Operationalising inclusive growth: can malleable ideas survive metricised governance?

Hill O'Connor, C. , Smith, K., Hughes, C., Meier, P. and Purshouse, R. (2023) Operationalising inclusive growth: can malleable ideas survive metricised governance? Public Administration, (doi: 10.1111/padm.12916) (Early Online Publication)

Abstract

Advocates of inclusive growth claim it provides policymakers with a means of combining economic success with social inclusivity, making it highly attractive across a wide range of settings. Here, we explore how three UK policy organisations (a devolved national government, a city region combined authority, and a local council) are pursuing inclusive growth goals. Drawing on 51 semi-structured interviews, documentary analysis and policy ethnography, we argue that inclusive growth is a classic ‘chameleonic idea’, strategically imbued with malleable qualities that serve to obscure substantive, unresolved tensions. These characteristics are helpful in achieving alliances, both within policy organisations and between these organisations and their multiple stakeholders. However, these same qualities make inclusive growth challenging to operationalise, especially in governance settings dominated by metrics. The process of representing a malleable idea via a set of metricised indicators involves simplification and stabilisation, both of which risk disrupting the fragile coalitions that malleability enables.

• Item Type: Articles
• Additional Information: This work was supported by the UK Prevention Research Partnership (MR/S037578/1), which is funded by the British Heart Foundation, Cancer Research UK, Chief Scientist Office of the Scottish Government Health and Social Care Directorates, Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, Economic and Social Research Council, Health and Social Care Research and Development Division (Welsh Government), Medical Research Council, National Institute for Health Research, Natural Environment Research Council, Public Health Agency (Northern Ireland), The Health Foundation and Wellcome.
• Status: Early Online Publication
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Hill OConnor, Dr Clementine and Meier, Professor Petra
• Authors: Hill O'Connor, C., Smith, K., Hughes, C., Meier, P., and Purshouse, R.
• College/School: College of Medical Veterinary and Life Sciences > School of Health & Wellbeing > MRC/CSO SPHSU; College of Social Sciences > School of Social and Political Sciences > Sociology Anthropology and Applied Social Sciences
• Journal Name: Public Administration
• Publisher: Wiley
• ISSN: 0033-3298
• ISSN (Online): 1467-9299
• Published Online: 02 February 2023
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2023 John Wiley and Sons
• First Published: First published in Public Administration 2023
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher

Project Code	Award No	Project Name	Principal Investigator	Funder's Name	Funder Ref	Lead Dept
313944		System-science Informed Public Health and Economic Research for non-communicable Disease Prevention (the SIPHER consortium)	Petra Meier	Medical Research Council (MRC)	MR/S037578/2	HW - MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit