Planning for waterway renewal: balancing institutional reproduction and institutional change

Modern waterway networks are ageing and need to be renewed, yet the institutional context in the waterway sector is averse to change because of path dependencies. Waterway renewal, therefore, requires actors to navigate between institutional reproduction (exploiting current practices) and change (exploring new practices). Using a case study of institutions in the Dutch national waterways, we mainly find instances of institutional reproduction, which turns waterway renewal into a technical and financial exercise. However, institutional change becomes increasingly evident through a new functional-relational path, suggesting that planning for waterway renewal also entails reconsidering novel waterway configurations and incorporating neighbouring spatial developments

Co-creating value through renewing waterway networks: a transaction-cost perspective

Since modern waterway networks are increasingly confronted with ageing assets, waterway renewal will increase in importance for western countries. Renewal can be regarded an impetus for realising integrated waterway networks that internalise externalities, which entails broad stakeholder involvement. This can be coordinated through different inter-organisational structures. Applying a transaction-cost perspective, we contribute to the assessment of effective governance arrangements for renewing waterway networks in such an integrated fashion. Our aim is to examine efficient inter-organisational structures for waterway renewal, as perceived by actors involved in a case study of the Dutch waterways. Our findings show that waterway renewal incorporates additional functionalities in terms of capacity (expansion or reduction), but not so much in terms of quality (combining transportation aims with spatial objectives such as ecology or regional development). Inter-organisational structures that address geographical interrelatedness and, hence, broader stakeholder involvement were associated with uncertain and time-consuming transactions, because of extensive negotiations regarding the alignment of conflicting interests and the crossing of geographical and administrative boundaries. Also, a change in interdependency from hierarchical towards contractual relationships was required, putting dominant actors (the national government) in an unfamiliar position in which they loosen their grip on infrastructure investments. Perceptions on transactions centre on sectoral aims and individual assets, whereas the actual transaction may be different if a perspective is taken that includes the greater waterway system, the wider spatial surroundings and a longer-term horizon. We conclude that short-term, transportation objectives overrule longer-term, integrative objectives, which withholds strategic considerations required for aligning waterway interests

The importance of policy design fit for effectiveness: a qualitative comparative analysis of policy integration in regional transport planning

Policy design has returned as a central topic in public policy research. An important areaof policy design study deals with effectively attaining desired policy outcomes by aligninggoals and means to achieve policy design fit. So far, only a few empirical studies haveexplored the relationship between policy design fit and effectiveness. In this paper, weadopt the multilevel framework for policy design to determine which conditions of policydesign fit—i.e., goal coherence, means consistency, and congruence of goals and meansacross policy levels—are necessary and/or sufficient for policy design effectiveness in thecontext of policy integration. To this end, we performed a qualitative comparative analysisof Dutch regional transport planning including all twelve provinces. Outcomes show nocondition is necessary and two combinations of conditions are sufficient for effectiveness.The first sufficient combination confirms what the literature suggests, namely that policydesign fit results in policy design effectiveness. The second indicates that the combinationgoal incoherence and incongruence of goals and means is sufficient for policy design effectiveness.An in-depth interpretation of this counterintuitive result leads to the conclusionthat for achieving policy integration the supportive relationship between policy design fitand policy design effectiveness is less straightforward as theory suggests. Instead, resultsindicate there are varying degrees of coherence, consistency, and congruence that affecteffectiveness in different ways. Furthermore, outcomes reveal that under specific circumstancesa policy design may be effective in promoting desired policy integration even if it isincoherent, inconsistent, and/or incongruent

The importance of policy design fit for effectiveness: a qualitative comparative analysis of policy integration in regional transport planning

Policy design has returned as a central topic in public policy research. An important areaof policy design study deals with effectively attaining desired policy outcomes by aligninggoals and means to achieve policy design fit. So far, only a few empirical studies haveexplored the relationship between policy design fit and effectiveness. In this paper, weadopt the multilevel framework for policy design to determine which conditions of policydesign fit—i.e., goal coherence, means consistency, and congruence of goals and meansacross policy levels—are necessary and/or sufficient for policy design effectiveness in thecontext of policy integration. To this end, we performed a qualitative comparative analysisof Dutch regional transport planning including all twelve provinces. Outcomes show nocondition is necessary and two combinations of conditions are sufficient for effectiveness.The first sufficient combination confirms what the literature suggests, namely that policydesign fit results in policy design effectiveness. The second indicates that the combinationgoal incoherence and incongruence of goals and means is sufficient for policy design effectiveness.An in-depth interpretation of this counterintuitive result leads to the conclusionthat for achieving policy integration the supportive relationship between policy design fitand policy design effectiveness is less straightforward as theory suggests. Instead, resultsindicate there are varying degrees of coherence, consistency, and congruence that affecteffectiveness in different ways. Furthermore, outcomes reveal that under specific circumstancesa policy design may be effective in promoting desired policy integration even if it isincoherent, inconsistent, and/or incongruent

Unravelling institutional work patterns:Planning offshore wind farms in contested space

Offshore wind farms (OWF) are considered important for a timely energy transition. However, offshore space is governed by sector-specific institutional frameworks representing various and sometimes conflicting interests. Therefore, institutional change towards improved cooperation and coordination between various stakeholders, their interests and alternative institutional frameworks is necessary. Institutional work is used as an analytical lens to explore patterns resulting from the interplay between different forms of institutional work by actors over time. Data was collected through participatory observation of the Dutch North Sea Dialogues (NSD) and focused on balancing interest in the context of multi-use of OFW. Institutional change in this case relied mostly on a highly subtle interplay between forms of creating and maintaining work that result in incremental changes to existing practices. Sustainability transitions could benefit from institutional harmonization as a pathway to institutional change for improved cross-sectoral coordination and cooperation

Finding the right tools for the job:Instrument mixes for land use and transport integration in the Netherlands

Governments have widely established policy goals, which span the domains of land use and transport. Despite these integrated ambitions, government action often remains fragmented. This study adopts an instrumental perspective to encourage land-use and transport integration (LUTI). So far, the existing literature on this subject has adopted a single-instrument perspective and has been primarily focused on technical, rather than governance-oriented, instruments. Using a comprehensive analytical framework derived from combining policy integration and policy instrument theory, this in-depth multiple case study of the Dutch provinces of Friesland, Overijssel and North Brabant investigates how governments use a mix of policy instruments throughout the policy process to achieve LUTI in collaboration with municipalities. These instruments are compared based on how they structure interaction — i.e., the transfer of resources — across horizontal and vertical boundaries. The study finds that there is not one right tool to achieve LUTI. Instead, it is about finding the right mix of instruments, which, in line with LUTI goals, helps overcome government fragmentation by structuring interaction patterns across horizontal and vertical boundaries. Interestingly, each province adopts a unique mix of instruments that reflects a specific approach, typical to the case.</p

The importance of policy design fit for effectiveness: a qualitative comparative analysis of policy integration in regional transport planning

Policy design has returned as a central topic in public policy research. An important area of policy design study deals with effectively attaining desired policy outcomes by align- ing goals and means to achieve policy design fit. So far, only a few empirical studies have explored the relationship between policy design fit and effectiveness. In this paper, we adopt the multilevel framework for policy design to determine which conditions of policy design fit—i.e., goal coherence, means consistency, and congruence of goals and means across policy levels—are necessary and/or sufficient for policy design effectiveness in the context of policy integration. To this end, we performed a qualitative comparative analysis of Dutch regional transport planning including all twelve provinces. Outcomes show no condition is necessary and two combinations of conditions are sufficient for effectiveness. The first sufficient combination confirms what the literature suggests, namely that policy design fit results in policy design effectiveness. The second indicates that the combination goal incoherence and incongruence of goals and means is sufficient for policy design effec- tiveness. An in-depth interpretation of this counterintuitive result leads to the conclusion that for achieving policy integration the supportive relationship between policy design fit and policy design effectiveness is less straightforward as theory suggests. Instead, results indicate there are varying degrees of coherence, consistency, and congruence that affect effectiveness in different ways. Furthermore, outcomes reveal that under specific circum- stances a policy design may be effective in promoting desired policy integration even if it is incoherent, inconsistent, and/or incongruent