An institutional analysis of current uses of ISA-related tools in their ‘real world’ policy context WP 2
Aims and Objectives
The aim of WP 2 is to provide the MATISSE project with a systematic and structured overview of current ISA-related tools, and a context specific analysis of how they are actually being used by stakeholders in day-to-day policy making. As such, it provides insights into the ‘real world’ needs of policy makers and identifies the various constraints conditioning their selection and use of ISA tools. The analysis focusses on the four main case study areas covered by MATISSE.
The entry point for the analysis are systems of Sustainability Impact Assessments (i.e. the EU Commission’s Integrated Assessment (IA) regime governing EU policy making). But it also seeks to capture many other dimensions of SIA use, particularly those in other parts of the EU (e.g. the European Parliament), and at national and regional levels of governance, where experience of undertaking SIAs is known to be more fully developed.
The WP is evaluating the actual use of different tools in relation to the ISA approach, in order to identify where and why there are significant differences between the two. That is to say, how is SIA currently being deployed, and what stands between the pattern of current practice and the practice of ISA in Europe?
Activities
To this end, empirical studies are being carried out in the EU, the UK, Sweden and Germany.
The approach is deductive i.e. producing a “thick” description of the ‘real world’ use of SIA tools. Data is being collected through documentary analyses of published databases at European and national (Germany, Sweden, the Netherlands and the UK) levels, and interviews with those producing guidance documentation, as well as current and potential users of SIA, to understand their motivations and experiences. Data analysis is carried out using the multi-dimensional characterisation of ISA tools developed in WP1.
- Finalise a benchmarked inventory of currently used SIA tools
- Relate this inventory to the ISA approach
- Analyse how all these tools are actually being used ‘in context’
by policy-makers in different institutional settings
- Identify institutional capacities and needs for the future use of ISA-related
tools.
Products
- A benchmarked inventory of commonly used sustainability assessment tools
-
An analysis of the relationship between these tools and the model of ISA
developed in WP1
-
An institutional account of ISA/SIA use ‘in context’ across
the case study domains
-
A summary of current institutional capacities and the obstacles standing
in the way of a wider uptake of ISA tools, focusing specifically on the
four MATISSE case study domains.
WP 2 draws heavily on the results of WP1. At the same time, the results of WP2 will especially inform the direction of WP8 (and WP9) in the second phase of the project.
Research team for WP 2
TyndallCentre & CSERGE, University of East Anglia, Norwich
StockholmEnvironment Institute (SEI), Stockholm
Universityof Sussex; Science and Technology Policy Research (SPRU
Contact:Andy Jordan,University of East Anglia a.jordan@uea.ac.uk