Pobsook Chamchong (Chiang Mai University)

Pobsook Chamchong is an Assistant Professor in public policy and governance at the School of Public Policy, Chiang Mai University, Thailand, where she also serves as Deputy Director and Head of the PhD Programme in Public Policy. She holds a PhD in Local Government and Public Policy from the Institute of Local Government Studies (INLOGOV), University of Birmingham, UK. Her academic interests include policy labs, policy innovation, policy ecosystems, policy entrepreneurship, co-creation, inclusive policy design, and foresight and futures thinking for public policy. Through interpretive, critical, and participatory approaches, she examines how contextual and socio-cultural dimensions shape policy learning and the co-creation of innovative policy solutions. Her recent research and consultancy projects focus on social prescribing for mental health and wellbeing, social protection, social justice, city innovation, and health and migration. Pobsook is the author of Cultivating Policy Innovation in Hierarchical Societies (Palgrave Macmillan, 2026), in which she advances the concept of Policy Innovation Cultivators. The book examines how these actors make policy ecosystems more generative by creating platforms for co-creation, bridging vertical relationships, and bonding diverse actors in hierarchical societies to enable innovative policy solutions to emerge. She has co-edited The Handbook of Public Policy in Asia (Edward Elgar, 2025) and Policy Analysis in High Inequalities in Asia: Critical and Pragmatic Perspectives (Routledge, 2026), and recently co-authored “Crafting Innovative Policy Design: Practices from Policy Labs in Asia” (Edward Elgar, 2025). Her publications include articles in Critical Policy Studies, the Journal of Asian Public Policy, Policy Studies, Environment and Urbanization, the Journal of Housing and the Built Environment, and the Journal of Deliberative Democracy. Pobsook serves on the steering committee of the Asia-Pacific Public Policy Network (AP-PPN) and coordinates the Thailand Public Policy Network (TPPN). She is also a member of the editorial boards of the Journal of Asian Public Policy and the International Journal of Public Administration, both published by Taylor & Francis.

Course: Policy Innovation and Policy Labs: Cultivating Generative Policy Ecosystems

Contemporary policy challenges are increasingly complex, uncertain, and cross-boundary. Issues such as mental wellbeing, health and mobility, social protection, urban transformation, and social justice cannot be addressed through linear policy processes or expert-led solutions alone. They require more inclusive, adaptive, and context-sensitive approaches that enable diverse actors to collectively frame problems, imagine alternatives, and co-create innovative policy solutions.

This course introduces participants to policy innovation and policy labs as approaches to public policy design and governance, with particular attention to how they are understood and practised in Asia and the Global South. It focuses on how policy ecosystems can become more generative through co-creation, deliberation, and policy learning. Building on and extending the Multiple Streams Framework and the concept of policy entrepreneurship, the course introduces the role of Policy Innovation Cultivators: actors who create platforms for co-creation, bridge vertical relationships, bond diverse policy actors, and enable innovative policy ideas to emerge within complex and often hierarchical policy settings.

The course combines conceptual discussion with practical methods for innovative policy design. Participants will explore how futures thinking and foresight can be used to examine uncertainty and develop alternative policy possibilities. They will also be introduced to selected design thinking tools, particularly personas and journey mapping, as methods for understanding lived experiences, reframing policy problems, and developing more human-centred and inclusive policy ideas. Particular attention will be given to policy learning, socio-cultural contexts, and the co-evolution of ideas, actors, and institutions. Through lectures, discussions, case examples, and applied exercises, drawing on research and consultancy projects in Asian and Global South contexts, as well as international work on health and wellbeing for mobile populations, the course encourages participants to reflect on how policy innovation is shaped by context, power relations, institutional arrangements, and local meanings. It is designed for participants who wish to deepen their understanding of policy innovation while gaining practical tools for designing inclusive, deliberative, and contextually grounded policy solutions.