Identifying diverging sustainability meanings for water policy: a Q-method study in Phoenix, Arizona

Abstract We identify and describe social perspectives on the sustainability of the water sector in the metropolitan area of Phoenix, Arizona. Using Q methodology, we find evidence for different meanings of sustainability when stakeholders are presented with concrete policy options and applications in spite of an apparently widespread agreement on the concept of sustainability itself. We put the social perspectives articulated by local stakeholders in perspective by analyzing whether they adhere to a commonly used set of sustainability principles when applied to water management and governance. The analysis indicates that although there is some level of acceptance of sustainability principles among the social perspectives identified, there are important discrepancies in the salience of different principles. Results suggest that when people are interacting in policy-making processes they tend to support their previously held own vision of the problems and that their normative considerations may be opposed to broadly accepted sustainability discourses. The different visions of water sustainability may have a direct impact on the water policy-making process depending on the position and influence of the actors involved in the governance scheme.

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Designing transdisciplinary projects for collaborative policy-making: The Integration and Implementation Sciences framework as a tool for reflection

GAIA - Ecological Perspectives for Science and Society ◽

10.14512/gaia.29.3.7 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 29 (3) ◽

pp. 170-175

Author(s):

Melissa Robson-Williams ◽

Bruce Small ◽

Roger Robson-Williams

Keyword(s):

Water Policy ◽

Policy Making ◽

Practice Change ◽

Knowledge Systems ◽

Transdisciplinary Research ◽

Policy And Practice ◽

Community Values ◽

Project Completion ◽

Policy Making Process ◽

Environmental Limits

Collaborative policy-making has increased in New Zealand, and with it has brought new demands for supporting research. As a tool for reflection of projects where both research and societal outcomes of policy and practice change are pursued and multiple knowledges are recognised, we use the Integration and Implementation Sciences framework. We present insights for the design and implementation of transdisciplinary research from the Selwyn Waihora Project, which aimed to produce socially robust information to support land and water policy-making in New Zealand’s South Island.The Selwyn Waihora Project was a research project supporting a collaborative policy-making process to set environmental limits in the Selwyn Waihora catchment in New Zealand’s South Island. In this Design Report we reflect on this project based on data collected from a range of project participants approximately two years after project completion. The data collection was guided by the Integration and Implementation Sciences framework (i2S). On the basis of participant responses, and the authors’ first-hand experiences working on the project, we present insights for transdisciplinary research. Through the questions asked by the i2S framework insights emerged on: what it means to honour community values; the importance of context but that projects can pay too much attention to it; boundary objects to foster integration across multiple knowledge systems; the value of intra-team narratives for translation; the importance of considering the losers of the research; and sharing the burden of uncertainty.

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Public Opinion and the Demand for Social Welfare in Britain

Journal of Social Policy ◽

10.1017/s0047279400001537 ◽

1981 ◽

Vol 10 (4) ◽

pp. 453-475 ◽

Cited By ~ 21

Author(s):

Paul Whiteley

Keyword(s):

Public Opinion ◽

Social Policy ◽

Social Welfare ◽

Policy Making ◽

Policy Formation ◽

Welfare Spending ◽

The Social ◽

Policy Making Process

ABSTRACTThis article discusses the role of public opinion in the social policy making process. It argues that existing accounts of social policy formation are inadequate in their treatment of public opinion, and inconsistent in their estimation of its importance. It then goes on to examine detailed examples of the role of public opinion in policy making; and finally tests two hypotheses concerning the sources of the demand for social welfare spending on the part of the British electorate.

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Analysis on The Procedural Rationality through The Social Policy Making Process

Public Policy Review ◽

10.17327/ippa.2013.27.3.001 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 27 (3) ◽

pp. 1-28

Author(s):

김영종

Keyword(s):

Social Policy ◽

Policy Making ◽

Procedural Rationality ◽

The Social ◽

Policy Making Process

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Social Science Research and the Social Policy Making Process: The Case of Albania

The International Journal of Interdisciplinary Social and Community Studies ◽

10.18848/2324-7576/cgp/v07i01/53452 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 7 (1) ◽

pp. 77-86

Author(s):

Fatos Tarifa

Keyword(s):

Social Policy ◽

Social Science ◽

Policy Making ◽

Social Science Research ◽

Science Research ◽

The Social ◽

Policy Making Process

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Private Representation in Washington: Surveying the Structure of Influence

American Bar Foundation Research Journal ◽

10.1111/j.1747-4469.1987.tb00532.x ◽

1987 ◽

Vol 12 (1) ◽

pp. 141-200 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Robert L. Nelson ◽

John P. Heinz ◽

Edward O. Laumann ◽

Robert H. Salisbury

Keyword(s):

Social Organization ◽

Empirical Analysis ◽

Policy Making ◽

National Policies ◽

Interest Representation ◽

Private Interests ◽

Law And Politics ◽

The Social ◽

Policy Making Process ◽

Distinctive Group

Despite the significance of interest representation to theories of law and politics, the social organization of interest representation has not received systematic empirical analysis. Based on interviews with 776 individuals engaged in the representation of private interests concerning national policies on agriculture, energy, health, and labor, this article reports some findings concerning the social and political characteristics of representatives, the nature of their work and their relationships with client organizations. Three models of the social organization of interest representation are developed and examined: a model based on substantive expertise, an institutional targets model, and a client-based model. The findings indicate that representation is predominately organized around client interests Although lawyers constitute a significant and distinctive group among representatives, they are neither as numerous nor as active in policy making as is commonly assumed. The analysis suggests that representatives are not likely to exercise influence in the policy-making process that is autonomous from client organizations.

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Policy Studies and Social Policy in Britain

Journal of Social Policy ◽

10.1017/s0047279400009028 ◽

1979 ◽

Vol 8 (3) ◽

pp. 311-334

Author(s):

Stuart S. Blume

Keyword(s):

Social Sciences ◽

Social Policy ◽

Policy Making ◽

Social Research ◽

Policy Planning ◽

Policy Studies ◽

The Social ◽

Policy Making Process ◽

Recent Debate ◽

The Relationship

ABSTRACTThe recent debate about the establishment of a ‘British Brookings’ involved a number of fundamental issues which were not brought out. In fact the idea that the British policy-making process should be made more ‘rational’ through the development of what are sometimes called policy studies is not new. It has roots in the Heyworth Report on social studies, which recommended greater use of social research in policy-making, and in the Fulton Report on the civil service, which argued for more policy-planning. These two approaches may now be seen as basically the same, and the problem as one of changing the relationship between social science and (social) policy. However, past analyses of this relationship attribute difficulties to quite different causes and hence yield a variety of prescriptions for reform. It is argued here that the policy studies which are needed must avoid the disciplinary fragmentation of the social sciences as well as that of the current administrative structure, that they must encompass research both for policy and on policy, and that they must seek their own conceptual structure, and in addition that certain organizational requirements follow from this.

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Positive Reintegration as a Way of Small and Medium-Sized Business Development

Voprosy Ekonomiki ◽

10.32609/0042-8736-2012-6-83-88 ◽

2012 ◽

pp. 83-88

Author(s):

A. Zolotov ◽

M. Mukhanov

Keyword(s):

Policy Implementation ◽

Policy Making ◽

Economic Reforms ◽

Alternative Possibility ◽

New Approach ◽

Compensation Mechanisms ◽

Policy Making Process ◽

Monitoring And Enforcement ◽

The Subject ◽

Modernization Process

А new approach to policy-making in the field of economic reforms in modernizing countries (on the sample of SME promotion) is the subject of this article. Based on summarizing the ten-year experience of de-bureaucratization policy implementation to reduce the administrative pressure on SME, the conclusion of its insufficient efficiency and sustainability is made. The alternative possibility is the positive reintegration approach, which provides multiparty policy-making process, special compensation mechanisms for the losing sides, monitoring and enforcement operations. In conclusion matching between positive reintegration principles and socio-cultural factors inherent in modernization process is provided.

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