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Shaping policy development in a UK Government department

Cappucio, V; Cunico, G; Zimmermann, NS; (2017) Shaping policy development in a UK Government department. In: Proceedings of the 13th Nordic Environmental Social Science Conference. University of Tampere: Finland. Green open access

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Abstract

Policy-making organisations are often accused of linear and narrow-focused thinking and de-cision-making, failing to account for the diversity of human needs and goals, even the diversity of goals existing across different government departments. Accordingly, resulting government policies can be fragmented and do not account for the mul-tiple aspects important for human wellbeing. As unintended consequences arise across a broad range of outcomes, an integrated, system-wide and participatory approach to policy-making is needed. It needs to shape thinking around policy-making to interlink the different individuals and organisations interacting with these policies. This paper suggests a participatory systems approach that engages diverse policy-makers in a process of co-creation and shared learning. Instead of focusing on narrow policy develop-ment, it develops a process fuelled by systems thinking and participatory system dynamics modelling to shape policy-making. It refers to a collaboration with a UK government depart-ment and takes policy-making about domestic heating energy from a home-owner and market perspective as an example. The collaborative approach uses interviews, workshops, qualita-tive mapping, causal loop diagramming and simulation modelling to jointly establish causal maps of nonlinearities, complex interrelationships and feedback processes in the area of do-mestic heating energy efficiency and use. The collaborative project shows that interest in systems thinking can be triggered through a participatory research project and interaction with a simulation environment. It also presents a process for engaging collaborators with different interdisciplinary background and discusses challenges and successes. Finally it reveals how participants unfamiliar to systems thinking can engage in a new way of thinking and collaborating. System dynamics modelling, systems thinking, home energy efficiency, retrofit, home-owner decision-making

Type: Proceedings paper
Title: Shaping policy development in a UK Government department
Event: HopefulNESS - The 13th Nordic Environmental Social Science Conference
Location: Tampere, Finland
Dates: 06 June 2017 - 08 June 2017
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
Language: English
Additional information: This version is the version of record. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions.
Keywords: system dynamics modelling, systems thinking, home energy efficiency, retrofit, home owners, decision-making
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of the Built Environment
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of the Built Environment > Bartlett School Env, Energy and Resources
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1567031
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