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Design in government decision-making
@JocelynABailey
PhD Candidate, Brighton University
Senior Consultant, Uscreates
“Policy is a big word that covers a lot of things, the centre ground is in making difficult – sometimes impossible – trade-offs between multiple competing aims, with limited resources, in a political context.”
Drivers of research Democratic accountability
The Public
The Civil Service
The Political Party in Office
Votes, mandate
Promises
Directives
Advice
Delivery Feedback
…the manipulation of behaviours, the deployment of ‘the subject’s capacity for action’… • What is being made knowable, and therefore
governable? • What (new) techniques of governing are brought
into range? • What agenda/s is being served?
Drivers of research Ethics of governing
Family Mediation,
MoJ How can divorcing couples be persuaded to mediate, rather than going to court – which is more costly for everyone involved.
Family Policy, DWP
How can couples be supported to have better relationships in order to improve child outcomes/ life chances?
Health and Work, DWP
How can disabled people, or people with health conditions who are at risk of unemployment, be kept in work to avoid the personal cost of potential long-term unemployment?
Digital policing,
HO
How can we improve victims’ experiences of reporting crime?
Site of research Project examples
Theoretical approach Design as a bundle of practices
What happens when these practices are enacted in government – in a political context, and particular institutional culture? What happens when they come up against existing practices?
Epistemological culture and standards of evidence
Performance and personality
Material and aesthetic culture
Fresh insight
Collaboration
Reordered priorities
Open thinking
Design methods and practices
Fresh ideas
What happens?
Institutional norms and practices
Reconfigured relationships
Political culture, priorities and narratives
The implications of policy-setting
• Stewarding design practices through the civil service means developing a rich understanding of institutional culture
• Political culture, mood and narratives set the parameters for the ethos of design practice
• Bringing the machinery of government and the lives of people into closer contact should prompt critical reflection: is it purely instrumental, or empowering?
• The language of service derives from the market – we need a new concept of service in the context of democracy
In summary One finding and some thoughts
Thank you.
@JocelynABailey PhD Candidate, Brighton University
Senior Consultant, Uscreates
