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Social Policy at the Edge of Knowable: Towards a Unified View of Evolutionary Change in Policy Systems

In the world of growing diversity, interdependence, and rapid change, making sense of
policy evolution, especially in analytical settings, is increasingly challenging, not the
least due to the flaws of conventional assumptions or the limits to the availability of
evidence. As we consider an alternative worldview embracing the complex and adaptive
nature of social reality, we recognize there are further boundaries to what can be known
and done about the outcomes in social systems. Yet, this foundation also promises to
broaden our horizons with new tools for understanding, comparing, and developing
public policy. Inspired by innovation research, this work makes the case for bringing a set
of such tools into public policy studies and situates them in an essential theoretical
context. Further, through an analysis of social and labour market policy development
across two jurisdictions—while reaching to flexicurity as a model and reference—it
demonstrates the application of the new approach to the study of welfare state
modernization and to policy scholarship more generally. / Dissertation / Candidate in Philosophy

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:mcmaster.ca/oai:macsphere.mcmaster.ca:11375/25822
Date January 2020
CreatorsBubak, Oldrich
ContributorsMcBride, Stephen
Source SetsMcMaster University
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeThesis

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