Workshops as a method for making and implementing better policy
This workshop is about the use of workshops as a formal mechanism applied as an integral part of the policy-making process, and the rich data – of multiple types – that derives from workshops when these are viewed as a methodology.
Despite the widespread use of workshops, this research format has not been researched extensively in its potential to contribute to evidence-based policy making. Theoretical considerations need to help develop a framework to ensure that workshops generate useful and valuable data. During this workshop, participants will learn how conceptualising workshops as a key technique to ascertain understandings, creating shared views of public policy topics, can themselves be a methodology. Workshops are an important interaction format for instruction and as deliberative spaces (Lain, 2017; Ørngreen & Levinsen, 2017), research and generating data (Thorne, 2000).
The focus of this session is on how workshops involving di_erent stakeholders can be useful and considered as a valid qualitative research method that provides valuable data and useful results for policy. Thus, we explore together:
How can workshops be used as a research methodology for evidence-base policy? And, what is the resultant data?
Practical examples will be provided, and a vivid interaction is requested from participants. The objective is to involve workshop participants in a session focused on interrogation of precisely how and why workshops are a useful, valid and meaningful tool for data collection, analysis and onward application for policy action. Used electively, well-facilitated multi-stakeholder workshops permit optimal policy-making based on scientific evidence and results.
What attendees will learn
During the workshop attendees will learn about the sociomateriality of data work where the interpretative communities for data’s use always draw in their own tacit knowledge to translate and interpret data to make it relevant for the task at hand. During policy-making, it is imperative that many different perspectives, ideologies and interpretations are incorporated, so that the resultant policy decision is collectively ‘owned’ and bought into by all who were involved in the co-creation. Value must be made together through the articulation of shared goals, and with agreement about the metrics and weighting criteria applied to both decide on the policy and then to measure success.
The workshop will explore the UNU-EGOV’s capacity building programme as a use case in how government officials and workshop facilitators, as subject-matter experts in various topics across ‘digital government transformation’ as a topic work collaborative to achieve optimal results in policy-making. The philosophical / academic basis for the ‘workshop as a methodology’ will be presented as an introduction, and attendees will see how different elements from the workshop can constitute part of an overall dataset of many layers and forms (covering quantitative, qualitative, structured data, unstructured data etc.) and that this is an important resource.
Biographies
Noella Edelmann is senior researcher at the Department for E-Governance and Public Administration at the Danube University Krems. She completed her PhD in Public Administration at TalTech, Tallinn, Estonia. Her research focuses on electronic governance, in particular organisational change, digital transformation in public sector organisations, and includes new ways of working, engagement practices and sustainability. Further particular research interests are Open Access and digital scholarship. Given her interdisciplinary approach and research topics, she has developed an ability to develop and manage research projects, a deep appreciation for international networks and programmes, high quality, and valuable work as well as pragmatic solutions, but also a love for unconventional ideas and approaches.
Mariana Lameiras is Senior Research Analyst at the United Nations University Operating Unit on Policy-Driven Electronic Governance (UNU-EGOV) and acts as co-coordinator of PolObs, the Observatory on Science, Communication and Culture Policies of the Communication and Society Research Centre (CECS). She holds a PhD in Communication Sciences from the University of Minho, Braga, Portugal. Her expertise lies in e-Participation; Community Engagement for critical and active citizenship; (local) e-Government, including measuring and assessment; Digital Media; Media Governance; and Public Policy. She is currently project manager of a research project on the “Assessment of Portugal’s performance in the main international benchmarks on digital governance: analysis, recommendations, monitoring, and capacity development”. Co-leads the group dedicated to “Policies, Regulation and Political Economy of Media” from the Portuguese Association of Communication Sciences (SOPCOM) and serves as a national collaborator of the European Audiovisual Observatory (EAO) and the Institute for Information Law (University of de Amsterdam), developing studies and articles for IRIS – Legal Observations of the EAO and Merlin database, along with reporting on national media policies. Website: https://unu.edu/egov/about/expert/mariana-lameiras ORCID: 0000-0002-9134-9296
Lucille Tetley-Brown is a data work culture specialist and qualified sustainability professional. Her research focuses on data’s varied uses and institutional decision-making, related to public service delivery transformation via digital technologies and new ways of working, particularly at the local government level. Lucille holds a law degree from the University of Oxford, an MSc in Environmental Studies and Sustainability Science from Sweden’s Lund University, and a PhD in Sociology from the University of Glasgow in Scotland.
Website: https://unu.edu/egov/about/expert/lucille-tetley-brown ORCID: 0009-0003-2636-2288
References
Lain, S. (2017). Show, Don’t Tell: Reading Workshop Fosters Engagement and Success.Texas Journal of Literacy Education, 5(2), 160-167.
Ørngreen, R., & Levinsen, K. T. (2017). Workshops as a research methodology. Electronic Journal of E-learning, 15(1), 70-81.
Thorne, S. (2000). Data analysis in qualitative research. Evidence-based nursing, 3(3), 68-70.