Knowledge co-production promoting policy change in time of decentralisation: a comparison of two cases from Brussels

ABSTRACT

The nexus between policy change and learning has attracted an extensive theoretical debate, since the seminal Hall’s typology of orders of change. Defined as the capacity to act collectively for policy-making, policy knowledge is crucial because actors have to know how to cooperate sharing a common understanding of the policy issue at stake. This challenge is even more relevant in the case of decentralisation when policy competencies are transferred to local governments and new policymakers established. In this context, the paper argues that the co-production between newly established policymakers and experts is more likely to lead to policy change within the filter of the dominant policy paradigm. For this purpose, two cases from Brussels are presented and compared about the local water management system and a new rail junction. This approach opens the theoretical issue of the knowledge-democracy nexus about the involvement of non-expert stakeholders.

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KEYWORDS:

• Learning
• change
• policy knowledge
• water
• rail junction

Disclosure statement

The authors are grateful to the editor and the anonymous referees for their useful reviews. The usual disclaimers apply.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

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Notes on contributors

Paola Coletti

Paola Coletti has a PhD in public policy analysis from the University of Pavia. She works at the University of Milan, Italy, where she manages national and international research projects. Her research interests include public policy analysis, with specific reference to the theories and methods for decision analysis and evaluation, public administration and local government.

Nicola Francesco Dotti

Nicola Francesco Dotti is a senior researcher in regional economics and policy studies at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium, where he works in the ECOOM team. He focuses on regional innovation policy, EU cohesion policy and framework programmes (Horizon 2020), and policy learning. He is the editor of Knowledge, Policymaking and Learning for European Cities and Regions, (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2018), and is a fellow of the Regional Studies Association and Primary Coordinator for the RSA Research Network on Cohesion Policy.