In this thesis expert knowledge and the covid-19 crisis have been the subject of research. More precisely, knowledge types and knowledge utilization have been analyzed in three distinct periods of...Show moreIn this thesis expert knowledge and the covid-19 crisis have been the subject of research. More precisely, knowledge types and knowledge utilization have been analyzed in three distinct periods of the Covid-19 crisis in the Netherlands. This is analyzed by using government documents where the measures against the Covid-19 outbreak are elaborated in. In addition, the technical briefings held on the Covid-19 outbreak are analyzed. During these briefings both experts and members of parliament are present. Hereby 'unfiltered' knowledge of the experts can be compared with how this expert knowledge is used in the government documents. From the analysis of this research, it follows that mostly instrumental use and some substantiating knowledge utilization are found in the government documents. This is contradictory to the knowledge utilization by the Dutch government in earlier crises as researched by Van Nispen and Scholten (2017). In addition to the results on knowledge utilization, from the analysis on knowledge types, information data is found to be an important type of knowledge used by the Dutch government. Second, to information data, ideas are found as knowledge in the government documents.Show less
The year 2020 has not evolved as many had expected. The outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic has put almost all parts of the societies all over the globe on halt. Besides impacting human health, the...Show moreThe year 2020 has not evolved as many had expected. The outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic has put almost all parts of the societies all over the globe on halt. Besides impacting human health, the fastest and the most severe impact of the Covid-19 pandemic has been on the economic and financial sectors. The global health crisis has occurred at the time when the world is already in a major crisis, the climate crisis or green crisis. In spite of all the austere consequences of green crisis, the actions taken to lessen the green crisis are nowhere near the efforts required to meet the Paris agreement goal of keeping the global temperature well below 2°C and preferably 1.5 °C. Many started viewing the already existing green crisis and the newly emerged Covid-19 crisis as part of the same battle and they envisioned an opportunity in response to Covid-19 crisis to address the green crisis as well and they strived to attach green conditions to the Covid-19 recovery until they reached the green recovery agreement which not only helps in the recovery from the ramifications of the Covid-19 crisis but also addresses the green crisis. This research has sought to find out how a devastating crisis has opened up the window of opportunity for another destructive crisis. A small-N, Within-Case analysis approach is used to study the intervening variables on causal path from the Covid-19 crisis to the opening up of the window of opportunity for green crisis recovery. Moreover, theory-testing process tracing was applied on the case of EU to find out whether Advocacy Coalition Framework helps to comprehend the puzzle and answer the research question. The result of the research revealed that actors in coalitions made extensive use of frames and changed the policy image as well as used expertise to dominate the decisions, resulting in the Covid-19 recovery plan with green strings attached to it to also address the green crisis.Show less
The literature on policy advisory systems and knowledge regimes has found that policymakers make use of evidence in national-specific ways, and that the administrative and institutional...Show moreThe literature on policy advisory systems and knowledge regimes has found that policymakers make use of evidence in national-specific ways, and that the administrative and institutional characteristics of countries influence this. These fields have however so far neglected to research whether different policy areas within one country also make different use of evidence. This study researches whether this is the case by comparing the policy areas of diversity policy and energy policy in the Netherlands with each other, and it analyses which types of evidence are used and how the character of the policy areas influences this. Four cases have been compared with each other; two cases that concern themselves with diversity policy and two cases that concern themselves with energy policy. Data was collected by conducting a citation analysis of letters to parliament, websites and other policy documents and by interviewing 11 policymakers. This study finds that the technical character of energy policy causes policymakers to make use of more complex and specialist evidence, and because of the substantial economic interests behind the energy transition, there are furthermore more evidence providers that play a role in the area of energy policy. Energy policy and diversity policy however also show great overlap with each other; they both attach great value to evidence that is provided by practitioners, because the policymakers working on both policy areas have a supporting and stimulating role.Show less
The increased importance of data and its consequences have reached the social debate about the data-governance of the public sector. With recent data scandals in the Netherlands in municipalities,...Show moreThe increased importance of data and its consequences have reached the social debate about the data-governance of the public sector. With recent data scandals in the Netherlands in municipalities, the research sets out to discover why and how differences in data handling of municipalities are to be declared. This research focusses specifically on one government level in the Netherlands, its municipalities. An overall hierarchical data-readiness framework is made based on available data-readiness frameworks consisting of four characteristics; organisational alignment, organisational maturity, organisational capabilities and ethical considerations. The framework is applied by means of a survey and send to different Dutch municipalities. We find that the frameworks hierarchy works and that with the framework the differences between the municipalities become more apparentShow less
