TY - JOUR

T1 - Exploring governance learning

T2 - How policymakers draw on evidence, experience and intuition in designing participatory flood risk planning

AU - Newig, Jens

AU - Kochskämper, Elisa

AU - Challies, Ed

AU - Jager, Nicolas Wilhelm

PY - 2016/1/1

Y1 - 2016/1/1

N2 - The importance of designing suitable participatory governance processes is generally acknowledged. However, less emphasis has been put on how decision-makers design such processes, and how they learn about doing so. While the policy learning literature has tended to focus on the substance of policy, little research is available on learning about the design of governance. Here, we explore different approaches to learning among German policymakers engaged in implementing the European Floods Directive. We draw on official planning documents and expert interviews with state-level policymakers to focus on learning about the procedural aspects of designing and conducting participatory flood risk management planning. Drawing on the policy learning and evidence-based governance literatures, we conceptualise six types of instrumental ‘governance learning’ according to sources of learning (endogenous and exogenous) and modes of learning (serial and parallel). We empirically apply this typology in the context of diverse participatory flood risk management planning processes currently unfolding across the German federal states. We find that during the first Floods Directive planning cycle, policymakers have tended to rely on prior experience in their own federal states with planning under the Water Framework Directive to inform the design and carrying out of participatory processes. In contrast, policymakers only sporadically look to experiences from other jurisdictions as a deliberate learning strategy. We argue that there is scope for more coordinated and systematic learning on designing effective governance, and that the latter might benefit from more openness to experimentation and learning on the part of policymakers.

AB - The importance of designing suitable participatory governance processes is generally acknowledged. However, less emphasis has been put on how decision-makers design such processes, and how they learn about doing so. While the policy learning literature has tended to focus on the substance of policy, little research is available on learning about the design of governance. Here, we explore different approaches to learning among German policymakers engaged in implementing the European Floods Directive. We draw on official planning documents and expert interviews with state-level policymakers to focus on learning about the procedural aspects of designing and conducting participatory flood risk management planning. Drawing on the policy learning and evidence-based governance literatures, we conceptualise six types of instrumental ‘governance learning’ according to sources of learning (endogenous and exogenous) and modes of learning (serial and parallel). We empirically apply this typology in the context of diverse participatory flood risk management planning processes currently unfolding across the German federal states. We find that during the first Floods Directive planning cycle, policymakers have tended to rely on prior experience in their own federal states with planning under the Water Framework Directive to inform the design and carrying out of participatory processes. In contrast, policymakers only sporadically look to experiences from other jurisdictions as a deliberate learning strategy. We argue that there is scope for more coordinated and systematic learning on designing effective governance, and that the latter might benefit from more openness to experimentation and learning on the part of policymakers.

KW - Sustainability Science

KW - Politics

KW - Sustainability sciences, Communication

KW - EU Floods Directive

KW - Evidence-based governance

KW - Flood risk management

KW - Policy design

KW - Policy experimentation

KW - Policy learning

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84947206676&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/j.envsci.2015.07.020

DO - 10.1016/j.envsci.2015.07.020

M3 - Journal articles

C2 - 28149198

VL - 55

SP - 353

EP - 360

JO - Environmental Science & Policy

JF - Environmental Science & Policy

SN - 1462-9011

ER -