scholarly journals Fostering Sustainability Transitions by Designing for the Convergence of Policy Windows and Transition Arenas

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (9) ◽  
pp. 2975 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Harlow ◽  
Erik Johnston ◽  
Eric Hekler ◽  
Zoë Yeh
Keyword(s):  
Sales Tax ◽  
Boundary Object ◽  
Transition Management ◽  
Multiple Streams ◽  
Incremental Change ◽  
Policy Window ◽  
Multiple Streams Approach ◽  
Transformative Potential ◽  
Policy Windows ◽  
Transportation Plan

Transition arenas that do not converge with policy windows to achieve structural or institutional change often fail to achieve their stated transformative goals. For their part, policy windows often lead to only incremental change. On their own, transition management and the multiple streams approach seem inadequate to the challenges facing cities. However, in combination, they can be transformative, as exemplified by the Citizens Committee for the Future of Phoenix Transportation. In 2015, this committee in Phoenix, AZ passed a ~USD 31.5 billion 2050 transportation plan funded by a sales tax increase from 0.4% to 0.7%. This plan’s development realized a policy window in a transition arena through an instrumental boundary object workshop with innovative facilitation. This article sets out to explore, based on this in-depth, applied transition arena process, how to combine transition management and the multiple streams approach to increase the transformative potential of transition arenas. The multiple streams approach and transition management have rarely been used simultaneously or had their integration planned. However, this case from Phoenix, AZ illustrates the potential for boundary objects and facilitation processes in designing for the convergence of policy windows and transition arenas.

The duty of candour and the NHS agenda

2020 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 107-116
Author(s):  
Martin Powell
Keyword(s):  
Design Methodology ◽  
Political Connections ◽  
Multiple Streams ◽  
Conceptual Approach ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Policy Window ◽  
Multiple Streams Approach ◽  
Latent Content ◽  
Focusing Event

PurposeThe purpose of the study is to explore how the duty of candour got onto the agenda of the British National Health Service.Design/methodology/approachThe conceptual approach is based on multiple streams approach, with the methodology being interpretive content analysis, which uses a deductive approach that focuses on both manifest and latent content.FindingsThe duty of candour got onto the NHS agenda as a result of the Mid Staffordshire inquiry report and the long-term “interest group” campaign associated with Robbie's Law. It is argued that the “focusing event” of the Mid Staffordshire Inquiry Report opened the “policy window”. It also highlights the importance of “policy entrepreneur” Sir Robert Francis whose “claim to a hearing”, “political connections” and “persistence” was vital.Research limitations/implicationsAnalysis was confined to published documents.Originality/valueIt highlights some of the factors that suggested why the duty of candour got onto the NHS agenda when it did.

A Multiple Streams Analysis of Recent Changes to State-Level Dyslexia Education Law

2018 ◽  
Vol 34 (7) ◽  
pp. 1036-1068
Author(s):  
Brian Gearin ◽  
Jessica Turtura ◽  
Edward J. Kame’enui ◽  
Nancy J. Nelson ◽  
Hank Fien
Keyword(s):  
Explicit Instruction ◽  
State Level ◽  
Long Term Effects ◽  
Multiple Streams ◽  
Short Term ◽  
School Practice ◽  
Policy Window ◽  
Multiple Streams Approach ◽  
And Training

This article provides an overview of recent changes to state-level dyslexia legislation. It begins by applying a variant of Kingdon’s multiple streams approach to explain how the dyslexia education “policy window” came to be opened. The article then describes the most likely effects and side effects of the new laws. Likely short-term effects include (a) a greater focus in schools on dyslexia screening and intervention, (b) greater use of multitiered systems of support and explicit instruction, and (c) changes in teacher preparation and training. Possible long-term effects include a reconceptualization of what constitutes “normal” school practice.

Multiple Streams in Foreign Policy

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nikolaos Zahariadis
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Empirical Literature ◽  
Multiple Streams ◽  
Organizational Process ◽  
Multiple Streams Approach ◽  
Open Policy ◽  
Systemic Level ◽  
Policy Windows ◽  
Government Level

The Multiple Streams Approach (MSA) builds on the organizational process tradition by (1) unpacking the organizational process “paradigm,” (2) maintaining emphasis on “governmental action as organizational output,” and (3) stressing the importance of ambiguity and temporal sorting as essential blocks of policy making. Operating at the systemic level, it is an actor-centered approach. It conceptualizes foreign policy choice as being made at the system—government—level and is the result of coupling three streams by policy entrepreneurs—policies, problems, and politics—during open policy windows. It differs from traditional models of foreign policy making by stressing process over outcome and stands between the rational and cognitive schools of foreign policy making. The empirical literature finds the MSA is a good candidate to bridge the divide between domestic and foreign policy, shedding light on debates of small versus large state foreign policy behavior by utilizing both qualitative and quantitative techniques.

scholarly journals Policy window in a pandemic: How a computer science RPP fostered equity in credit recovery

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Johnson ◽  
◽  
John Wachen ◽  
Steven McGee ◽  
◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Schools ◽  
Computer Science ◽  
Policy Process ◽  
Credit Recovery ◽  
Chicago Public Schools ◽  
Research Practice ◽  
Multiple Streams ◽  
Policy Window ◽  
Multiple Streams Approach ◽  
Continued Use

The Chicago Alliance for Equity in Computer Science is a research-practice partnership that is working to broaden the participation of Chicago Public Schools’ students in computer science. For this study, we applied the multiple streams approach from theories of the policy process (Kingdon, 1995; Zahariadis, 2014) to explain how the COVID-19 pandemic helped open a policy window for the continued use of synchronous online instruction during the implementation of an equity-centered computer science credit recovery option in Chicago.

scholarly journals Personal Carbon Trading—Lost in the Policy Primeval Soup?

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (8) ◽  
pp. 4592
Author(s):  
Fabio Bothner
Keyword(s):  
Ghg Emissions ◽  
Emission Trading ◽  
Political Agenda ◽  
Carbon Trading ◽  
Multiple Streams ◽  
Policy Proposal ◽  
The Past ◽  
Multiple Streams Approach ◽  
Carbon Taxation ◽  
Set Up

The number of emission trading and carbon taxation schemes implemented has grown rapidly over the past decade. Together, they cover approximately 16% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Although more than two-thirds of global GHG emissions are related to household consumption, approaches that directly target households, such as personal carbon trading (PCT), do not play a role in the fight against climate change. This is especially puzzling as measures taken so far are not sufficient to reach the 2 °C target. One clue to solving this puzzle comes from political science in the form of the multiple streams approach, which defines criteria that a policy proposal must meet to become part of the political agenda. Based on these criteria, this article conducts a systematic review on PCT to clarify why PCT does not play a role in the reduction of GHG emissions. The results show that there are three main problems with the PCT proposal. First, scholars often criticize the set-up costs as well as the running costs of such a system. Second, there is no clear consensus within the research community on public acceptance of PCT. Third, it is still unclear whether politicians are receptive to PCT or not.

scholarly journals Understanding Policy Change: Multiple Streams and National Education Curriculum Policy in Hong Kong

2014 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 49 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony Chow
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Curriculum Policy ◽  
Education Curriculum ◽  
Multiple Streams ◽  
National Education ◽  
Policy Problem ◽  
Political Forces ◽  
Multiple Streams Framework ◽  
Policy Windows ◽  
Policy Solutions

The purpose of this paper is to critically analyse the policymaking process of the Moral and National Education (MNE) curriculum in Hong Kong by employing Kingdon’s Multiple Streams Framework. The aim of the paper is threefold. First, it will describe the policy process of the national education curriculum policy as a foundation for the analysis. Second, the author will critically evaluate and apply Kingdon’s MSF to examine the policymaking process, both to analyse how such policy came to be constructed as a problem and to consider the proposed policy solutions, as well as the surrounding political forces. Third, the analysis will identify the possible coupling of these lines of thought and the notions of “policy entrepreneurs” and “policy windows.”The MNE policy provided a good example of how a policy problem is constructed in various policy contexts, as well as how the solution is matched to the problem. Although the policy outcome is not entirely predictable, Kingdon’s framework is excellent for explaining the likely outcomes.This paper contributes to the wider policy literature by bridging the East-West gap in policy analysis. It provides a better understanding of the policymaking process in Asian countries, and it should also prove useful to both education policy scholars and policymakers. Finally it suggests further research is needed on how social media affects each of Kingdon’s streams in Hong Kong.

Congress as theatre: how advocates use ambiguity for political advantage

2018 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-71
Author(s):  
Parrish Bergquist
Keyword(s):  
Flood Insurance ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Policy Window ◽  
Political Opportunities ◽  
Insurance Program ◽  
Political Implications ◽  
Policy Windows ◽  
Multiple Meanings ◽  
Political Advantage ◽  
Political Entrepreneurs

AbstractAmbiguity – the capacity to have multiple meanings – is endemic to politics. Ambiguity creates political opportunities, structures debates and provides leeway for political entrepreneurs to advance their interests. I use the 2012 passage and 2014 rollback of reforms to the National Flood Insurance Program to show how ambiguity enables political entrepreneurship. In this puzzling case, Congress enacted and rolled back changes that threatened to impose politically unpalatable costs. Using semi-structured interviews and congressional testimony, I show how political entrepreneurs engaged with ambiguity in the buildup to the reforms’ passage. They used information strategically to interpret problems, solutions, rules, and goals; shape legislators’ perceptions of the reforms’ political implications; and adapt their arguments to the policy windows that opened. The case shows that ambiguity facilitates policy reform, but the direction of change depends on the priorities that are salient when a policy window opens and on the interests of political entrepreneurs.

Never again? A retrospective and prospective view of English health reforms

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Powell ◽  
Mark Exworthy
Keyword(s):  
Health Policy ◽  
Conceptual Model ◽  
Research Agenda ◽  
Multiple Streams ◽  
Health Reforms ◽  
Multiple Streams Approach

This chapter takes retrospective and prospective perspectives on health reforms in English NHS. Retrospectively, we offer a precis of the preceding chapters, taking stock of the cumulative lessons from the significant body of evidence that has been presented in this book. Moreover, we seek to explain the ‘how and why’ of these reforms, using a specific conceptual model (multiple streams approach (MSA)). Prospectively, we consider the direction of health policy in the English NHS, and the research agenda which might inform this process.

Seventy years of the British National Health Service: problem, politics and policy streams

2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-39 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Powell
Keyword(s):  
National Health Service ◽  
Health Service ◽  
National Health ◽  
Multiple Streams ◽  
Policy Problem ◽  
Policy Window ◽  
Political Debates ◽  
Policy Streams ◽  
Political Differences ◽  
British National Health

AbstractThe British National Health Service (NHS) celebrates its 70th birthday on 5 July 2018. This paper examines this anniversary through the lens of previous anniversaries, exploring two strands of political debates and NHS documents. It draws on the basic ‘multiple streams model’ of Kingdon that argues that an issue reaches the agenda when the policy window opens to allow the coupling of three independent streams – policy, problem and politics. It is found that there appears to be some discontinuity in the problem stream; some periods of relative consensus and sharp political differences in the politics stream; and sharp variations over time in the policy stream. While it is clear that there have been both continuities and discontinuities in the problem, politics and policy streams over the past 70 years, they have rarely come together to result in a policy that has taken it off the agenda.

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