Clumsy Solutions for a Complex World is a powerful and original statement on why well-intended attempts to alleviate pressing social ills too often derail, and how effective, efficient and broadly acceptable solutions to social problems can be found. It takes its cue from the idea that our endlessly changing and complex social worlds consist of ceaseless interactions between organizing, justifying and perceiving social relations. Each time one of these perspectives is excluded from collective decision-making, governance failure inevitably results. Successful solutions are therefore creative combinations of four opposing ways of organizing and thinking. This book, jointly written by leading political scientists, anthropologists, economists, lawyers, sociologists, a geographer and an engineer, shows the force of these theoretically sophisticated, yet simple and practical ideas for a number of pressing issues from around the globe.
'Casual observers might think 'clumsiness' comes naturally to government and public policy-making. If so, they might be surprised by how often it is carefully suppressed - often with disastrous consequences, as this book shows. We need to develop the methodology for the important angle of vision this book represents.' - Christopher Hood, Gladstone Professor of Government, University of Oxford, UK
'This study is a clever and important assault on the precepts 'drummed into the heads of those who aspire to be policy analysts' - that there is a single mindset in which a problem must be defined, facts and values distinguished and simple evaluative metrics deployed to achieve optimisation. The authors demonstrate the tragedies perpetrated by this dangerous approach. They show that plural voices - as identified by cultural theory - are necessary for clumsy, but safe, constructively engaged and politically feasible policy-making.' - Professor Tony Allan, KCL/SOAS University of London, UK
'...anyone eager to look at an adequately complex model for governance that satisfies sociology's stringent standards might usefully turn to this volume.' - Michalis Lianos, British Journal of Sociology
List of Figures and Tables
Preface
Acknowledgements
Notes on Contributors
The Case for Clumsiness; M.Verweij, M.Douglas, R.J.Ellis, C.Engel, F.Hendriks, S.Lohmann, S.Ney, S.Rayner & M.Thompson
PART 1: ELEGANT FAILURES
Is the Kyoto Protocol Merely Irrelevant, or Positively Harmful, for the Efforts to Curb Climate Change?; M.Verweij
Hype and Hydro (and, at Last, Some Hope) in the Himalaya; D.Gyawali
Segregation through Anti-Discrimination: How the Netherlands Got Divided Again; M.Bovens & M.Trappenburg
What Russia can Learn from China in its Transition to a Market Economy; M.D.Intriligator & J.R.Wedel & C.H.Lee
The Failure of Seat Belts Legislation; J.Adams
PART 2: CLUMSY SOLUTIONS
Gunfight at the Consequentialist Corral: The Deadlock in the United States over Firearms Control and How to Break It; D.M.Kahan, D.Braman & J.Gastil
Floods and Fairness in Hungary; J.Linnerooth-Bayer, A.Vári & M.Thompson
Inclusive by Design: The Curious Case of the Internet; T.Tranvik & M.Thompson
You Never Miss the Water till the Well Runs Dry: Crisis and Creativity in California; D.Lach, H.Ingram & S.Rayner
Clumsy Conclusions: How to do Policy and Research in a Complex World; M.Verweij, M.Thompson & C.Engel
Index
MARCO VERWEIJ is Associate Professor of Political Science at the Singapore Management University, Singapore. He is also associated with the James Martin Institute of Science and Civilization in the Said Business School at the University of Oxford. The empirical part of his research concerns public policy regarding international issues such as climate change, development aid, and the Israel-Palestine conflict. The theoretical part of his research is concerned with making a contribution to the linking of several social science-theories (in particular cultural theory and relational models theory) with social neuroscience, evolutionary biology, human complex systems and a-life modelling, and game theory.
MICHAEL THOMPSON is a Social Anthropologist. His early work was on the processes by which something second-hand becomes an antique, or a rat-infested slum part of Our Glorious Heritage, Rubbish Theory (1979). His current interest is in the democratization of decision processes in areas (such as technological choice and Himalayan environment and development) that have tended to be treated as merely technical.
Description
Clumsy Solutions for a Complex World is a powerful and original statement on why well-intended attempts to alleviate pressing social ills too often derail, and how effective, efficient and broadly acceptable solutions to social problems can be found. It takes its cue from the idea that our endlessly changing and complex social worlds consist of ceaseless interactions between organizing, justifying and perceiving social relations. Each time one of these perspectives is excluded from collective decision-making, governance failure inevitably results. Successful solutions are therefore creative combinations of four opposing ways of organizing and thinking. This book, jointly written by leading political scientists, anthropologists, economists, lawyers, sociologists, a geographer and an engineer, shows the force of these theoretically sophisticated, yet simple and practical ideas for a number of pressing issues from around the globe.
Reviews
'Casual observers might think 'clumsiness' comes naturally to government and public policy-making. If so, they might be surprised by how often it is carefully suppressed - often with disastrous consequences, as this book shows. We need to develop the methodology for the important angle of vision this book represents.' - Christopher Hood, Gladstone Professor of Government, University of Oxford, UK
'This study is a clever and important assault on the precepts 'drummed into the heads of those who aspire to be policy analysts' - that there is a single mindset in which a problem must be defined, facts and values distinguished and simple evaluative metrics deployed to achieve optimisation. The authors demonstrate the tragedies perpetrated by this dangerous approach. They show that plural voices - as identified by cultural theory - are necessary for clumsy, but safe, constructively engaged and politically feasible policy-making.' - Professor Tony Allan, KCL/SOAS University of London, UK
'...anyone eager to look at an adequately complex model for governance that satisfies sociology's stringent standards might usefully turn to this volume.' - Michalis Lianos, British Journal of Sociology
Contents
List of Figures and Tables
Preface
Acknowledgements
Notes on Contributors
The Case for Clumsiness; M.Verweij, M.Douglas, R.J.Ellis, C.Engel, F.Hendriks, S.Lohmann, S.Ney, S.Rayner & M.Thompson
PART 1: ELEGANT FAILURES
Is the Kyoto Protocol Merely Irrelevant, or Positively Harmful, for the Efforts to Curb Climate Change?; M.Verweij
Hype and Hydro (and, at Last, Some Hope) in the Himalaya; D.Gyawali
Segregation through Anti-Discrimination: How the Netherlands Got Divided Again; M.Bovens & M.Trappenburg
What Russia can Learn from China in its Transition to a Market Economy; M.D.Intriligator & J.R.Wedel & C.H.Lee
The Failure of Seat Belts Legislation; J.Adams
PART 2: CLUMSY SOLUTIONS
Gunfight at the Consequentialist Corral: The Deadlock in the United States over Firearms Control and How to Break It; D.M.Kahan, D.Braman & J.Gastil
Floods and Fairness in Hungary; J.Linnerooth-Bayer, A.Vári & M.Thompson
Inclusive by Design: The Curious Case of the Internet; T.Tranvik & M.Thompson
You Never Miss the Water till the Well Runs Dry: Crisis and Creativity in California; D.Lach, H.Ingram & S.Rayner
Clumsy Conclusions: How to do Policy and Research in a Complex World; M.Verweij, M.Thompson & C.Engel
Index
Authors
MARCO VERWEIJ is Associate Professor of Political Science at the Singapore Management University, Singapore. He is also associated with the James Martin Institute of Science and Civilization in the Said Business School at the University of Oxford. The empirical part of his research concerns public policy regarding international issues such as climate change, development aid, and the Israel-Palestine conflict. The theoretical part of his research is concerned with making a contribution to the linking of several social science-theories (in particular cultural theory and relational models theory) with social neuroscience, evolutionary biology, human complex systems and a-life modelling, and game theory.
MICHAEL THOMPSON is a Social Anthropologist. His early work was on the processes by which something second-hand becomes an antique, or a rat-infested slum part of Our Glorious Heritage, Rubbish Theory (1979). His current interest is in the democratization of decision processes in areas (such as technological choice and Himalayan environment and development) that have tended to be treated as merely technical.
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