A Relational Approach to Governing Wicked Problems

The book initiates a relational turn in policy making and governance by developing further relational political analysis and by taking relational thinking to bear on not just analytic/descriptive issues, but also to normative/prescriptive issues. The need for such a turn, this book argues, comes from the ever-increasing relevance of addressing the so-called wicked problems of governance like climate change, COVID-19 kinds of pandemics, global economic recessions and refugee crises. The book argues for a need to rethink governance as a process from the relational point of view to spur its potential for addressing these problems. What needs to be rethought is not so much the specific tools or resources of governance, but the very issue of whether governance should be seen in terms of tools and resources in the first place. This book contributes to this discussion by consolidating the relational approaches to governance thus far and by taking them to a next normative/prescriptive level.

Brings a relational and transactional perspective to bear on governance and policy studies Brings a deeply theorized perspective to governance and policy studies drawing on sources not usually seen Analyzes the ongoing crises of COVID-19 and climate change to illustrate theoretical arguments

Autorentext

Peeter Selg is Professor of Political Theory in the School of Governance, Law and Society at Tallinn University, Estonia. Georg Sootla is Distinguished Professor of Public Policy, School of Governance, Law and Society at Tallinn University, Estonia. Benjamin Klasche is Lecturer of Politics and IR, at the School of Governance, Law and Society at Tallinn University, Estonia and Kone Foundation Fellow at the Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies.

Inhalt

1. Introduction: A Relational Approach to Governing Wicked Problems.- Part I A Relational Definition of Wicked Problems.- 2. Aren't All Problems Wicked? Addressing the Constructive and Destructive Critiques of the Concept of Wicked Problems.- 3. From Categorical Distinctions of Policy Problems to a Relational Approach to Wicked Problems.- 4. From Governance Failure to Failure Governance: A Relational Approach to Governing Wicked Problems.- Part II The History of the Present of the Theories of the Policy Process: From Self-Action to Trans-Action.- 5. A Genealogy of Self-Active Governance in Policy Theories.- 6. Problematizing Theoretical Understandings of Problems: From Self-actionalist to Inter-actionalist Approaches in Policy Sciences.- 7. The (Re)turn to the Political: Deepening the Grasp of Contingency in the Theories of the Policy Process.- 8. Speaking Truth to Power? The (Political) Constitution of Knowledgeand Rationality in Policy-Making and Governance.- 9. From De-Problematized Expert Knowledge to Politics of Critical Dialogue: Towards Process-Relational Policy Theories.- Part III Theory and Practice of Failure Governance and Governance Failure.- 10. A Theory of Governance as Problematization and De-problematization.- 11. The Whole-of-Nation-Failure-Governance: Taiwan's Politics of Problematization of COVID-19.- 12. Making America Do Their Own Research Again? Trump's Politics of De-problematization of COVID-19.- 13. Germany's Road from Failure Governance to Governance Failure.- Part IV Concluding Remarks.- 14. In Place of Conclusions: Failing Better or Waiting for Godot in a Clumsy World of Wicked Problems?.