We analyse the emergence of new forms of governance as innovation processes. In elaborating a theoretical framework we build on a new combination of concepts from policy and governance studies, organizational studies, innovation studies and science and technology studies.

Policy instruments as technologies of governance

Forms of governance are often articulated in an instrumental fashion as policy instruments, tools, or, more recently, as modes of governance. As such they may take on a life of their own and start to travel across different domains of application.

In seeking to capture this phenomenon we study innovation in governance by tracing and analysing the development of policy instruments as socially constructed technologies of governance. A genealogical research approach is intended to open the black box of policy instruments which are often taken as given options for policy making.

Key questions are:

• Where do policy instruments come from?
• Who makes them?
• How do they end up in the toolbox of policy makers?

Within this view, we develop a concept of policy instruments which combines both models of how governance could or should be and working arrangements in particular political contexts.

We expect that by following the institutionalization and expansion of specialized governing sciences and constituencies, concerned with the development, installation and maintenance of specific policy instruments,  we are able to understand how policy instruments take on a life of their own, take on actor qualities and add to the (transnational) dynamics of governance change. 

Innovation journeys in governance

We conceptualise the processes through which new policy instruments emerge and develop as innovation journeys. The innovation journey concept takes account of distributed agency, convergent and divergent translations between different actors and nonlinear dynamics of path constitution.

In analysing innovation journeys we put a special focus on interactions between the development of models of governance in (social) science, policy design for particular purposes and the politics of reconfiguring governance in context.

One assumption is that policy instruments gain momentum as transnational constituencies which span these processes emerge and undergo institutionalization.

Interaction of innovation journeys with governance domains

Along their innovation journeys policy instruments often intersect with several different governance domains.

The Challenge is thus to analyse the interaction between policy instruments and governance domains as a dynamic process of interpenetration and overlap in which both instruments and domains mutually constitute and shape each other.

To analyse the development of governance patterns within domains we distinguish between policy design, problem framing, and struggle for political authority as three interdependent processes from which governance patterns emerge in a path dependent manner.

Complementing our view on social dynamics shaping governance patterns in domains we consider how ecological conditions and technological infrastructure shape political processes and function as particular selection environments for policy instruments.

To link insights from research into dynamics of policy instruments and domains back to the practice of innovating governance we develop the Policy Foresight method.

Policy Foresight is a structured procedure to anticipate and reflect on plausible future paths of innovation journeys of policy instruments in interaction with developments of a  governance domain. A diverse set of actors who are involved in the design of new policy instruments – be it as promoters or critics – are guided through a deliberative process. They construct future scenarios of innovation in governance and discuss their interactions with a broader social and ecological context to assess policy performances and reflect on sustainability strategies. Key questions are: How can development dynamics be anticipated and integrated into policy design, and how can policy innovations be embedded in structural contexts? During the process which will be informed by results from our research, participants of the Policy Foresight contribute expectations towards future development dynamics and their view on reciprocal influences between policy instruments and domains. This provides societal actors with a platform for constructive dialogue on innovation in governance and sustainable development.