Cross-Sectoral Policy Integration: The Strategic Dimension

Prof. Dr. Jale Tosun, Heidelberg University, Germany

Sometimes solving societal problems requires a joint effort of policy-makers from different policy sectors. For example, environmental problems are increasingly addressed by bringing together actors from adjacent policy fields such as agriculture, economy, energy, transport, or trade – just to name a few. More generally speaking, the recent interest in complex or ‘wicked’ policy problems essentially touches upon this need for joining forces in policy making. Yet policy-makers from different policy sectors are arguably likely to promote their own respective sectoral goals, potentially leading to decision-making situations that are characterized by the need to accommodate different interests and values. Despite the potentially higher coordination costs for proposing and adopting integrated policy measures, international and supranational organizations as well as national governments seem to be keen on promoting them. Notwithstanding functional considerations, one can hypothesize that there is also a strategic dimension to the growing promotion of integrated policy measures in an ever-growing number of policy fields.

This two-day workshop seeks to address three broader sets of research questions. In which policy areas and at which levels of government (regional, national, supranational or international) can we observe the adoption of integrated policy measures? This first research question indicates that we are interested in receiving empirical papers that help us to determine robust patterns of the use of this type of policy measures. Is there a strategy underlying the selection or promotion of integrated policy measures? If so, what exactly is the rationale that guides the actors’ behavior? Finally, we are interested in studies providing insights in the effects of the use of integrated policy measures. The effects to be illustrated can refer to policy outputs (do, for example, other existing policy arrangements become modified when integrated measures are adopted?), outcomes and impacts.

The workshop pursues two overall objectives. The first one is advancing the theorizing of processes of policy integration and to explore the commonalities of the papers to be presented in a view to produce an edited volume or a special issue for a journal. The second one aims to brainstorm on common research lines that would allow for putting together a proposal for a collaborative research projects to be funded by Horizon 2020 or the Open Research Area (ORA) for the Social Sciences.

Kontakt:

Prof. Dr. Jale Tosun
Universität Heidelberg, Institut für Politische Wissenschaft
Bergheimer Str. 58
Tel.: +49 (0) 6221 54 3728

Ansprechpartnerin:
Frau Nicole Schmidt
Email: Nicole.Schmidt@ipw.uni-heidelberg.de