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The Policy Compass was introduced by the Dutch government in March 2023. It is intended to be applied by all departments of central government. The Policy Compass aims to secure and improve the quality of policy and regulation. The tool consists of a website, which presents policy and legislative officials with a number of key questions that they should answer step by step when designing policy and regulations. The website provides them with an overview of the quality requirements that policies and regulations must meet and a wide range of tools and tests to answer the key questions. Part of the Policy Compass is the regular evaluation of application and achievement of goals. This report reports on the initial evaluation of the Policy Compass instrument. Given the recent introduction of the Policy Compass, it focuses not on the evaluation of goal achievement (outcome), but on the use of the instrument (output). The study also provides a foundation for future evaluations, through the reconstruction of policy theory underlying the Policy Compass and the establishment of an evaluation framework.

This chapter presents a reflection on the theoretical and practical lessons regarding the Norwegian co-creation pilots examined in this book. It compares the chapters of this book by using a number of key concepts that are central in co-creation theory and the cases studied: co-creation, tensions, coping strategies and constructive hybridity. In doing so it identifies conceptual strengths and best practices that have the potential to bring co-creation theory and practice further. The comparison also sheds light on some conceptual challenges that may inspire future co-creation research. The most important lesson drawn is based on the finding that despite the fact that municipalities had placed co-creation high on their agenda, the results were disappointing. Sim

In regional planning, and more specifically transport corridor development, sustainability is often overshadowed by economic ambitions and prospects. This contribution explores how the governance of corridor development processes can enhance sustainability. It presents findings from the planning process for the Gilimanuk–Denpasar–Padang Bai (GDP) Corridor in Bali, Indonesia. The analysis is guided by a theoretical framework that builds on literature on regional development, corridor development, sustainability and governance. Using process tracing, the analysis investigates the influence of five governance factors on the process of sustainable corridor development and its outcomes, notably the presence of a sustainability vision, the governance mode, the actor constellation, the available knowledge, and the institutional setting. Whereas literature on sustainable corridors suggests that governance structures and corridor management are needed, this contribution analysis how and under what conditions these structures in practice contribute to sustainable outcomes. The findings show how the original economic focus of the corridor gradually evolved into a more sustainable one, although not all potentials were realized. These illustrate that sustainable corridors require governance of interaction processes, involving a dynamic and contextualized constellation of governance factors, that co-evolves during the planning process. Despite that the GDP corridor gradually developed into a more sustainable direction, the presence of a sustainability rather than an economic focus from the onset would have increased the potentials of realizing sustainability ambitions.

Recently, scholars have called for a focus on subjective aspects of risk management as a suitable lens for understanding how it functions. In line with this lens, this study focuses on project actors’ viewpoints on risk management in the context of construction projects to provide novel insights in risk management. Drawing on Renn's model and following a Q methodology, we identify four risk management approaches among asset managers and project managers working at the Dutch Schiphol Airport. The action-oriented and future-oriented viewpoints are dominant, while the expert input and stakeholder-centric viewpoints are in the minority. Our findings extend the risk management debate by showing that (1) there are various approaches to risk management that have been identified independently from the formal risk management; (2) these approaches cannot be explained by a project actor's role or objective within the project; and (3) that project actors have a dominant focus on managing complexity-induced risks at the expense of managing other types of risks., Design & Construction Management

De problemen en affaires waarmee de Nederlandse overheid kampt, worden wel toegeschreven aan het instrumentele denken binnen de overheid dat dominant geworden is onder invloed van New Public Management. Door het streven naar effectiviteit en efficiency komen uitvoeringsinstanties en kwetsbare burgers in de knel en wordt de menselijke maat uit het oog verloren. In deze bijdrage wordt nagegaan in hoeverre de literatuur over publieke waarden het kompas aanreikt om de instrumentele koers van de overheid te corrigeren. Drie benaderingen worden besproken: publieke waarde als beleidsuitkomst, publieke waarden als concurrerende waarden, en publieke waarden als geïnternaliseerde waarden die het gedrag van bestuurders, publieke managers en uitvoerders mede bepalen. Deze verkenning resulteert in suggesties om bij de totstandkoming en realisatie van beleid en publieke diensten tot een betere en evenwichtigere afweging van publieke waarden te komen. De literatuur biedt evenwel nog weinig zicht op de effecten van deze suggesties.

Policy of Multi-Actor Systems is an introduction into the art of craft of problem exploration and problem structuring. It positions policy analysis as a scientific discipline focused on systems analysis in a multi-actor context to support better informed decision-making. The approach presented in this book is considered to be the cornerstone of the curricula of the Faculty of Technology, Policy and Management of Delft University of Technology and underlies the research on (the governance of) socio-technical systems. Systems thinking applied in a multi-actor environment and its inherent multi-disciplinary character is what makes this work stand out from traditional hard- and soft systems approaches. The core of the book is dedicated to systems analysis, actor- or stakeholder-analysis and discusses methods for dealing with uncertainty. These analytical activities combined lead to a rich problem description and to plans for further research. Due to the stepwise approach this book serves as a basis for any problem analysis both for our bachelor and master students, our alumni worldwide and any interested practitioners., TU Delft OPEN Textbook, Policy Analysis

Governing material conditions—including physical, material subjects such as machines, build constructions, construction materials, and subsoils—is a crucial challenge within projects and is underrepresented in project governance theory. To clarify the relationship between project governance and materiality, we draw on translation theory, which is essentially about the reinterpretation, appropriation, and representation of interests related to materials. This paper studies the challenges of governing the underground during the construction of the new terminal at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport. The findings show that, during the project life cycle, the translation of the underground by project actors hampered the necessary relocation of utilities in this project. This eventually resulted in delays and unforeseen costs. This translation is explained by a combination of the governance of the project, strategic interactions of project actors, and the characteristics and context of the material conditions. We contribute to project governance studies by demonstrating the usefulness of translation theory to better understand the mechanisms at play in governing underrepresented material conditions in infrastructure projects., Design & Construction Management

This article applies Q methodology to examine citizens’ motivations to engage in Chinese city governance, more specifically to participate in the City Governance Committee in Nanjing. We identify three orientations underlying citizens’ motivations to engage in coproduction: the optimistic believer, the active expresser, and the commissioned influencer. Our data show that expressive values, self-efficacy, and normative values are important reasons underlying Chinese citizens’ engagement in coproduction. The orientations that we have found clearly differ from motivations that are reported in research conducted in a Western context. Our analysis suggests that governors should improve citizens’ self-efficacy for coproduction.

How public policies change incrementally over time remains understudied. This paper contributes to the studies of incremental policy change by integrating the theories of policy layering and learning into a theoretical framework of experimental governance (EG). Using a mixed research method, we apply this framework to process-tracing the changing trajectory of China’s central government infrastructure public-private partnership (PPP) policies from 1988 to 2017 by looking at evolving policy goals, policy measures, and policy co-issuing networks. Results suggest that China’s central government infrastructure PPP policy change follows a refined EG approach in which policies change incrementally in a layering pattern, primarily driven by learning. Findings provide a new account of incremental policy change.

Governing material conditions—including physical, material subjects such as machines, build constructions, construction materials, and subsoils—is a crucial challenge within projects and is underrepresented in project governance theory. To clarify the relationship between project governance and materiality, we draw on translation theory, which is essentially about the reinterpretation, appropriation, and representation of interests related to materials. This paper studies the challenges of governing the underground during the construction of the new terminal at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport. The findings show that, during the project life cycle, the translation of the underground by project actors hampered the necessary relocation of utilities in this project. This eventually resulted in delays and unforeseen costs. This translation is explained by a combination of the governance of the project, strategic interactions of project actors, and the characteristics and context of the material conditions. We contribute to project governance studies by demonstrating the usefulness of translation theory to better understand the mechanisms at play in governing underrepresented material conditions in infrastructure projects.

Public-private partnerships are a vehicle used a lot by governments all around the world. When it was introduced the idea relied a lot on economic reasoning in which contracts, monitoring and performance criteria were important to achieve results. But from the beginning PPP’s were a hybrid idea because there were also assumptions about collaborations and synergy that fused the idea. In this chapter we explore the ideas behind PPP, the importance of collaboration to make PPP’s work and we show, with recent research results, that PPP’s actually need a mix of contracts and collaboration to work.