This thesis examines policy learning and expertise in the European Union research policy by focusing on the Open Method of Coordination (OMC) initiative. The research is guided by the overarching question - How do experts’ individual policy learning experiences relate to the EU’s research policy? First, background of the European Union’s research policy is presented, clarifying the need for policy learning. Second, the theoretical approaches on expertise and theories of policy learning are analyzed. The synthesis of the two streams of literature leads to a conceptual framework for the study, featuring two distinct perspectives of policy learning – the evidence-based approach and the value-based approach. This framework brings the individual experiences of the OMC participants into focus, allowing an examination of policy processes that do not always result in direct policy changes. For data collection three distinct OMC working groups are selected, each focusing on a different topic related to European research policy – research funding (Group 1), research cooperation with Third Countries (Group 2) and research activities in universities (Group 3). A case study approach is employed, involving document analysis, a pilot study and thirty-four interviews with member-states’ experts and European Commission policy-makers. The findings suggest that individual policy learning shapes the development of European research policy. Through the OMC policy learning initiatives participants gain new knowledge on policy approaches, programs, best practices and policy failures. In addition, learning experiences involve knowledge on individual relationships, decision-making styles, organizational cultures and power-relationships that diverse stakeholders bring with them to the process. Such knowledge helps to update the policy beliefs of participants, providing a strong foundation for developing mutual ownership of decisions that lead to policy coordination. The findings emphasize the importance of a value-based perspective in policy analysis, where results emerge gradually, over a long time period and contribute to policy change.

Despite the UK’s abundance of renewable energy sources and the imperative for renewable energy to make a significant contribution to addressing the problems of climate change and fossil-fuel dependency, renewable energy capacity in the UK has developed slowly compared with some other EU states. The UK has introduced a succession of policies to promote renewable energy, but so far these have failed to meet national and EU targets. This signals the need for detailed examination of the reasons for these ‘failures’ and, in particular, the extent, nature and constraints on ‘policy learning’ within UK renewable energy policy. Policy learning has emerged in recent years as an innovative way of exploring the roles of knowledge acquisition and use in policy change. This study examines the contribution of policy learning to the development of UK renewable energy policy. It is argued that interpreting UK renewable energy policy development through the lens of policy learning yields fresh perspectives on why policies develop in certain directions and not others. In so doing, it critically examines problems caused by failings in policy learning and identifies options for the further promotion of renewable energies in the UK. The study distinguishes four different forms of policy learning: technical, conceptual, social and political. Little research has been conducted on the characteristics of these different learning types, the conditions under which they occur, the psychological, institutional and cultural factors that stimulate or constrain learning, and how they interact to shape policy change. The study utilises a qualitative methodology to analyse and explain changes in UK renewable energy policy over the past 20 years. The main methods employed are content analysis of policy documents (including legislative acts and instruments, consultations and select committee reports); and semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders from government, industry, NGOs, academia and the media. It is argued in the thesis that UK energy policy has tended to become ‘locked’ into low-level forms of technical learning because current government learning mechanisms do not challenge the parameters of existing policy and, thus, fail to stimulate broader processes of conceptual and social learning that might encourage more radical policy change. These forms of policy learning are particularly constrained by hierarchical institutional structures that hinder communication and learning between policy areas. Furthermore, the current style of policy making for renewable energy in the UK privileges the interests of incumbent energy companies, giving them the ability to filter or block new ideas that do not align with their commercial interests. Political learning was shown to operate alongside other types of policy learning and to take multiple forms but focused predominantly on political risk management rather than political innovation: thus, it tended to narrow rather than extend the parameters of debate. These findings were used to develop a model of policy learning in UK renewable energy policy. This was used to conceptualise relationships between different learning types, highlight specific barriers to policy learning, and illustrate dynamics of policy learning and change that might be extended to other policy areas and countries. Finally, it is argued that many of the barriers identified might be overcome by fostering more evidence-based policy making and learning mechanisms that engage with a broader range of stakeholders to stimulate more pluralistic government processes.

Network, organizational, and policy learning literatures indicate that when interest groups face failure they will seek out alternative ideas and strategies that will enhance their potential for future success. Research with regard to interest groups and legal change has found that interest groups, using arguments that were once accepted as the legal standard for Supreme Court decisions, were unwilling or unable to alter their arguments when the Court reversed its position on these legal standards. This research project examined the conflicting findings of these literatures. Using the Advocacy Coalition Framework as a guide, this project studied the separationist advocacy coalition in cases regarding state aid to elementary and secondary sectarian schools from 1971 to 2002. The legal briefs filed by members of the separationist advocacy coalition with the Court were examined using content analysis to track changes in their legal arguments. Elite interviews were then conducted to gain an understanding of the rationale for results found in the content analysis. The research expectation was that the separationist advocacy coalition would seek out and incorporate into their briefs new and innovative legal arguments to promote their policy goals. The research results demonstrated that prior to legal change interest groups did seek out and incorporate new legal arguments borrowed from other fora and sought to expand or reinterpret established legal arguments to better aid their policy goals. The changes that seemed to have the potential for adoption by the Court were quickly incorporated into the briefs of the other members of the coalition. Following legal change interest groups continued to analyze the decisions of the Court in order to seek out the best possible legal arguments to use in their briefs; however, the main focus of legal arguments examined and used by the coalition narrowed to those cited by the swing justice in the funding cases. Two innovative arguments were developed, but were either ignored or considered unsuitable, and were not used by the other members of the coalition. Counter to this project's research expectations new and innovative legal arguments were not adopted by the coalition. As the Court discontinued the use of various legal arguments the coalition quickly responded to these changes and dropped those obsolete legal arguments. Therefore, contrary to prior research, the interest groups and the coalition altered their arguments following legal change. Only those interest groups who no longer participated in coalition discussions reverted back to using pre-legal change arguments. Learning continued to occur in the coalition following legal change; however, the focus of analysis and the pool of arguments deemed worthy of use narrowed considerably. / Ph. D.

This thesis investigates how external sources inform and impact Somaliland’s national teacher education policy making processes. In this research, external factor is mainly constituted by INGOs that are helping Somaliland’s education and teacher education re-construction which are considered to be part of wider global-national interactions. The conceptual frameworks of policy making processes, policy transfer, lesson drawing and policy learning are used to develop the theoretical perspectives that inform the research question. Constructivist’s qualitative research approach which utilises critical discourse analysis as the principle methodology has been used to gain an understanding of the discursive construction of meaning about Somaliland’s education reforms and analyse the discourses of teacher education and teacher professionalism that are evident in three contemporary education reform policy documents and interview data. This thesis considered policy making processes as a contested, dynamic and multidimensional phenomena and has acknowledged the centrality of power and resources in policy making processes. The analysis of the research data constructed Somaliland’s education reforms as a discourse of human capital. This had implications for the strategies for managing change, quality and improvement perception, and reconceptualisations of teacher education and teacher professionalism. The thesis concludes with concerns about the contextual visibility to implement the new discourses of education and teacher education and calls for increased policy learning, capacity building, resource increase and modernisation of institutions as well as change of the culture of work.

This study aims at examining the prospects for a policy transfer of a Swedish municipal environmental policy (that of Växjö) to the French urban commune Blois, for which an ambition of becoming a leading eco-city in France, was declared by the mayor in 2008. In the analysis, emphasis is laid on mechanisms to institutionalize the main environmental policy principles, such as political and institutional structures and processes. Other prospects for an institutionalization of a new environmental policy that are to be investigated are economic structures as well as visions of the different decision-makers concerned. Research methods used in the study are qualitative interviews, document studies and a questionnaire. The findings of the analysis show that today’s prospects for an environmental policy in Blois close to that of Växjö, are clearly limited. The limitations can partly be found in economic structures but these seem to be rather related to a lack of priority amongst actors. Moreover, problems have been identified arising from administrative complexity with a lack of internal integration. There is a commitment amongst some of the actors working with environmental issues, but the complexity of decision-makers involved together with unclear priorities make a developed strategic approach hard to achieve.

Climatic change has sparked a broad range of responses on all societal levels. New initiatives and negotiations, scientific findings, and technological developments, have established a novel framework for policymaking and industrial abatement investments. Lessons on the evolving framework should be analysed and utilised to handle the dynamic reality of climate policymaking processes. Governments in the majority of economies only have an indirect and long-term influence on reducing industrial emissions, as they do not own the emitting operations. As representing one-third of the global carbon dioxide emissions, industry is therefore a key stakeholder group in whether or not the political agenda will be fulfilled. How industry perceives that obstacles and opportunities affect investment calculi are thus important. Hence, policymakers should facilitate policy learning (PL) to aid the creation of effective and efficient political agendas. This is important to acknowledge the policy and investment experiences of industrial actors and to deal with a number of plausible investment obstacles identified under the novel framework. Taking stock of PL and other policy theories, this thesis is aimed to develop recommendations for facilitating PL and thus contributing to more effective and efficient climate policy frameworks. The results highlight the role of industry in abatement and political strategies where policymakers need to gain knowledge on how industries perceive abatement investment obstacles and how these may be bridged. The intrinsic learning values of government-industry negotiated agreements (NAs) are emphasised and a framework for operationalising PL through NA designs is developed. PL is furthermore identified as important, and NAs are recommended as a policy instrument, to fill knowledge gaps identified in two case-studies of promoting complex and novel industrial operations. This thesis also recommends a participatory policy evaluation tool that is sensitive to industrial competitiveness and establishes a forum for discussions on perceived investment obstacles and opportunities under different conditions. The results are not aimed to provide a blueprint for a comprehensive climate policy framework but as a contribution to literature and the incremental learning that this thesis strongly promotes.

Genom historien har människor runt om i världen stått upp mot ett beteende de har ansett vara orättvist. Det har förkroppsligats i strejker, kravaller och rentutav revolutioner och statskupper. Lika länge har ordningsmakt, men även politiker, behövt hantera dessa typer av samhällsuppror. Syftet med denna studie är att, utifrån ett policyorienterat perspektiv, undersöka vilka lärdomar Londonpolisen drog av kriser under tidsperioden 1985-2011. Vidare ska det undersökas vad som hände med dessa lärdomar när den brittiska inrikespolitiska agendan förändrades.   Det intressanta ligger i att undersöka vilka lärdomar som kan dras och huruvida sådana lärdomar kan bestå utan underhåll från den politiska sidan och när frågorna på agendan förändras. Undersökningen består utav en teorikonsumerande enfallsstudie av tiden mellan The Broadwater Farm riots 1985 och Londonkravallerna 2011. Denna långa tidsepok är sedan uppdelad i rubriker av vad som var aktuellt utefter hur den politiska agendan förändrades. Däri ligger det empiriska materialets framställning samt analysen i att finna tecken på både instrumentellt och socialt policylärande utifrån Policy Learning Theory. Resultaten i studien visar att Londonpolisen visserligen drog policyorienterade lärdomar efter kravallerna 1985, och detta med ganska enkla medel, men att dessa genom historien verkar ha glömts bort, detta på grund av att de flesta av de åtgärder som indikerar lärande endast var ett spel för gallerierna. Dessa resultat i kombination med teori om policyorienterat lärande förklarar att det är den politiska agendan och hur uppmärksamheten organiseras som sätter ramen för vilka lärdomar som kan dras och hur dessa underhålls för att bestå in i dessa typer av organisationers framtida arbete.

Sustainability assessment is emerging as a form of impact assessment with the concept of sustainability at its heart. This thesis contributes to the process of theory-building for sustainability assessment through an exploration of the development of this policy tool within the Western Australian context. Through an analysis of the sustainability assessments of the Gorgon gas development on Barrow Island and the South West Yarragadee water supply development, and a process of personal reflection, I explore the potential of sustainability assessment to contribute to a more sustainable society by facilitating learning. While the focus of traditional forms of impact assessment has typically been ‘exterior’ forms of knowledge and learning relating to the potential impacts of a proposal, or to process methodologies and governance arrangements, in this thesis I argue that sustainability assessment processes should also facilitate ‘interior’ forms of learning that excavate and challenge underpinning assumptions about the organisation of society, including shared discourses and storylines, as well as personal views and beliefs. To achieve this aim, I maintain that sustainability assessment should be a proactive process that is integrated with the proposal development, framed by an open question and guided by a ‘sustainability decision-making protocol’ that operationalises sustainability for the decision at hand. It should be guided by a structured process framework that assures attention is given to issues that might otherwise be neglected. Each step of the process framework should represent a space for inclusive deliberation, with the concept of sustainability itself acting as a catalyst for learning and reflexivity. Located within the institutions of modern industrial society, deliberative sustainability assessment processes can contribute to the emergence of an 'integral sustainability' that embraces and reconnects the interior and exterior, collective and individual dimensions of policy-making and of society in general. The influence of sustainability assessment can thus extend beyond the immediate decision at hand to contribute to a momentum for societal change towards a more sustainable future.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Duke University, 1994. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 83-90).

Evaluations have gained popularity for improving public policy measures, programmes and institutions in the field of science, technology and innovation (RTI). Though the frequency and quality of evaluations have increased, in terms of impact indicators and methodological diversification, concerns have been raised about their effectiveness to fuel change in policy making. This raises the issue of the low absorption level of evaluation findings by policy making in general and in Austria in particular. Recent research emphasises the need for a holistic perspective on the benefits and usefulness of evaluations in order to allow a more thorough consideration of complex interdependencies and effects that can occur at different levels and in different forms. While previous research has put much emphasis on the conduct of evaluations and their implementation, there are less empirical studies that address institutional or contextual explanations when it comes to the effects of evaluations. This study aims to contribute to the narrowing of this gap in the literature by investigating how individual and composite actors (such as organisations), as well as, the policy itself are affected by policy evaluations, drawing attention to the factors and mechanisms that shape evaluation effects. Making use of the concepts of "policy learning", actor-centred institutionalism and recent research in the field of evaluation utilisation for the analysis, this study developed a conceptual framework that proposes three groups of conditioning factors and mechanisms: Actors and their interactions, the institutional context, and the evaluation itself. A multiple case study approach, using evaluated programmes in the Austrian research, technology and innovation (RTI) policy scene, was employed to examine the effects of evaluations at various levels, the conditioning factors and mechanisms, as well as, the ensuing pathways of effects. Results indicate that evaluations generate a wide range of diverse effects, beyond individual learning, and clearly and visibly impact programme development. Several contextual aspects shape evaluation effects. The current structures and practices endorse evaluations as routine, which may reduce chances of broader learning, and distance the evaluation and the possibility to learn from it from an interested audience. The thesis concludes with implications for theory and practice, and suggestions for paths of future research.