. Likewise, methodological advancements are welcome that enable researchers to better study factors explaining policy change including actors’ beliefs and related advocacy coalitions, learning within coalitions, internal and external shocks and negotiations. Policy Narratives in Challenging Times Chairs: Tullia Galanti, Johanna Kuhlmann Discussant: Michael D. Jones, Caroline Schlaufer This panel invites papers that use the Narrative Policy Framework and other innovative approaches to narrative analysis to investigate policymaking in the context of current challenges of transition and transformation. We also welcome theoretical papers on narrative analysis. Policy Transitions and Social Groups Chairs: Patrick Hassenteufel, Johanna Hornung Discussant: Nils C. Bandelow For policy transitions and transformations to be successful, policy actors need to contribute to innovation, adoption, and implementation of ideas. From the perspective of the Programmatic Action Framework and Social Identities in the Policy Process, social groups are the main entities through which such changes are driven. The panel invites papers researching how (programmatic) groups of policy actors form around ideas, constitute identities, and effect policy changes to answer pressing challenges. Roundtable: Teaching the Policy Process Chairs: Vilém Novotny, Florence Metz Teaching the policy process is among the core activities of policy-related curricula, providing important insights of the policy context as well as a link to political science. For the policy process research community, it is important to share experiences in the policy community, disseminate innovations, and form common understanding on how to teach the policy process.