Systemic Design Practice for Participatory Policymaking

This article presents a case study of design-led policy development to illustrate what participatory policymaking can look like in practice. It also presents a new practice framework for systemic design, which aims to help build understanding and capability to implement co-design practice in response to complex public problems.

This open access article is published in Policy Design and Practice and summarised in this ANZSOG Research Brief. A free guide and downloadable worksheet for using the the Systemic Design Practice Wheel are available here.

The Promise of Co-Design for Public Policy

Summary: Co-design is a promising approach that offers creative and participatory methods for engaging different kinds of people and knowledge in the policy process. More documentation, analysis and evaluation are nonetheless required to determine the extent to which co-design can meet its innovative and transformative potential in policymaking.

This article was one of the most cited in the Australian Journal of Public Administration in 2018-19. It is republished as a book chapter in the Routledge Handbook of Policy Design and summarised in this ANZSOG Research Brief.

When design meets power: design thinking, public sector innovation and the politics of policymaking

This article in Policy & Politics examines what is new about design thinking and compares this to rational and participatory approaches to policymaking, highlighting the difference between their logics, foundations and the basis on which they ‘speak truth to power’. It then examines the impact of design thinking on policymaking in practice, using the example of public sector innovation (PSI) labs. 

One of a series of articles co-authored by Jenny M Lewis, Michael McGann and Emma Blomkamp, based on our research on PSI labs, it was awarded the Ken Young Prize for the Best Paper in Policy & Politics in 2020, judged to represent excellence in the field.

Our other papers include: Innovation labs and co-production in public problem solving and The rise of public sector innovation labs: experiments in design thinking for policy.

'Marvellous Melbourne': Making the world's most liveable city

This chapter charts the key elements of city planning and policy development, beginning from the mid 1980s, that help explain Melbourne’s remarkable economic resurgence and cultural revitalisation. 

Co-authored by Emma Blomkamp and Jenny M Lewis, it is published in two books: Successful Public Policy: Lessons from Australia and New Zealand and Great Policy Successes: How Governments Get It Right in a Big Way at Least Some of the Time.

This chapter also informed the Centre for Public Impact case study, Revitalising Melbourne’s City Centre from 1985.

Making Culture Count: The Politics of Cultural Measurement

This book is a collection of diverse essays by scholars, policy-makers and creative practitioners who explore the burgeoning field of cultural measurement and its political implications. Offering critical histories and creative frameworks, it presents new approaches to accounting for culture in local, national and international contexts.

Co-edited by Lachlan MacDowall, Marnie Badham, Emma Blomkamp and Kim Dunphy, it was published in 2015 by Palgrave Macmillan. I also wrote the first chapter in the book, ‘A Critical History of Cultural Indicators’.