TY  - JOUR
A1  - Daviter, Falk
T1  - Policy analysis in the face of complexity
BT  - What kind of knowledge to tackle wicked problems?
JF  - Public policy and administration
N2  - An ever-increasing number of policy problems have come to be interpreted as representing a particular type of intractable, ill-structured or wicked policy problem. Much of this debate is concerned with the challenges wicked problems pose for program management rather than policy analysis. This article, in contrast, argues that the key challenge in addressing this type of policy problems is in fact analytical. Wicked policy problems are difficult to identify and interpret. The knowledge base for analysing wicked policy problem is typically fragmented and contested. Available evidence is incomplete, inconclusive and incommensurable. In this situation, the evidentiary and the interpretative elements of policy analysis become increasingly indistinguishable and inseparably intertwined. The article reveals the problems this poses for policy analysis and explores the extent to which the consolidation, consensualization and contestation of evidence in policy analysis offer alternative procedural paths to resolve these problems.
KW  - Evidence-based policy making
KW  - expertise
KW  - knowledge
KW  - policy analysis
KW  - wicked problems
Y1  - 2017
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1177/0952076717733325
SN  - 0952-0767
SN  - 1749-4192
VL  - 34
IS  - 1
PB  - Sage Publ.
CY  - London
ER  -