MONDAY  20th

Morning

Course 1 by Sam Workman. Punctuated Equilibrium, Policy Change, and Information(3h)

This lecture will address the emergence and development of punctuated equilibrium from its foundational approach to its evolution as a theory of how individuals and organizations process information. The lecture will introduce students to the key conceptual elements of punctuated equilibrium such as policy images, policy venues, and subsystems, and follow this conceptual evolution to its modern concern with attention dynamics, agenda change, and how and why information is supplied in the policy process. Examples will be drawn from current research with specific attention to agenda change in the United States, and specifically to regulatory politics and policy. Throughout the lecture, the backdrop for understanding policy dynamics will be rooted in bounded rationality, and its application to the way in which organizations seek out information, prioritize it, and use it to instigate policy change.

Afternoon

Student Research Presentations and Discussions (3h) 

Students will be divided into small groups led by one scholar. Students will give 15 minute presentations of their research projects followed by constructive commentary by the scholar and fellow students. The goal of these sessions will be to provide an opportunity to help students and the scholar to work together in advancing their scholarship.

Evening

Group dinner 

Tuesday 21th

Morning

Course 2 by William L. Swann. Contemporary Approaches to Studying Urban Policy Choices and Environments (3h) 

While scholarly attention to urban policy and politics has ebbed and flowed over the last half century, it is resurgent in recent decades as some of society’s most complex, pressing problems (lack of affordable and attainable housing, growing economic and health inequity, anthropogenic climate change, etc.) are taking center stage in urban areas globally. This session aims to introduce students to theoretical and methodological approaches to examining the public policy process in urban and metropolitan settings. The first part will review key theories for understanding urban policy choice and its relationship with the policy environment, including public choice economics, social embeddedness, urban regime theory and growth machines, collective action, etc., as well as discuss how new theories of the policy process—namely, the Institutional Collective Action (ICA) framework—can help organize research agendas on urban policy process. After discussing ways to analyze policies and politics for urban issues in students’ home countries, the second half will showcase some methodological tools for investigating urban policy choice, including a workshop on applying item response theory (IRT) to local sustainability policy choices. Students will walk away from this session being able to employ theories of the policy process and empirically investigate policy decisions as they relate to urban areas that interest them.

Afternoon
Student Research Presentations and Discussions (3h)

Students will give 15 minute presentations of their research projects followed by constructive commentary by the scholar and fellow students. The goal of these sessions will be to provide an opportunity to help students and the scholar to work together in advancing their scholarship.

Evening

Free

Wednesday 22th

Morning

Course 3 by Paul Cairney. Evidence-Informed Policymaking in Post-Truth Politics (3h)

Paul Cairney will use the topic of 'evidence-informed policymaking' to help us think about the value of policy process insights. The hook is as follows: there has been a recent upsurge in concerns expressed by scientists that there is a new ‘post truth’ era in politics, in which policymakers do not pay sufficient respect to expertise or attention to good quality evidence. Common solutions are supply side, to produce better evidence and communicate it more effectively, and demand side, to reform how governments process evidence.​ In that context, we can use policy theories to:

1. Question this narrative about new forms of policymaking, by identifying the ever-present factors that influence the relationship between evidence, expertise, and policymaking
2. Explore normative assumptions about the extent to which we should privilege experts and certain forms of evidence
3. Provide advice that is more useful for actors seeking influence with their evidence

Guiding questions include:

1. ​How should we distinguish between good and bad evidence for policy? While some emphasize hierarchies of evidence based on research methods, others emphasize the need to recognize many forms of policy-relevant knowledge claims.
2. How do key aspects of policymaking environments influence the use of evidence? Factors include the ‘rules of the game’, networks and trust, and the spread of policy makers and influencers across political systems.
3. What strategies are most effective, and should all actors use them? We focus on framing and storytelling for policy impact, and note that many scientists do not see such forms of communication as desirable.

Afternoon

Free

Evening

Free

Thursday 23th

Morning

Course 4 by Jennifer Dodge. Interpretive and Interactive Approach to Framing Analysis in Policy Conflicts (3h)

In the session with Jennifer Dodge, students will participate in engaged activities to learn an interpretive, interactive approach to framing analysis useful for understanding policy conflicts. After a brief introduction, we will do an exercise to grasp the social constructionist epistemology (philosophy of knowledge) that underpins interactive framing analysis. (In the exercise, we will assess how scientists framed their understanding of the edge of the solar system when they first encountered it empirically, through such devices as metaphor, naming, and even voting!) Building on this foundation, students will conduct a framing analysis of empirical materials from the controversy over hydraulic fracturing in New York in the USA. Students will share their results, with plenty of time to discuss and assess these framing techniques. Throughout the workshop, Dr. Dodge will share her approach to framing analysis based on her research about the hydraulic fracturing controversy in New York, and perhaps another case about oil extraction in Colombia, touching on the theoretical and methodological assumptions she made and the specific analytical techniques she used. Students will come away from the session being able to:

1. conduct basic framing analysis techniques from the interactive framing approach
2. distinguish the different epistemological and theoretical assumptions underpinning interpretive and positivist approaches to framing analysis
3. articulate the implications for making empirical and theoretical claims

Afternoon
Student Research Presentations and Discussions (3h)

Students will give 15 minute presentations of their research projects followed by constructive commentary by the scholar and fellow students. The goal of these sessions will be to provide an opportunity to help students and the scholar to work together in advancing their scholarship.

Evening

Group dinner

Friday 24th

Morning

Course 5 by Chris Weible. Overcoming Challenges in Studying Collaboration and Conflict in Policy Processes (3h)

The purpose of this session will be to engage students in discussions on overcoming challenges in studying collaboration and conflict in policy processes.   The session will incorporate and draw connections between literatures on democratic theories, collaborative governance, and policy processes.  It begins by exploring the meaning of collaboration and conflict in the policy process, their importance in the context of democracy, and strategies for their measurement and theoretical development.  Among the challenges that will be discussed include:

1. moving from small-n qualitative approaches to large-n automated/semi-automated quantitative approaches
2. capturing populations and sampling from them
3. shifting and linking decision-making venues and system-based analyses
4. conducting comparisons via frameworks and theories in policy processes

This session will primarily draw upon the Advocacy Coalition Framework and the Policy Conflict Framework, but it will also incorporate other approaches (including Narrative Policy Framework and the Institutional Analysis and Development Framework). Instruments for data collection will be shared along with their limitations and strengths. From this session, students will gain insights about designing and conducting research on collaboration and conflict from different methodological and theoretical perspectives and in approaching normative questions about their importance.

Afternoon

International Scholar Roundtable Discussion & Closure (2h)

The Spring School will conclude with a Grand Challenges Roundtable Session featuring the participating scholars who will be tasked with providing commentary on how to better position the field of public policy to better address the grand challenges facing humanity (e.g., climate change, refugees and migration, inequality/equity, political sustainability of our governing systems). The roundtable presentation will include active discussions with students.

Saturday 25th (optional)

Morning

Outing to the Rocky Mountains (additional fees may be required)