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Title
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Analysis as therapy : the therapeutic function of ex ante analyses in infrastructure policy processes
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Author
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Abstract
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| Over the past decades, predictive or ex ante analyses have come to play an increasingly important part in policy processes. In infrastructure policy, they are used to predict the economic and environmental impact of investments. The ex ante analyses used in infrastructure policy processes are complex, difficult to understand and have limited predictive power, yet they also take up a central position in modern day policy processes. This study offers a new perspective on the popularity of ex ante analyses based on an ethnographic study observing meetings in three large infrastructure policy processes in Belgium and the Netherlands. It argues that, besides the obvious informational role, ex ante analyses fulfil an important therapeutic function. The prime reason they are valued is not because they unambiguously tell policymakers what to do, but because they offer them the confidence to move processes forward in a world characterized by ambiguity and uncertainty. |
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Language
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English
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Publication
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Antwerp
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University of Antwerp, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Political Science
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2021
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Volume/pages
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179 p.
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Note
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:
Van Dooren, Wouter [Supervisor]
:
Verhoest, Koen [Supervisor]
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Full text (open access)
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