tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5043138489010794057.post7417168342632928532..comments2024-03-16T17:49:39.343+05:30Comments on Urbanomics: Evidence-based policy making – Missing the woods for the trees?Urbanomicshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16956198290294771298noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5043138489010794057.post-51343072213392338962012-12-22T22:08:20.913+05:302012-12-22T22:08:20.913+05:30Dear Gulzar,
Enjoyed this and the focus on instit...Dear Gulzar,<br /><br />Enjoyed this and the focus on institutional knowledge / scale. The managerialism inherent in social initiatives adopted purely this way is damaging. I think you are pointing to the fallacy of composition, and I suspect that in policy responses we must be open to the fallacy of the excluded middle - where the narrowness of the solution could make it inflexible.<br /><br />I recall an earlier post where the teacher efficacy was a simple derivative of the bell curve and averages - an outcome of what I call the "Jack Welch school of performance management".<br /><br />(there is a good book on public policy and Citizenship Arvind Sivaramakrishnan, SAGE Publishing 2012 - good on critiquing managerialism and liberalism per se- a little week on the public policy institutional aspect.) <br /><br />Where historical evidence should be and can be used to change things on the basis of knowledge - the institutional inertia to make changes is damaging. Take the case of the slow disposal of cases - particularly in the case of crimes against women.<br /><br />The case of under reporting of crimes particularly against women - due to a general reluctance to deal with the police - and in cases where such FIR's are filed the sheer inability to deliver justice speedily - points more to the ineptness of the system on a colossal scale. The results are for all to see - and is a damaging indictment of our inability to process any learning.<br /><br />That apart, what I notice among what can be called pop-economics based on data is to flash some counterintuitive logic - which is appealing for book sales - but seems to be devoid of "experience" as felt. Which can produce aberrations like data to support a theory that the best way to reduce gun related deaths is more guns!<br /><br />Back to our own crises - I don't think we suffer from either data or enough experience to draw up a solution - but, a political culture of responding to everything piecemeal will only continue to feed more disasters.<br /><br />For instance making delhi safe for women is not only about buses - as though there was any causal relationship - and this case only serves to highlight the general apathy towards all other victims - and sheer non-responsiveness in terms of prevention - till it all coalesced into another horrible incident. <br /><br />Data is the least of our problems in solution design - and solution design may also be a problem - resulting more from apathy - than from any inability to analyse to minutiae.<br /><br />regards, KP.KPhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06553866275918658507noreply@blogger.com