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Policy Design

Public value as care within and for practices

·505 字·2 分钟
Polihot 公共行政 Public Value Care Theory Practice Theory Public Management Policy Design
PMR — pp. 1-25 2026-07-08 Original Public value as care within and for practices Per Skålén Abstract This article draws on practice theory and care theory to conceptualize public value as care within and for the practices to which citizens are entitled. In doing so, it contributes by theoretically integrating major strands of public value research. More specifically, it shows that strategic management of public value depends on the sustained care for practices; that contestation over public value centres on struggles over what should be cared for; that the cocreation and codestruction of public value depend on the extent to which practices are carefully sustained; and that public values are normatively grounded in care and become visible through enacted practices. The article also outlines practical implications for addressing pressing collective challenges through policy design and demonstrates how legitimacy, management, and accountability are reconfigured when public value is understood as care within and for the practices to which citizens are entitled.

Leveraging an Unhappiness Lens for Smarter Policies

·786 字·2 分钟
Polihot 公共政策 Unhappiness Well-Being Policy Design Governance Policy Interventions
PSJ — 2026-04-09 Original Leveraging an Unhappiness Lens for Smarter Policies Marine Coupaud, Gilles Grolleau, Naoufel Mzoughi Abstract ABSTRACT Traditional policy research has largely focused on enhancing happiness or well‐being, privileging positive outcomes as the primary metric of success. We argue that a systematic focus on the drivers of unhappiness—rather than solely on happiness—offers a complementary analytical framework that can uncover hidden societal deficits and broaden the repertoire of policy interventions. By foregrounding unhappiness, scholars and practitioners can identify latent demand, structural inequities, and unintended negative side effects that are often obscured in happiness‐centric analyses. We first articulate why a shift away from predominantly happiness‐driven policies is conceptually necessary, demonstrating that unhappiness signals distinct causal pathways and policy levers. Second, we explain how adopting an unhappiness lens can lead to different—and potentially better—policy outcomes. By integrating unhappiness into the policy toolkit, this paper expands the analytical horizon of scholars and offers policymakers actionable insights for more resilient, equitable, and responsive governance. We introduce several novel theoretical issues that provide a strong foundation for a research agenda on unhappiness and its policy implications. We also caution that misusing unhappiness‐based arguments poses ethical risks and could exacerbate the very problems such arguments aim to address.