Regie in de haarvaten van de stad: Een essay over het regisseren van microbeslissingen

Multi Actor SystemsTechnology, Policy and Managemen

DonaldsTrump’s rhetoric: An analysis of his frames

How does Donald Trump frame his message? What are his followers hearing? Here are Donald Trump’s seven frames - and an explanation why these frames are so powerful.Multi Actor SystemsTechnology, Policy and Managemen

Facts over feelings: How citizens evaluate responses to uncertainties about power lines

Organisation and GovernanceMulti Actor System

System and Actor Perspectives on Sociotechnical Systems

This paper addresses the complexity of analyzing and designing sociotechnical systems: systems that involve both complex physical-technical systems and networks of interdependent actors. It is shown that, although a hard system perspective and an actor perspective differ greatly in terms of terminology, methods, and applicability, they also show surprisingly many similarities. By building upon the similarities and differences of the two dominant perspectives, this paper then goes on to show that the modeling and intervention possibilities in both perspectives differ to a great extent. The emerging systems-of-systems discipline generally calls for an ldquointegrationrdquo of both perspectives in order to model and design these complex sociotechnical systems, but in this paper, it is argued and shown that full integration is not the preferred way to go. Instead, the emerging discipline should strive to facilitate the use of both perspectives alongside each other in a sensible way and, thereby, not discard the strengths of either perspective.Multi Actor SystemsTechnology, Policy and Managemen

Zin en onzin van het binaire denken: Nabeschouwing

De beschouwingen in dit themanummer gaan ver voorbij de eenvoudige, binaire denkschema’s waarin de staat tegenover de markt wordt gepositioneerd, de professional tegenover de manager en de polder tegenover daadkracht. In elk van de artikelen wordt de stevige tegenstelling tussen ‘zwart’ en ‘wit’ doorbroken, en blijkt achter de binaire redenering een veelkleurige werkelijkheid schuil te gaan. Het polderen is niet automatisch gebrek aan resultaat, managers zijn niet zo maar schuldig aan het beklemmen van professionals, en de markt is niet onverkort problematisch in het leveren van maatschappelijke voorzieningen. Sterker, managers, polderen en de markt kunnen een zegen zijn – voor de professional, een effectief bestuur, de publieke dienstverlening.Multi Actor SystemsTechnology, Policy and Managemen

Getting the incentives right. Energy performance contracts as a tool for property management by local government

Old - TPM-MAS-POLG Policy, Organisation Law and Gamin

Facts and feelings: Framing effects in responses to uncertainties about high-voltage power lines

To ensure power supply security, electricity transmission system operators (TSOs) have to upscale high-voltage overhead power lines. However, upscaling frequently meets opposition. Opposition can be caused by uncertainties about risks and benefits and might lead to costly delays (Linder, 1995; Wiedemann, Boerner,& Claus, 2016). To minimize opposition, TSOs and related public services need to respond to these uncertainties in a credible and convincing (effective) way. Effective risk communication is associated with sharing facts. However, factual responses can be perceived as "cold" and technocratic. To make factual responses warmer, it has been suggested to refer to organisational values or show personal commitment (e.g., De Bruijn, 2011; De Wit, Das, & Vet, 2008). For example, when confronted with uncertainties about the impact of electro-magnetic fields on local residents’ health, a TSO spokesperson can share scientific findings as well as ensure that her organisation will never take any irresponsible risks because safety is a key value for them. Although it is generally assumed that a factual response is more effective when warmth is added, empirical evidence for this assumption is lacking. To fill this scientific gap, we conducted systematic research. The findings contribute to society because they can help improve effective communication and opinion-formation on power lines. The research consisted of three phases. In the first phase, experts identified the most relevant uncertainties about overhead power lines and formulated warm and cold responses to these uncertainties. The effectiveness (credibility and persuasiveness) of these responses was assessed with a large-scale representative survey (N = 881) in Phase 2. Phase 3 consisted of an experimental survey testing the hypothesis that a factual response is more effective when warmth is added with videos that were randomly distributed (N = 412). The most important finding of our research is that—in contrast with what is often suggested—a factual response to uncertainties about high-voltage overhead power lines is not more effective when warmth is added (although warmth increases feelings of sympathy). This paper is relevant to the panel topic because it integrates psychology and public administration in several ways. First, it investigates judgments of citizens in their interactions with public services (TSOs and related services). Second, it showcases the use of experimental methods to test theory. Third, the results can affect decisions of public managers and politicians with regard to risk communication on high-voltage overhead power lines.Organisation and GovernanceMulti Actor System

Voorbij het binaire denken: Professionals, privatisering en de polder

Dit themanummer gaat over de staat van een drietal grote maatschappelijke debatten: privatisering en marktwerking, professionals en managers en de polderbesluitvorming in Nederland. Drie keer is sprake van een stevig onbehagen. Keer op keer wordt geconstateerd dat de klassieke professional over-managed is en hierdoor te veel ruimte en gezag moet inleveren. Privatisering en geloof in de markt hebben geleid tot marktwerking in voorheen publieke sectoren, en daarmee tot hogere kosten en lagere kwaliteit. De kredietcrisis heeft het failliet van dit geloof extra duidelijk gemaakt, zo is de gedachte. De polder en polderbesluitvorming lijken niet langer geschikt als besluitvormingsmodel in een snel veranderende wereld, met een oprukkend China en een verlies van representativiteit van de polderende organen. Naast onbehagen hebben de drie debatten nog iets gemeenschappelijk. De debatten worden in nogal zwart-wittermen gevoerd: het is de professional versus de manager, de staat versus de markt, daadkracht versus de polder. Het één staat tegenover het ander. Dat betekent dat de debatten niet alleen over opmerkelijke zaken gaan – de debatten zélf zijn opmerkelijk. Ze gaan gepaard met wat we ‘binair denken’ hebben genoemd.Multi Actor SystemsTechnology, Policy and Managemen

Building Cybersecurity Awareness: The need for evidence-based framing strategies

Cybersecurity is a global phenomenon representing a complex socio-technical challenge for governments, but requiring the involvement of individuals. Although cybersecurity is one of the most important challenges faced by governments today, the visibility and public awareness remains limited. Almost everybody has heard of cybersecurity, however, the urgency and behaviour of persons do not reflect high level of awareness. The Internet is all too often considered as a safe environment for sharing information, transactions and controlling the physical world. Yet, cyberwars are already ongoing, and there is an urgent need to be better prepared. The inability to frame cybersecurity has resulted in a failure to develop suitable policies. In this paper, we discuss the challenges in framing policy on cybersecurity and offer strategies for better communicating cybersecurity. Communicating cybersecurity is confronted with paradoxes, which has resulted in society not taking appropriate measures to deal with the threats. The limited visibility, socio-technological complexity, ambiguous impact and the contested nature of fighting cybersecurity complicates policy-making. Framing using utopian or dystopian views might be counterproductive and result in neglecting evidence. Instead, we present evidence-based framing strategies which can help to increase societal and political awareness of cybersecurity and put the issues in perspective.Multi Actor SystemsInformation and Communication Technolog

Professionals versus managers? De onvermijdelijkheid van nieuwe professionele praktijken

Met enige regelmaat steekt het debat over de relatie tussen managers en professionals de kop op. Vrijwel altijd heeft dat debat eenzelfde toonzetting: professionele organisaties zijn overmanaged. Er zijn te veel managers, die bovendien hun managementlogica opleggen aan de organisatie. Deze managementlogica – productiecijfers, protocollen, processen, benchmarks – staat op gespannen voet met de professionele logica. Professie en professionele waarden worden weggedrukt. In dit artikel wordt de vermeende tegenstelling tussen professionals en managers kritisch verkend. Daarbij kijken we niet zozeer naar de managers (zoals wij beiden eerder deden), maar naar de professionals zelf. We maken duidelijk dat professionals als gevolg van diverse ‘maatschappelijke’ ontwikkelingen om tegenkracht vragen. Sterker, we laten zien dat een ‘professionaliteit-nieuwe-stijl’ nodig is. We geven aan waar die uit bestaat, en verkennen of professionals, zoals artsen, daar zelf – vooral via opleidingen – vorm aan geven.Multi Actor SystemsTechnology, Policy and Managemen