Designing policy mixes for emerging wicked problems. The case of pharmaceutical residues in freshwaters

Kirschke, Sabrina and Kosow, Hannah, (2021). Designing policy mixes for emerging wicked problems. The case of pharmaceutical residues in freshwaters. Journal of Environmental Policy & Planning, 1-12

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  • Sub-type Journal article
    Author Kirschke, Sabrina
    Kosow, Hannah
    Title Designing policy mixes for emerging wicked problems. The case of pharmaceutical residues in freshwaters
    Appearing in Journal of Environmental Policy & Planning
    Publication Date 2021-07-30
    Place of Publication Online
    Publisher Taylor & Francis Online
    Start page 1
    End page 12
    Language eng
    Abstract Wicked problems continuously emerge in the field of environmental governance. Characterized by goal conflicts, complexity, and uncertainty, wicked problems typically call for participatory policy designs. However, the effects of participation are widely unclear, given the indefinite nature of solutions to wicked problems. This research sheds light on this debate by developing and applying a systematic structural approach to assess policy mixes for emerging wicked problems. Based on a review of literature in the field of public policy and environmental governance, we identify eight assessment criteria matching three dimensions of wicked problems: coherence, consistency, and congruence to address conflicts; comprehensiveness and diversity to address complexity; and adaptability, reversibility, and robustness to address informational uncertainty. The concept, which is demonstrated taking as an example two recently proposed policy mixes to address pharmaceutical freshwater pollution in Germany, suggests that policy mixes resulting from desk research and participatory processes differ in the way they address wicked problems. These results contribute to systematically assess the role of participation in designing policy mixes for emerging wicked policy problems and open up for more advanced discussions on the role of structural approaches in public policy analyses.
    UNBIS Thesaurus WATER POLLUTION
    Keyword Complex problems
    Environmental governance
    Micro pollution
    Participation
    Resource nexus
    Copyright Holder Taylor & Francis
    Copyright Year 2021
    Copyright type All rights reserved
    DOI 10.1080/1523908X.2021.1960808
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    Created: Tue, 03 Aug 2021, 20:07:02 JST by Eric Siegmund on behalf of UNU FLORES