LIST OF PANELS

Much theorizing about policy interventions, in their post-decisional phase, conceives of them as essentially static phenomena, albeit located within dynamic contexts. By contrast, much theorizing of reform initiatives conceives of them as inherently dynamic phenomena, with the path and outcome of some events conditioning the path and outcome of contemporaneous or later ones. This panel will look to see whether policy research would benefit from researchers trying to transcend the intervention/reform duality. The argument isn’t so much that there’s a problem to remedy, as that each area of research might establish somewhat new directions by seeing each other area in a somewhat new light. 

The device used to convene such a discussion is to imagine that some policy interventions and many reforms are inherently campaign-like.  The intellectual history of this idea lies in military affairs, where a campaign is inherently dynamic “purposeful” phenomenon.  It is dynamic in that it is has the temporality of starts and finishes. It is dynamic due to internal path dependencies, where the path of one stage can interfere with the path of a contemporaneous one, while the path and outcome of one stage can set the context or initial conditions for a later one.  And there are other qualities to a campaign, includes collaboration among actors placed within an institutional ecology’s differentiated policy subsystems, through some kind of temporary organization that plays a campaign-governance role.

While the campaign idea has a specific history, it can be repurposed for research purposes in public policy generally. Some policy interventions are inherently campaign-like, such as attempting to control viral pandemics or responding to natural disasters in specific geographical areas.  Policy interventions intended to transform systems such as public education are inherently campaign like. Policy interventions that involve the hosting of major cultural or sporting events are campaign-like. Public management policies, such as those seeking to suppress corruption or to adapt governments to discontinuous digital innovation, are often-times campaign-like.

The panel would be designed to see whether policy intervention researchers can learn from reform initiative researchers, and vice versa. Likewise, it is meant to bring policy researchers and public management researchers into a more productive conversation.  The papers could be single or collective instrumental case studies, research syntheses, or interdisciplinary perspectives on issues of theory and method.  They could be working toward empirical theory or be developing archetypes of campaign-like policy phenomena as part of furnishing knowledge for use in policy planning and strategic planning in public organizations.

If successful, then the panel may become the basis for proposing a special issue in IRPP. 

Much theorizing about policy interventions conceives of them as essentially static phenomena. By contrast, much theorizing of reform initiatives conceives of them as inherently dynamic phenomena. This panel will look to see whether policy research would benefit from researchers trying to transcend the intervention/reform duality. The device used to convene such a discussion is to imagine that some policy interventions and many reforms are inherently campaign-like.

The intellectual history of this idea lies in military affairs, where a campaign is inherently dynamic “purposeful” phenomenon.  While the campaign idea has a specific history, it can be repurposed for research purposes in public policy generally. Some policy interventions are inherently campaign-like, such as attempting to control viral pandemics or responding to natural disasters in specific geographical areas. Policy interventions intended to transform systems such as public education are inherently campaign-like. Policy interventions that involve the hosting of major cultural or sporting events are campaign-like. Public management policies, such as those seeking to suppress corruption or to adapt governments to discontinuous digital innovation, are often-times campaign-like.

The panel on studying policy interventions and reform initiatives as “campaigns” is designed to see whether policy intervention researchers can learn from reform initiative researchers, and vice versa. The papers could be single or collective instrumental case studies, research syntheses, or interdisciplinary perspectives on issues of theory and method.  They could be working toward empirical theory or be developing archetypes of campaign-like policy phenomena as part of furnishing knowledge for use in policy planning and strategic planning in public organizations.