‘Rationalized incrementalism’. How behavior experts in government negotiate institutional logics

Public policy design takes place in a complex ‘policy swamp’ that is not easily analyzed, let alone controlled. Nonetheless, recent scientific advances in understanding human behavior have led some to believe there is a way out of this swamp. A ‘Behavioural Insights’ movement has emerged, pushing a seemingly neo- rationalist strategy that clashes with the hitherto incrementalist strategy of policy-making. This article investigates how upcoming behavior experts in Dutch government grapple with this clash, based on long-term ethnographic fieldwork. The article points out that these behavior experts, despite their clear-cut rationalist impression, in the backstage take on the challenge of negotiating competing institutional logics

Inside the Behavioural State

A ‘Behavioural Insights’ movement has entered the global policy scene. Drawing from the behavioural sciences, this movement has been pushing novel forms of policy analysis and design, particularly promoting the use of ‘nudges’ and field experiments. Despite Behavioural Insights’ apparent popularity, its contribution to state and society has been appraised divergently. Some see a promise of radical evidence-based government, others a looming manipulative technocracy, and again others a trivial fad. In light of the puzzle posed by these clashing appraisals, this study has explored Behavioural Insights from up close. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in Dutch government, it asks what Behavioural Insights experts actually do, how they are professionalizing and how they ‘see’. The result is a rich account of the emerging ‘behavioural state’, with a sharper understanding of its varieties, tensions and ambiguities

Inside the Behavioural State

A ‘Behavioural Insights’ movement has entered the global policy scene. Drawing from the behavioural sciences, this movement has been pushing novel forms of policy analysis and design, particularly promoting the use of ‘nudges’ and field experiments. Despite Behavioural Insights’ apparent popularity, its contribution to state and society has been appraised divergently. Some see a promise of radical evidence-based government, others a looming manipulative technocracy, and again others a trivial fad. In light of the puzzle posed by these clashing appraisals, this study has explored Behavioural Insights from up close. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in Dutch government, it asks what Behavioural Insights experts actually do, how they are professionalizing and how they ‘see’. The result is a rich account of the emerging ‘behavioural state’, with a sharper understanding of its varieties, tensions and ambiguities

The boundaries of behavioural insights: observations from two ethnographic studies

‘Behavioural Insights’ has emerged as an increasingly popular approach to policy making in governments across the globe. Practitioners largely present a frontstage narrative of Behavioural Insights as a coherent concept but this article challenges such a description. We explore how efforts to develop a global Behavioural Insights community are subject to an ongoing process of policy translation. To show how this translation works, we juxtapose findings from two independent ethnographic research projects on Behavioural Insights practitioners: one on practitioners in Australian federal government, the other on practitioners in Dutch local and central government. This exploratory study highlights that Behavioural Insights at one level possesses some consistencies, including a shared use of a family of tools and artefacts. At the same time the field is marked by contingencies, particularly with respect to the methods used. These contingencies raise puzzling questions about the identity of Behavioural Insights and whether its presentation as a coherent whole is of more value in a discursive sense than in a practical one