The Policy Influence of Sustainability Indicators
- In 2002 Germany adopted an ambitious national sustainability strategy, covering all three sustainability spheres and circling around 21 key indicators. The strategy stands out because of its relative stability over five consecutive government constellations, its high status and increasingly coercive nature. This article analyses the strategy's role in the policy process, focusing on the use and influence of indicators as a central steering tool. Contrasting rationalist and constructivist perspectives on the role of knowledge in policy, two factors, namely the level of consensus about policy goals and the institutional setting of the indicators, are found to explain differences in use and influence both across indicators and over time. Moreover, the study argues that the indicators have been part of a continuous process of ‘structuring’ in which conceptual and instrumental use together help structure the sustainability challenge in such a way that it becomes more manageable for government policy.
Author details: | Kajsa BorgnäsGND |
---|---|
URN: | urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-96342 |
DOI: | https://doi.org/10.1080/09644008.2016.1193160 |
Subtitle (English): | Examining Use and Influence of Indicators in German Sustainability Policy Making |
Publication series (Volume number): | Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaftliche Reihe (76) |
Publication type: | Postprint |
Language: | English |
Date of first publication: | 2016/06/22 |
Publication year: | 2016 |
Publishing institution: | Universität Potsdam |
Release date: | 2016/09/22 |
First page: | 1 |
Last Page: | 20 |
Source: | German Politics (2016) Nr. 25, S. 1-20. - DOI: 10.1080/09644008.2016.1193160 |
Organizational units: | Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaftliche Fakultät |
DDC classification: | 3 Sozialwissenschaften / 32 Politikwissenschaft / 320 Politikwissenschaft |
9 Geschichte und Geografie / 94 Geschichte Europas / 940 Geschichte Europas | |
Peer review: | Referiert |
Publishing method: | Open Access |
Grantor: | Taylor & Francis Open Access Agreement |
License (German): | CC-BY-NC-ND - Namensnennung, nicht kommerziell, keine Bearbeitungen 4.0 International |