Strategic foresight in public policy: reviewing the experiences of the UK, Singapore, and The Netherlands

Citation

Habegger, B. (2010), "Strategic foresight in public policy: reviewing the experiences of the UK, Singapore, and The Netherlands", Strategic Direction, Vol. 26 No. 9. https://doi.org/10.1108/sd.2010.05626iad.004

Strategic foresight in public policy: reviewing the experiences of the UK, Singapore, and The Netherlands

Article Type: Abstracts From: Strategic Direction, Volume 26, Issue 9

Habegger B.Futures (UK), February 2010, Vol. 42 No. 1, Start page: 49. No. of pages: 10

In an interdependent and complex world, only few public policy challenges can be confined to one particular policy area anymore. Many governments have realized that a single-issue focus is often insufficient in dealing with emerging threats and opportunities. They have therefore started to experiment with strategic foresight that deliberately cuts across the traditional boundaries of policy areas and government departments. This article reviews the foresight activities of three countries that have been at the forefront of this trend: the UK , Singapore, and The Netherlands. To this end, the article discusses the concept of strategic foresight and explains the two distinct ways in which it contributes to public policy-making: on the one hand, it informs policy by providing more systematic knowledge about relevant trends and developments in an organization’s environments; on the other hand, it acts as a driver of reflexive mutual social learning processes among policy-makers that stimulate the generation of common public policy visions. The article concludes by drawing lessons with regard to the key success factors allowing strategic foresight to make an effective contribution to public policy-making.Article type: Research paperISSN: 0016-3287Reference: 39AL579

Keywords: Foresight studies, The Netherlands, Public policy, Singapore, Strategic planning, United Kingdom