Agility and Function, or Rule-Ridden Management and Structural Slavery: Disentangling the Complexity of Human Nature, Work, and Policy Making

Despite its ubiquity few outside the corridors of power are concerned with policy, its meaning and purpose. It is not uncommon that policies are in various ways dysfunctional and characterised by magical thinking rather than fact and reason. If they do function what signifies good policy? If they do not, why are they still increasing in numbers? Departing from well-known facts of human social evolution this book explains why flawed policy tends to generate a host of problems and how this is tied to political inertia and ultimately also to the UN’s Sustainability Agenda. This is in jeopardy because of politicians? somewhat magical policy making. Given that some of the challenges the World is facing can be resolved by well-designed policies, a proposal is made how policy makers must think when creating policy in line with human nature. Roland S Persson is professor of Educational Psychology at Joenkoeping University, Sweden. He is Fellow of the College of Teachers, London, England as well as member of and advisor to the International Centre for Innovation in Education (ICIE).