One notable area of renewed emphasis concerns the agenda-setting phase which scholars claim has been subject to relatively little attention (Howlett, Citation1997; Howlett & Shivakoti, Citation2014). Before there is space to consider a proactive or even reforming agenda, the space is easily populated by existing, and recurring, items. The integration of organised stakeholders interests has, of course, a long tradition (e.g. https://doi.org/10.4018/jsesd.2010010105, Miller K, McAdam R, McAdam M (2018b) A systematic literature review of university technology transfer from a quadruple helix perspective: toward a research agenda. participant recruitment, facilitator training or transparency of deliberations [37]. Soc Sci Med 151:215224. foresight, or public actors such as non-governmental organisations (NGOs), may benefit from increased attention towards reflexivity and transparency of inherent normativity. These specific points can be mapped more generally onto the way government might approach managing its agenda. Second, the present discussion of governmental agenda-setting instruments is connected with insights from broader public policy with respect to the engagement with interest groups around agenda-setting. Increasing sciences responsiveness to society is a main pillar of RRI (Stilgoe, [91]) and a primary aim of most PASE activities since responsiveness can be reached, in terms of upstream engagement, by translating societal needs and values into research agendas [43, 71]. Another way to expand on the typology of agenda-setting instruments is to link it to the discussion of high versus low-cost strategies, developed by Cobb and Ross (Citation1997). BMC Med Ethics 17(1):33. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12910-016-0117-1, Turb A, Barba J, Pelacho M, Mugdal S, Robinson LD, Serrano-Sanz F, Sanz F, Tsinaraki C, Rubio J-M, Schade S (2019) Understanding the citizen science landscape for European environmental policy: an assessment and recommendations. Google Scholar. Quotes that at least partially related to the research question and large enough to provide sufficient context were extracted and comprised in a database, where preliminary categories were assigned. A nascent strand of this important work concerns the agend-asetting phase, where scholars aim to understand the instruments procedural and substantive that government uses to shape the issues that it has to address. Eur J Futur Res 8(1):2. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40309-020-0162-3, Rosa AB, Kimpeler S, Schirrmeister E, Warnke P (2021b) Participatory foresight and reflexive innovation: setting policy goals and developing strategies in a bottom-up, mission-oriented, sustainable way. The larger point made in Table 1 is that tools used to manage policy demands primarily rely on one of these four types of resources for their effectiveness. [24] describe how technology creates new forms of risk, whilst scientists are repeatedly drawn to mitigating problems created by science and technology, with Jasanoff [25] arguing that industrial societys capacity for prediction and control was outrun by its ability to create vast technological systems. These are the boundaries in between which researchers later navigate. PE in the natural sciences often comes in form of citizen science, which primarily focusses on science communication or the involvement in data collection [60, 61]. Here, the earliest point for possible engagement can be found within the constituting phase of research agendas as topics, general lines of enquiry and targets are shaped in this phase. 2. Health research priority setting is arguably required by the judiciary when state interests are at stake, for example in the promotion of health equity [49]. The second, consistent with recent design studies that suggest that governments have come to rely on a mix or portfolio of policy tools rather than single instruments (see e.g. The literature has identified that groups may well pursue such an approach when they are denied inside access, lack standing or status with policymakers, or hold views or purposes which policymakers simply cannot abide (see discussion in Maloney, Jordan, & McLaughlin, Citation1994). Some fields actively foster PE activities, for instance space research [59]. Sci Technol Hum Values 37(5):506527, Krzywoszynska A, Matt W, Buckley A, Chiles P, Gregson N, Holmes H, Mawyin J (2018) Opening up the participation laboratory: the cocreation of publics and futures in upstream participation. This resulted in criticism, for instance regarding conflict between integrity/impartiality of science and its involvement with the vested interests of the State and commerce on policy issues, threatening to destroy public trust in science [28], or regarding the alloted diminishing of democratically credible and sometimes effective street-protest in response to uneffective laboratory-like partcipation experiments [29, 30]. Hinrichs and Johnston [81] assess two PASE exercises for future-oriented education and health governance taking place within a specifically designed workshop space (the decision theatre), aimed at fostering informed decision-making. In addition, while organised interests are (rightly) considered the chief purveyors of policy demands, not all or even most such organizations are dedicated to policy advocacy. This section presents results of the qualitative content analysis that examined and clustered factors influencing limits and benefits of the PASE activities that authors report in this topical collection. And it is not only the lack of financial resources alone that hampers successful co-creation in the STI context but also missing incentives and reward systems which allow researchers to engage in such activities without the fear of losing in academic merits or career opportunities [79]. These are the boundaries in between which researchers later navigate when proposing their intended research. b. Participatory agenda setting is therefore, as deliberative democracy is in general, a normative project. Regularise: In his work on agenda-setting in the US Congress, Walker (Citation1977) noted that periodically recurring agenda items such as budget appropriations, small amendments to Acts, mandated statutory reviews comprise the majority of what members of Congress attend to. Boden M, Johnston R, Scapolo F (2012) The role of FTA in responding to grand challenges: a new approach for STI policy? Health Expect 18(6):24492464. Of course, this tool can also be pressed into service to lock in agendas. A related question focuses on the capacities of governments (see e.g. The third possibility is to use the typology as a basis to develop propositions and hypothesis which can foster more empirical work and theoretical treatment of the role of procedural policy tools in the agenda-setting phase of the policy process. That is; how the media manufactures information (by gathering, processing, andpackaging it), and presenting it to the mass audience in a way that they will such iformation as more important than others. Sci Eng Ethics 23(1):119. Cite this article. Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Do these vary across policy sectors? Here, Gudowsky et al. this hybrid model of agenda setting and framing can better illustrate the media's effect on public opinion. Enabling mutual learning and reflexivity lays the foundation for (knowledge) co-creation [93,94,95,96]. Here, Pagliarino et al. For instance, governments will regularly underwrite the capacity of groups via placing staff on secondment in group secretariats or providing project funding for specific tasks. It provides a review of the literature on theory and practice of PASE activities, summarises the topical collections contributions regarding current international cases and analyses respective PASE limits and benefits, thereby promoting its conceptual and practical understanding. J Innov Entrep 1(1):2. https://doi.org/10.1186/2192-5372-1-2, Bauer MW, Allum N, Miller S (2007) What can we learn from 25 years of PUS survey research? The study has shown that pertinent school sport and physical education policy issues, as supported by key role-players and principal actors, were initially not placed on the . For instance, research has shown that a small minority of all government consultations attract the majority of the group responses, with most being replied to by fewer than 10 actors (Baumgartner & Leech, Citation2001; Halpin, Citation2011). https://doi.org/10.1177/1049732305276687, Strauss A, Corbin JM (1990) Basics of qualitative research: grounded theory procedures and techniques. Examples of this include fixed annual budgetary and fiscal calendars, and statutory requirements for public engagement and consultation. Participatory science governance is a broadening field and it has been criticised mainly for failing to reach the intended impact, in both formal settings [41] and informal ones [42]. The vast literature on social problems, policy problems, and so on, have emphasised (rightly) that policymakers like all political agents will use language, storytelling and framing strategies to direct the attention of those with whom they engage (Baumgartner & Jones, Citation1991; Kingdon, Citation1984). It is useful to place this discussion within the broader discussion of policy styles. From a government perspective, these tools provide a way to build consensus as to what the policy problem is, and the range of solutions that seem credible. Public Underst Sci 26(6):634649. https://doi.org/10.1108/FS-10-2014-0063, Schuijff M, Dijkstra AM (2020) Practices of responsible research and innovation: a review. https://doi.org/10.1093/scipol/scs026, Article Accounts of policy styles, and this distinction between types, is probably most associated with conceptions of formulation and implementation. Secondly, public agenda means issues discussed and personally relevant to public. The tools applied might include communication campaigns aimed at explaining why some issues are not problems for government (Hilgartner & Bosk, Citation1981; Stone, Citation1988); or consultations or summits that exclude key groups with incongruent demands (see Heaney, Citation2004). In fact, drumming up responses from key stakeholder groups might be as much a problem as trying to filter out excessive demands. [82] find that facilitating the adaptation and translation of issues and concepts for specific target audiences is a key step that should receive greater attention in multi-stage processes. Here, another addition may be the issue of capacity building, an often underrated effect of public engagement (PE) activities [34]. That is, for example, to consider under what specific conditions do governments rely on an imposition rather than a consensus-based approach to managing policy demands. The author declares that he has no competing interests. when new knowledge is gained by solving the co-created research topics, which is then put into practice, or by changing ideas and believes or paradigms. These tools are classified as those which governments use to routinise demands, regularise demands, generate demands, and impose issues onto the agenda. I believe that there is just a thin line between framing and agenda setting. Abstract. [84] describe how agronomic techniques in organic farming have been improved, yields stabilised and increased, and actual discoveries made, for example the allelopathic function of certain species used as cover crop. Qual Health Res 15(9):12771288. The media also influence the next step in the communication process, our understanding and perspective on the topics in the news. More recently, scholars have focussed on identifying conditions that can improve the effectiveness or likely success of policy tools to anticipate and accommodate policy shocks (Bali, Howlett, & Ramesh, Citation2021; Bali & Ramesh, Citation2018; Capano & Woo, Citation2018; Mukherjee, Coban, & Bali, Citation2021). First, as briefly mentioned in the introduction, most of these tools are focussed on the implementation stage of the policy process. This has implications as governments and government agencies have differing capabilities to deploy these resources (see e.g. The first is to consider arena-based agenda-setting instruments contrasting those in the administrative, legislative, and public arenas. However, except for those four cases1 where public engagement in priority setting takes place, it is rather informal and ad hoc, and not routinely used by research funding organisations because it threatens established research structures, procedures, and scientists cultures and priorities [54, 55]. Resources in terms of availability of funding have been a much-discussed limiting factor in public engagement literature (e.g. In discussing illustrative examples of policy tools used to manage demands, following Capano and Howlett (Citation2019), we also briefly comment on the mechanisms that underpin these four strategies. The agenda setting theory is both advantageous and disadvantageous. This includes the use of, for example, the use of advisory commissions, public inquiries, and citizen juries to inform policy deliberation; and the use of networks and partnerships in delivering public services, etc. Experience with participatory agenda setting processes suggests that laypeoples experiential and value-based knowledge is highly relevant for complementing expertise to inform socially robust decision-making in science and technology [43]. Enhancing reflexivity is an often-mentioned benefit of PASE activities. The following section presents the typology of agenda-setting styles and instruments and provides examples of different types of tools used to manage policy demands. agenda-setting by focussing on the use of agenda-setting models and by applying it to physical education and school sport and the policy agenda of the national government. For example, non-discretionary spending of the federal government in the United States has increased from 26% in 1969 to about 70% in recent years (Congressional Budget Office, Citation2020). Whilst RRIs shift from academic discussion to institutional practice is well underway, a good part of these practices focusses on opening up research and innovation [16]. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.futures.2019.01.002, Nikolova B (2013) The rise and promise of participatory foresight. Berlin Heidelberg Springer-Verlag, pp 8798, Rosa A, Gudowsky N, Warnke P (2018) But do they deliver? Here are some prominent advantages of agenda-setting: Generates awareness: Agenda-setting can be beneficial as it highlights important societal issues by actively discussing them. The Agenda Setting Theory discusses how the mass media gives prominence to issues in our society. Visions as outcomes of a participatory social foresight were translated into scenarios which were illustrated by speculative design artefacts, followed by a participatory needs assessment regarding technological innovations in three rural areas across Germany. Abstract This chapter presents the various phases and questions concerning policy agenda setting. Den Haag, RMNO (Advisory Council for Spatial Planning, Nature and the Environment), Sotoudeh M, Gudowsky N (2018) Participatory foresight for technology assessment - towards an evaluation approach for knowledge co-creation. the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Methods and methodologies continue to evolve, not only driven by countless activities and actors on several levels, from local to global, but also topic-wise from single technologies to engaging with questions of macro-level governance. His message is that the room for members of Congress to champion their own discretionary agenda is limited. Such dynamics are important to appreciate when conceptualising the way policy instruments might be deployed by those policymakers seeking to manage governmental or institutional policy agendas. These diverse styles are, at heart, about the origin or impulse for what governments will consider. Additionally, Schroth et al. And, a recent stream of work has begun to provide insights into what drives processes of agenda-setting, the size or carrying capacities of group agendas (see Barakso, Citation2004; Fraussen, Citation2014; Goss, Citation2010; Halpin, Citation2014; Heaney, Citation2004; Scott, Citation2013; Strolovitch, Citation2007). Participants described agenda setting and rated the importance of proposed domains. Additionally, public interest in such basic research may be limited. Here, the question of whom to engage in such settings has evolved considerably over the years, whilst the triple helix has long been the main model for a reflexive innovation system, involving academia, industry and governments [18]. The merit is that it provides people with information, while the demerit is that this information is biased. Schroth et al. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963662515620970, Lee CW (2014) Do-it-yourself democracy: the rise of the public engagement industry. Even though RRI is shifting its concept, its main dimensions inclusion, anticipation, responsiveness and reflexivity are established, with the addition of two emerging dimensions, i.e. Futures 43(3):243251. Attempting to grapple with this diversification, Rowe and Frewer [38] categorise public engagement activities by differentiating between public communication, public consultation, and public participation according to characteristics of information flow in the respective settings. stakeholder communities. It might be fair to say that the three first three types of tools outlined in Table 1 apply a policy style more closely associated with the logic of negotiation (Jordan & Richardson, Citation1982), whereby groups and policymakers exchange access for input against the backdrop of receiving some of what they want much of the time.