'typo' by robert samuel hanson
Robert Samuel Hanson likes to illustrate. I like illustration.
He’s done this vector illustration. I think the colours and character are ace.
Get your fill at www.robertsamuelhanson.com.
Governments can no longer rely on the traditional behaviour change tools of regulatory and economic instruments to shape civic actions. But should they turn to choice architecture or deliberative participation as an alternative? Both are very in vogue, but can real shifts be achieved by appealing to perceptions of cost-benefit or by changing values?
In their fantastic discussion paper Nudge nudge, think think, Peter John, Graham Smith and Gerry Stoker walk us through the emergence of ‘Nudging’ and of ‘Deliberation’ as competing strategies available to policy makers seeking to change the behaviour of citizens. The authors discuss the strengths and weaknesses of both strategies and provide a handy comparative analysis, which is neatly summarised in this table:
| Nudge | Think | |
| View of preferences | Fixed | Malleable
|
| View of subjects | Cognitive misers, users of shortcuts, prone to flawed sometimes befuddled thinking | Reasonable, knowledge hungry and capable of collective reflection
|
| Costs to the individual | Low but repeated | High but only intermittently
|
| Unit of analysis | Individual-focussed | Group-focussed
|
| Change process | Cost-benefit led shift in choice environment | Value led outline of new shared policy platform
|
| Civic conception | Increasing the attractiveness of positive-sum action
|
Addressing the general interest |
| Role of the state | Customise messages, expert and teacher | Create new institutional spaces to support citizen-led investigation, respond to citizens
|
In the coda, the authors explore how the two strategies can learn from each other and be brought together in a coherent manner. Although they accept that coherence is very difficult in practice because both strategies hold different understandings of human behaviour and theories of change, they both share a fundamental driving principle:
Governments accept they cannot rely on issuing commands or creating incentives: they must deal directly and engage with the citizen, whose participation helps to co-produce public outcomes.
Ultimately, as the authors conclude, to be a successful practitioner of nudge it you need to understand what makes deliberation work and to be an effective practitioner of think you need to understand the dynamics of nudge.
The paper discusses at length the design of Nudging and Deliberative processes, but does not spend enough time – to my mind – considering how they are communicated to the public, even though both strategies are highly reliant on effective marketing of intriguingly differing styles.
Room for improvement aside, this is a very accessible article containing learning and challenges for functions across government.
Another paper from the same ESRC-funded research programme that is also worth a read is Can the internet overcome the logic of collective action? which takes an experimental approach to investigating the impact of social pressure on political participation. This paper tests the hypothesis that social information provided by the internet makes it possible in large groups to exert social pressure that was previously only considered viable for smaller groups.
Photo courtesy of He She It They I
We are all localists now.
So starts a new research report by IPPR exploring the political consensus around decentralisation and the barriers to achieving it in practice – Who’s accountable? The challenge of giving power away in a centralised political culture.
The researchers asked a representative sample who they regarded as accountable for the performance of public services. Across a range of services – health and policing, for example – no matter who is charge, the public placed responsibility firmly at the feet of government. However, in other cases – such as education and transport – accountability is more diffuse. Why?
The report considers a number of factors, but of particular importance seems to be good communication. When power is devolved, the lines of accountability must be made clear. The examples of devolution in Scotland and public transport make for interesting case studies in this respect.
However, in the report the authors write:
… ministers may be more inclined to give up powers where lines of accountability are clear and when they can be reassured that once they’ve let go, the public, the media and the oppoistion will accedpt that responsibility rests at the local level.
I do think the authors should have spent longer considering the important influence of party politics and media representation, alongside that of public attitudes and perceptions, in order to get the full picture.
Otherwise, it is an interesting and well set out piece of original research.
In the course of this week I have come across three things that so impressed me that I tweeted them.
Chances are, if you know my blog, then you also know my tweets, but if not:
- Introducing the ‘voicebot’
An installation in Parliament from Vinspired.com. Part of the Voicebox initiative – ‘a data visualisation project, curating young people’s views on issues that matter, visualising the findings, and then setting the data free for you to do the same.’
- Innovation and evaluation are inseparable
GOOD Magazine is hosting a blog-based conversation for participants from across the globe to explore innovative approaches to evaluation. Not surprisingly, it is good – very good.
- How to sell me stuff
Steph Gray is a digital specialist in the Civil Service and a patient man. But even he has his limits. Tired of cold calls and clumsy pitches, @lesteph has posted eight tips on how to sell him right. I’m ditto on all 8.
'Hidden Forms' by Hans Hansen
This photo is going to catch the eye of a blogger who calls his site ‘BasicCraft’.
It was taken by Hans Hansen for a book, Hidden Forms, by Franco Clivio.
I don’t know Clivio but his book is about anonymous designed objects: simple, functional, yet elegant and astoundingly. For Clivio the complexity of the design process is best demonstrated, not by design objects, but on the basis of things from everyday life.
My sentiments exactly.
Found via Creative and Live.
On my desktop this week… ‘Little voice inside’* by Christoph Niemann
'Little voice inside' by Christoph Niemann
Sometimes you know you shouldn’t look but you’ve got to take a peek.
This and so many other fantastic illustrations are available on Christoph’s site – www.christophniemann.com.
* I gave it this title; I don’t know what Christoph actually titled it.
Phases of technology adoption in organisations
In 2004 – in Lithuania, of all places – Professor Stephen Coleman introduced me to a four-phase model for understanding how new technologies are adopted and influenced by organisations.
Don’t know if he came up with it directly but finding it beautifully simple and functional, I’ve used it countless times since to make sense of how technology use is developing in organisations I have worked for or with.
I was discussing it with Neil Williams over a cerveza recently, and decided to add a fifth phase that I’d like to share here.
Coleman’s four phases (note – I’ve tweaked the names, but not their essence) ran as follows:
hyperbole > resistance > institutionalisation > transformation
read more…
'Ceci n'est pas une pipe'* by Kevin Van Aelst
Spotted this on the NYT site and it made me chuckle.
It’s a great example of the photographic art of Kevin Van Aelst.
Go check out his site; he’s got great vision.
* I gave it this title; I don’t know what Kevin actually titled it.
'Spanners' by Ross Ferguson
Recommendations for some highly-rated free tools I have been coming in handy at work recently:
Screengrab!
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1146
No Photoshop to edit a ‘Print Screen’ capture? Screengrab is a Firefox add-on that captures what you can see in the bowser, either the entire page, just a selection, or a particular frame. It saves the capture as a decent sized JPG that can then be dropped in a doc to go up to the boss or over to the client.
Screenr
www.screenr.com
Got wind of this on Mashable the other day. I’ve used a number of screen-recording tools before, but Screenr is really slick and the files are a decent size. Perfect for recording an instructional video to walk a colleague or client through an unfamiliar set-up.
dotSUB
www.dotsub.com
Need to add subtitles to a video? With nothing to buy or download, dotSUB is a browser-based tool enabling subtitling of videos on the web into and from any language. Highly recommended for an all-too-familiar tricky requirement. They even have ‘Scots’ language on there, though nothing has been uploaded yet. Race you!
'Ballena' by Pablo Amargo
A whale with four guys using its fluke as a canoe… why not?
You can check out Pablo Amargo’s other works at www.pabloamargo.com.
