Applying design science in public policy and administration research

Governments around the world are struggling to find innovative solutions for complex problems. Key issues are sustainability, the quality of living in cities, and inequalities and tensions between groups of citizens. To address these challenges, new forms of governance are needed which serve to make and implement collectively binding decisions that take into account the interests of all those affected, including future generations. Institutions for public governance and policy-making are, in their present form, often not up to the task. As a result, democratic and administrative bodies tend to respond to major problems and challenges using yesterday’s tools. The main contribution of this chapter is to develop a consistent methodology at the interface of design and science, as a strong foundation for public policy & administration scholars to respond to the call for more evidence-based policymaking. This contribution is important because the lack of an inclusive framework may inhibit the development and adoption of DS in the field of PPA. In this respect, in The Sciences of The Artificial, Simon emphasised that science is primarily about studying current (or past) practices, whereas design is about creating future practices. This fundamental difference between retrospective science and prospective design makes work at the science-design interface rather complex and challenging