Transitions through reflexive interventions in governance networks

Abstract Transitions toward a desirable future require changes at the level of social networks that ‘manage’ or ‘govern’ societal systems. Learning is a crucial component of transitions, because transitions require change while it is not known yet how to realize that change. Intervention is another crucial component of transition which is essential in order to realize change in networks which are full of established routines and vested interests. In this paper we explore how learning and intervention can be fruitfully combined in an approach which we call ‘reflexive interventions’. In that way, learning is not purely theoretical and intervention is not purely based on routine. We describe a practical method of ‘reflexive intervention’ in the early stages of change processes, and we do a preliminary assessment of its effectiveness. We conclude that they are probably a contribution to ‘knowledge-democracy’

The roles of news media as democratic fora, agenda setters, and strategic instruments in risk governance

This study analyzes news media’s role in governmental decision-making processes related to a gradually intensifying series of earthquakes resulting from gas drilling in the Netherlands, and catastrophic natural earthquakes in Italy. According to the risk governance actors interviewed in both cases, media play three roles, as: democratic fora, agenda setters, and strategic instruments. Media attention for risk can create ripple effects in governmental decision-making processes. However, media attention tends to be risk-event driven and focuses on direct newsworthy consequences of events. For ‘non-event risks’, or when newsworthiness after a risk-event fades, the media’s agenda setting and democratic fora roles are limited. This contributes to risk attenuation in society, potentially resulting in limited risk prevention and preparedness. Governmental actors report difficulties in using news media for strategic communication to facilitate risk governance because of media’s tendency towards sensationalism. Our research suggests that, in the governance of earthquake-risk news, media logic overrules other institutional logics only for a short while and not in the long run when the three roles of media do not reinforce each other

The Limited Transformational Power of Adaptive Governance: A Study of Institutionalization and Materialization of Adaptive Governance

Following the economic crisis in 2007–2008, many urban regeneration programmes were replaced with forms of adaptive governance (e.g. slow urbanism). This paper maps and analyses transformational effects of such adaptive governance initiatives through a case of neighbourhood restructuring. It studies whether adaptive governance institutionalizes – i.e. transforms the existing governance system – and whether it materializes in the built environment. It shows how the adaptive governance initiatives in this case failed to diffuse and endure, and, therefore, the transformational effect on both the existing governance system and the area has been limited. The reasons for this are discussed

Does Disclosure of Performance Information Influence Street-level Bureaucrats' Enforcement Style?

Governments use different regulatory instruments to ensure that businesses owners or "inspectees" comply with rules and regulations. One tool that is increasingly applied is disclosing inspectees' performance information to other stakeholders. Disclosing performance information has consequences for street-level bureaucrats because it increases the visibility of their day-to-day work. Using a survey (n =507) among Dutch inspectors of the Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority, this article shows that the disclosure of performance information has an impact on enforcement style at the street level. Findings show that perceived disclosed performance information positively enhances all three dimensions of street-level bureaucrats' enforcement style (legal, facilitation, and accommodation). This effect is strongest for facilitation and accommodation and weakest for the legal style. Perceived resistance by inspectees partly explains this effect. Contrary to expectations, more perceived disclosure does not result in more but in less perceived resistance of inspectees by street-level bureaucrats

Nationale Citymarketing Monitor 2010

Inleiding Citymarketing is volop in beweging. In het begin van de jaren tachtig was het aantal gemeenten met een citymarketingbeleid nog relatief klein; inmiddels doen veel meer gemeenten aan citymarketing1. Anno 2010 is citymarketing één van de gemeentelijke beleidsterreinen. Citymarketing komt terug in collegeakkoorden, er zijn wethouders met citymarketing in de portefeuille en er zijn ambtenaren belast met het ontwikkelen, coördineren en uitvoeren van citymarketing . Ook zien we op meerdere plaatsen externe – vaak deels door de gemeente gesubsidieerde - partijen die een belangrijke rol vervullen in de citymarketing. Soms hebben deze externe organisaties vooral uitvoeringstaken, maar er zijn ook externe organisaties die verantwoordelijk zijn voor het ontwikkelen en coördineren van het citymarketingbeleid. We kunnen ook spreken van een beroepsgroep van citymarketeers. Een goed voorbeeld hiervan is dat er veel professionals lid zijn van de Linked In groep voor citymarketing. Ook kunnen we zeggen dat de aard en omvang van citymarketingactiviteiten in de afgelopen decennia is veranderd. Zo was city branding nauwelijks aan de orde in de jaren tachtig en negentig. Vanaf de millenniumwisseling is de belangstelling voor het gebruik van branding toegenomen

Plunging into the process: methodological reflections on a process-oriented study of stakeholders’ relating dynamics

Process-oriented approaches increasingly gain attention within policy and administrative studies. A process orientation emphasizes the ongoing, dynamic character of policy phenomena, i.e. their becoming. This article reflects upon the methodological particularities and challenges that come with doing process-oriented research. To do so, it draws on experiences with a concrete process study on stakeholders’ relating dynamics within a collaborative policymaking process. This article identifies three methodological particularities: (1) the ongoing amplification of realities, (2) the shifting of positionalities of both researchers and participants, through time and across contexts, and (3) the emergence of historical-aware reflexivity. While each of these are common issues in qualitative-interpretive research, we argue how the longitudinal and poly-contextual orientation of a process study amplifies their impact on the research process and poses specific challenges. We conclude that to effectively deal with these particularities and challenges a process researcher benefits from developing and establishing good field relations, as well as from the courage to come to ‘temporary’ closure(s), against the background of the continuously becoming of the phenomenon under study

Coming to Grips with Life-as-Experienced: Piecing Together Research to Study Stakeholders' Lived

Lived experience remains a key concept in qualitative social science research. The study of life-as-experienced is, however, a project that is methodologically problematic due to the fact that researchers can only come to grips with people's lived experiences through their (re)constructed representations of it. Yet, during this process of (re)constructing, some of the complexity of life-asexperienced is inevitably lost. The methodological challenge is to find an approach that embraces, rather than reduces the complexity of life-as experienced. In qualitative research literature, methodological bricolage has been proposed as such an approach. In this article, we present a concrete example of a bricolaged research approach, provide insights into its potential value and reflect on the challenges we encountered. We discuss how our approach enabled a multi-layered exploration of lived experiences. By creatively blending methods, we were able to tap into different kinds of understanding. Our bricolaged research approach generated: 1. knowledge "from within" and "in-between" research subjects, 2. a kaleidoscopic view of lived experiences, and 3. a processual understanding that embraces the temporal dimension of life-as-experienced. Researchers can benefit from our discussion on this bricolaged approach as there are as of yet few concrete examples of how bricolage can be implemented in practice

The Sustainable Development Goal on Water and Sanitation

Target 7c of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG 7c) aimed to halve the population that had no sustainable access to water and basic sanitation before 2015. According to the data collected by the Joint Monitoring Programme in charge of measuring progress towards MDG 7c, 2.6 billion people gained access to safe water and 2.3 billion people to basic sanitation. Despite these optimistic figures, many academics have criticised MDG 7c. We provide an overview of this critique by performing a systematic literature review of 61 studies conducted over the MDG implementation period (2002-2015) and shortly after. Our objective is to contribute to the debate on the operationalisation of the Sustainable Development Goal on water and sanitation (SDG 6). The academic debate on MDG 7c mainly focused on the effectiveness of the indicators for safe water and sanitation and on the political dynamics underlying the selection of these indicators. SDG 6 addresses some of the concerns raised on the indicators for safe water and sanitation but fails to acknowledge the politics of indicator setting. We are proposing additional indicators and reflect on the limitations of using only quantitative indicators to measure progress towards SDG 6

Re-imagining the city: branding migration-related diversity

This paper aims to unravel how superdiverse cities re-imagine themselves in response to migration-related diversity. Based on a double case study on the branding strategies of two superdiverse Dutch cities, Amsterdam and Rotterdam, this paper shows that although diversity is part of the brand identity in both cities, it is not used prominently in brand communications or in urban planning. Place brands are constructed in wider discursive and political settings that affect whether and how migration-related diversity is used in the symbolic representation of places as well as in urban planning. Migration-related diversity is re-defined strategically (as ‘cosmopolitan’ and ‘international’) for two reasons: (1) to turn it into an asset that enhances the brand, and (2) to align the brand with existing policies and political discourses on migration and accommodate political pressures. City marketers have depoliticized place branding. Marketing logic pushed migration related-diversity to the background, because according to the city marketers diversity does not help a city to stand out