LIST OF PANELS

In light of its increased political salience and strengthened academic interest, the proposed panel builds on the ICPP 2017 panel “Analysing knowledge policy coordination for the 21st century”, and explores the intricate dynamics of knowledge policies in the global context. The panel will utilize the multi-level, multi-actor and multi-issue dimensions of contemporary knowledge governance as the predominant heuristic (Chou, Jungblut, Ravinet, & Vukasovic, 2017). The multi-level dimension—and by extension multi-sited—concerns the relationship between policy processes at various governance levels, from sub-national and national to macro-regional and global. The multi-actor dimension highlights the presence of non-state actors, as well as the fact that the state cannot be considered a unitary actor. The multi-issue dimension relates to the fact governance of knowledge requires collaboration across multiple policy sectors, e.g. higher education, research, trade, migration, security.

The panel aims to explore the interactions between the multi-level, multi-actor and multi-issue dimensions of governance in relation to three inter-related phenomena: (1) the travelling, diffusion and translation of policy ideas and instruments, (2) the position of research policy (including major international research funding programmes) in relation to governance of knowledge in particular, and public policy in general, and (3) the increasing role of the regional level in knowledge policy coordination.

Given the increased internationalization and transnational cooperation with regard to knowledge policies, which resulted to a certain extent in processes of convergence, the first session will focus on the travelling, diffusion and translation of policy ideas and instruments across / in different contexts. As activities such as international bench-marking, policy forums for exchanges of best or good-practice and active policy coordination lead to increased potential for ideas and policies to travel both horizontally between countries and vertically between different levels of policymaking, the question concerning how these ideas and instruments travel becomes more relevant, offering an interesting framework to study more general processes of how policies and ideas travel in such complex environments (Colyvas & Jonsson, 2011; Czarniawska & Sevón, 1996; Marsh & Sharman, 2009; Strang & Meyer, 1993; Strang & Soule, 1998). In this process. it cannot be assumed that these traveling ideas and instruments are simply copied, but rather that they have to be translated to the local context in order to become implemented.

The mechanisms, aims, and instruments for funding research have undergone tremendous change over the past several decades. The no-strings-attached model for funding researchers is long dead, as concepts of efficiency, excellence, impact and relevance have gained importance and shaped policy initiatives. Increased globalization in the context of the knowledge-based economy, has made research more central to the competitive economic interests of the state, but many global social and environmental problems demand cooperative scientific efforts. New actors from outside of academia are entering the research policy area not only as recipients but also as participants in funding decisions. The second session will examine the dynamics of research funding policies in light of this changing context, comparing different countries and governance levels but also looking at the intricate interactions between them as they seek to cooperate as well as to capture resources and results. Policy instruments tend to be structured to the source of their problem definition – be that the scientific community, industry or government – and new policy paradigms for each of these have begun to take shape. The European Research Council has put itself out as a global model for research that is academically determined, excellent and which pushes the frontiers of knowledge. Governmental support for industry-based R&D has gained legitimacy, but often operates under different principles than peer-reviewed tenders. Finally, the concept of ‘grand challenges’ as a societally defined means to frame and fund research that tackles what are often termed ‘wicked problems’ (Rittel & Webber, 1973) transcend national boundaries and traditional actors in the governance of knowledge (Kuhlmann & Rip, 2018; Ulnicane, 2016). The new landscape of research funding policy raises significant questions about the framing, problem definition, actor constellations, implementation, and evaluation of these policies, which will be addressed in this session.

The third session will focus on regional level policy coordination, both (1) macro-regional arrangements (e.g. EU, ASEAN, MERCOSUR) and (2) cooperation between a smaller number of geographically proximate countries with economic, political, social and cultural similarities (e.g. Nordic, Benelux, Baltic). It will explore (a) which state and non-state actors are involved in such policy coordination, (b) what kind of issues are subject to regional level policy coordination and how that relate to issues addressed at other governance levels and (c) how regional level policy coordination relates to policy coordination at other governance levels (e.g. how coordination in the Nordic region relates to EU level governance). Furthermore, it will analyse how these characteristics of regional level policy coordination affect integration of these regions. In doing so, it will contribute to emerging literature on comparative regionalism and differentiated integration (Chou & Ravinet, 2015; Holzinger & Schimmelfennig, 2012; Robertson, 2010; Sbragia, 2010; Warleigh-Lack, 2015).

Through these three sessions, relying on a common multi-level, multi-actor, and multi-issue governance heuristic and analysing processes in core policy domains for contemporary knowledge societies and economies, the panel aims to contribute to ICPP’s Comparative Public Policy topic (T02). Each session will have a designated discussant who will provide specific comments for each accepted paper as well as more generic reflections on the session as a whole. In consultation with the discussants, the chairs will explore possibilities for publishing most promising papers in a special issue. In order to be selected, the papers will have to have a clear conceptual approach supported by empirical examples, preferably beyond a single case study.

References

Chou, M.-H., Jungblut, J., Ravinet, P., & Vukasovic, M. (2017). Higher education governance and policy: an introduction to multi-issue, multi-level and multi-actor dynamics. Policy and Society, 36(1), 1-15. doi:10.1080/14494035.2017.1287999

Chou, M.-H., & Ravinet, P. (2015). Governing higher education beyond the state: The rise of ‘Higher education regionalism'. In H. De Boer, D. D. Dill, J. Huisman, & M. Souto-Otero (Eds.), Handbook of Higher Education Policy and Governance (pp. 361-378). London: Palgrave.

Colyvas, J. A., & Jonsson, S. (2011). Ubiquity and Legitimacy: Disentangling Diffusion and Institutionalization*. Sociological Theory, 29(1), 27-53. doi:doi:10.1111/j.1467-9558.2010.01386.x

Czarniawska, B., & Sevón, G. (Eds.). (1996). Translating organizational change (Repr. ed. Vol. 56 : Organizational theory and research). Berlin: de Gruyter.

Holzinger, K., & Schimmelfennig, F. (2012). Differentiated Integration in the European Union: Many concepts, sparse theory, few data. Journal of European Public Policy, 19(2), 292-305. doi:10.1080/13501763.2012.641747

Kuhlmann, S., & Rip, A. (2018). Next-Generation Innovation Policy and Grand Challenges. Science and Public Policy, 45(4), 448-454. doi:10.1093/scipol/scy011

Marsh, D., & Sharman, J. C. (2009). Policy diffusion and policy transfer. Policy Studies, 30(3), 269-288. doi:10.1080/01442870902863851

Rittel, H. J., & Webber, M. (1973). Dilemmas in a general theory of planning. Policy Sciences, 4(2), 155-169. doi:10.1007/BF01405730

Robertson, S. L. (2010). The EU, ‘regulatory state regionalism’ and new modes of higher education governance. Globalisation, Societies and Education, 8(1), 23-37. doi:10.1080/14767720903574033

Sbragia, A. (2010). Multi-level governance and comparative regionalism. In M. Zürn, H. Enderlein, & S. Wälti (Eds.), Handbook on Multi-level Governance (pp. 267-278). Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.

Strang, D., & Meyer, J. W. (1993). Institutional conditions for diffusion. Theory and Society, 22(4), 487-511. doi:10.1007/bf00993595

Strang, D., & Soule, S. A. (1998). Diffusion in Organizations and Social Movements: From Hybrid Corn to Poison Pills. Annual Review of Sociology, 24(1), 265-290. doi:10.1146/annurev.soc.24.1.265

Ulnicane, I. (2016). Research and innovation as sources of renewed growth? EU policy responses to the crisis. Journal of European Integration, 38(3), 327-341. doi:10.1080/07036337.2016.1140155

Warleigh-Lack, A. (2015). Differentiated integration in the European Union: towards a comparative regionalism perspective. Journal of European Public Policy, 22(6), 871-887. doi:10.1080/13501763.2015.1020837

The panel will explore the interactions between the multi-level, multi-actor and multi-issue dimensions of governance in relation to three inter-related phenomena: (1) the travelling, diffusion and translation of policy ideas and instruments, (2) the position of research policy (including major international research funding programmes) in relation to governance of knowledge in particular, and public policy in general, and (3) the increasing role of the regional level in knowledge policy coordination.

The first session will focus on the increased potential for ideas and instruments to travel, both horizontally between countries and vertically between different levels of policymaking, as well as the extent to which diffused ideas and instruments are translated to the local context. Such travelling and diffusion is enabled by international bench-marking, policy forums for exchanges of best-practice and active policy coordination across national borders.

The second session will examine the dynamics of research funding policies in light of the increasing focus on efficiency, excellence, impact and relevance, strong expectations concerning role of research in ensuring economic competitiveness and addressing global social and environmental problems, as well as increasing participation of new actors outside of academic in funding decisions. Of particular interests are questions about the framing, problem definition, actor constellations, implementation, and evaluation of research funding policies.

The third session will focus on regional level policy coordination. It will explore (a) which state and non-state actors involved in such policy coordination, (b) what kind of issues are subject to regional level policy coordination and how does that relate to issues addressed at other governance levels and (c) how does regional level policy coordination relate to policy coordination at other governance levels (e.g. how does coordination in the Nordic region relate to EU level governance). Furthermore, it will analyse how these characteristics of regional level policy coordination affect integration of these regions.

Each session will have a designated discussant who will provide specific comments for each accepted paper as well as more generic reflections on the session as a whole. In consultation with the discussants, the chairs will explore possibilities for publishing most promising papers in a special issue.

In order to be selected, the papers will have to have a clear conceptual approach supported by empirical examples, preferably beyond a single case study.