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Frank Bongers, together with Dries Verlet (Statistics Flanders), has published an article in the Flemish Journal of Public Administration (VTOM, 2020, no. 1, p. 25-34) on the flow of information from research and society to policy in a broader sense. There is a rise in a more critical public opinion that increasingly relies on alternative sources (such as social media), and a struggle by governments to handle this shift. Furthermore, there is a decline in trust in experts, as well as a blurring of the lines between lay and expert knowledge. This prompted a discussion within a working group at the Politicologenetmaal 2019 conference on how information and policy intersect. The article provides an overview of several factors influencing the use (or lack thereof) of information in policy. It discusses challenges arising from the changing types of data emerging and stresses the need for a data ecosystem to facilitate their journey to policy.
You can request the article from Frank Bongers.