On 18 February 2022, J.A. Joosse will defend his PhD dissertation, entitled: ‘The Quest for Complex Policy: Exploring the Tensions between Simplification and Complexification in Public Policymaking’.
- Promotor
- Promotor
- Date
- Friday 18 Feb 2022, 10:30 - 12:00
- Type
- PhD defence
- Space
- Senate Hall
- Building
- Erasmus Building
- Location
- Campus Woudestein
Governments often present societal problems simpler than they are. In public policy, problems are bound, extracted from their context, and provided with one-dimensional solutions. As demonstrated in this research, ‘criminal youth groups’ must be imprisoned, and the municipal transport service must get passengers from A to B as quickly as possible. Because of these simplifications, policy becomes superficial, often with disappointing results.
This book searches for an alternative policy orientation that accommodates the entanglement and multi-dimensionality of societal problems in public policy. Using philosophical reflections, Public Administration literature and three in-depth case studies, the author shows how ‘complex policy’ better fits the late-modern society and produces innovative and rich results. He also analyses the tensions of complexifying policy in an organisational context of institutionalised simplicity. Simplification reflexes threaten the space for and results of complexification. Policymakers should be ambidextrous: accommodating complexity in public policy while being responsive to the institutional need for simplicity.
The PhD defences will not take place publicly in the usual way. A live stream link has been provided to candidate. The ceremony will begin exactly at 10:30.