The Place of Experimentation in Public Policymaking: Mobilities, Situations and Temporalities

Abstract

The object of this paper is to offer a theorisation of experimentation in public policy, building upon insights from the study of policy mobilities. Drawing on the recent attention to time and temporalities in this academic literature, the paper argues that experimentation is an integral component of public policymaking, shaping the framing, learning, mediation and translation of public policies. The paper introduces four mid-level framings—experiments as: (i) situated; (ii) power-laden constructs; (iii) learning sites; and (iv) translation instances. These illustrate how experimentation can generatively advance the processual, relational, and socio-constructivist nature of policy mobilities studies. The paper concludes by highlighting how experimentation and policy mobilities are mutually generative lenses for theorising the making-up of public policymaking in the twenty-first century.