Can Indicators Bridge the Gap between Science and Policy? An Exploration into the (Non)Use and (Non)Influence of Indicators in EU and UK Policy Making

Abstract

Article (Accepted Version) http://sro.sussex.ac.uk Sébastien, Léa, Bauler, Tom and Lehtonen, Markku (2014) Can indicators fill the gap between science and policy? An exploration of the (non) use and (non) influence of indicators in EU and UK policymaking. Nature and Culture, 9 (3). pp. 316-343. ISSN 1558-6073 This version is available from Sussex Research Online: http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/50679/ This document is made available in accordance with publisher policies and may differ from the published version or from the version of record. If you wish to cite this item you are advised to consult the publisher's version. Please see the URL above for details on accessing the published version. Copyright and reuse:Sussex Research Online is a digital repository of the research output of the University.Copyright and all moral rights to the version of the paper presented here belong to the individual author(s) and/or other copyright owners. To the extent reasonable and practicable, the material made available in SRO has been checked for eligibility before being made available.Copies of full text items generally can be reproduced, displayed or performed and given to third parties in any format or medium for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-profit purposes without prior permission or charge, provided that the authors, title and full bibliographic details are credited, a hyperlink and/or URL is given for the original metadata page and the content is not changed in any way. Can Indicators Bridge the Gap between Science and Policy? An Exploration into the (Non)Use and (Non)Influence of Indicators in EU and UK Policy-MakingLéa Sébastien, Tom Bauler, and Markku Lehtonen AbstractThis article examines the various roles that indicators, as boundary objects, can play as a science-based evidence for policy processes. It presents two case studies from the EU-funded POINT project that examined the use and influence of two highly different types of indicators: composite indicators of sustainable development at the EU level and energy indicators in the UK. In both cases indicators failed as direct input to policy making, yet they generated various types of conceptual and political use and influence. The composite sustainable development indicators served as "framework indicators", helping to advocate a specific vision of sustainable development, whereas the energy indicators produced various types of indirect influence, including through the process of indicator elaboration. Our case studies demonstrate the relatively limited importance of the characteristics and quality of indicators in determining the role of indicators, as compared with the crucial importance of "user factors" (characteristics of policy actors) and "policy factors" (policy context).

Taking the First Steps beyond GDP: Maryland’s Experience in Measuring “Genuine Progress”

“…Yet research has so far struggled to find evidence of direct policy impacts, not only for recent beyond-GDP wellbeing measurement initiatives [30][31][32]34,35] but also for the sustainable-development indicators that proliferated globally after the 1992 Earth Summit [36][37][38][39]. Much effort has gone into designing and improving indicators but even if well-constructed technically and policymakers are aware of them, policy impact is not guaranteed [36].…”

“…One way to categorize them is "context" (or "policy"), "indicator" and "user" factors [30,39]. Some barriers arise from the political and policy context, such as difficulties in challenging GDP's dominance during the recent recession when restoring economic growth dominated political debate [30], or the lack of strong political demand for governments to use new indicators [32,35].…”

“…While such obstacles have to date limited the direct influence of sustainability and wellbeing indicators as inputs into specific policy and decision outcomes-i.e., "instrumental use"-some researchers highlight the possibility of indirect pathways of influence over a longer term through "conceptual use," in other words, by introducing new ideas and reshaping frameworks of thought and mental models [37,39,[41][42][43]. Another key category is "political use," in which indicators serve as "ammunition" to support users' positions-including legitimizing predetermined positions-and persuade others to see problems in a particular way.…”

A limits-oriented approach to sustainable planning assessments: a comparative analysis of South East Queensland (Australia) and Lombardia (Italy)

“…In SEQ, benefits from collaborative governance and structured social capital fostered initiatives to improve sustainability indicators led by professional organisations and the community. This appears the right path to follow, since creating consensus around sustainability indicators is more important than facing technical issues (Sébastien et al 2014).…”

“…Collaborative and not rigidly imposed top-down approaches will allow stakeholders to discuss what phenomena affecting resource management are realistically measurable in each planning context (Brosius et al 1998;Sébastien et al 2014).…”