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“Beyond effectiveness” The uses of Finland’s national programme to promote sustainable consumption and production. YHYS Colloquium 25.11.2010 Annukka Berg & Janne I. Hukkinen, HY. The initial contradiction.
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“Beyond effectiveness”The uses of Finland’s national programme to promote sustainable consumption and production YHYS Colloquium 25.11.2010 Annukka Berg & Janne I. Hukkinen, HY
The initial contradiction • The stated task of national SCP programmes: “to act as a framework for systemic thought across sectors, driving development towards commonly agreed goals” (UNEP, 2008). • In the case of Finland’s SCP programme, few outputs unambiguous consequence of programme implementation – to say nothing of outcomes.
Beyond effectiveness • Traditonal programme evaluation would provide a very grim (and dull) picture of the programme. • However, in the interviews, experts involved in the process described it in many positive and critical terms that fell beyond the notion of effectiveness.
Network governance and knowledge utilisation • Broad policy-oriented programmes reflections of network governance • Institutional ambiguity • Knowledge-for-action theories: how knowledge moves to achieve some outcomes • Knowledge utilisation, e.g. instrumental, conceptual, and symbolic use
Research questions • How have the central actors of Finland’s SCP programme process used the programme and the process? • What kinds of uses have they anticipated and perceived to take place? • What does the use perspective reveal about the dynamics, meaningfulness and legitimacy of the process?
Research material • 20 focused interviews with actors who were closely involved in the making of the SCP programme • Programme documents and reports • Material about the whole process considered in the analysis
1. Scripted use • Transforming various programme inputs into planned outputs and outcomes. • Example: the establishment of a material efficiency service centre that was proposal number one in the SCP programme
2. Deliberative use • Programme and the related process are used to enhance deliberation that in turn supports the scripted uses. • Example: using the SCP committee as a forum for learning, creating commitment and a shared discourse
3. Political use • Attempts to use the programme and the process to promote one’s own political agenda. • Example: inserting references of the SCP programme in the committee memorandums of the Environment Committee of the Finnish Parliament to promote one’s own political goals.
4. Ritual use • Signifies that a policy programme and/or process are/is used as a symbol. • Instead of something more substantial • Also the renewal of important rituals and symbols in a society. • Example: claims that making policy programmes has become a way to postpone difficult decisions.
5. Unprompted use • Unanticipated uses or side-effects that a programme process has catalysed but that are not directly linked to the process and have not been proposed in the programme. • Example: work on environmentally friendly and ethical consumption in the Finnish Consumers’ Association
Results of the analysis 1/2 • Actors outside the government anticipated the programme to exist for its scripted uses • Several key actors within government emphasized the deliberative and ritual uses. • Some of the most successful uses of the programme have been deliberative ones • May lead to interesting and potentially influential unprompted uses of a programme.
Results of the analysis 2/2 • As regards the political uses, those uses that have not depended on programme implementation have been more successful • Ritual use: success in cultivating particular, positively perceived features of the Finnish society
Conclusions • Institutional ambiguity opens up a great variety of use possibilities: transparency would be required particularly as regards the intended uses of the leaders • Rethinking suitable forms for programme work in each particular case: What works where, when and how for sustainable development? • Use-perspective provides a fruitful basis for evaluating broad programmes such as those related to sustainability
Kiitos! Kysyttävää? Yhteystiedot: annukka.berg@helsinki.fi