Two papers win the Best Paper Awards 2022 of Global Public Policy and Governance (GPPG) recently. They are selected from all published papers in GPPG in the year of 2022 by GPPG’s editorial board members. The two awarded papers covered cutting-edge public policy and management issues such as urban governance and emerging technology governance. Detailed information about the papers are as follows (in the order of publishing dates).

1. de Jong, M., & Lu, H. (2022). City branding, regional identity and public space: What historical and cultural symbols in urban architecture reveal. Global Public Policy and Governance, 2(2), 203–231.

Abstract

City branding as produced by local governments has been widely recognized as a modern version of government communication. Local governments convey attractive features of their identity to current and potential stakeholders in their cities. In this contribution, we examine how municipal governments have used urban design as a form of city branding reflecting the identity of the historical (sub)region in which they are located. We do this in a French border region where features of medieval, Burgundian and Spanish Netherlandish traditions can still clearly be distinguished in public buildings: Nord-Pas-de-Calais, and more specifically its five subregions Maritime Flanders, Roman Flanders, Hainaut, Artesia and Cambrai. We systematically map historical and cultural symbols found on leading public urban architecture and indicate to which era of origin and identity feature they refer. We do this for a selection of 17 municipalities of over 20,000 inhabitants. We find that symbols to pre-French traditions are still very conspicuous (Flemish architecture, typical beer bars, selective use of ancient Dutch language), but also that as new political powers establish themselves in a region these symbols are redefined such that such regional identities are in line with new ‘national requirements’ and become ‘innocuous’. Classicist building styles, French military works and war memorials and modernist architecture embed and blend with these ancient traditions and make regional identities multi-layered. Either way, ‘thin’ instrumental and identities pushed by governments grow ‘thick’ and deeply felt over the centuries.

Author

Martin de Jong is Adjunct Professor of Institute for Global Public Policy at Fudan University, Scientific Director of the Erasmus Initiative “Dynamics of Inclusive Prosperity” and Professor at both Rotterdam School of Management and Erasmus School of Law, Erasmus University Rotterdam. He spent 25 years of his working life at the Faculty of Technology, Policy and Management of Delft University of Technology. He was list in the “World’s Top 2% Scientists 2022” published by Stanford University.

Haiyan Lu is an assistant professor in Harbin Institute of Technology (Shenzhen). Her research interests include regional development, carbon emission efficiency, low carbon city, city branding, infrastructure governance and individual green behavior. Her work has been published in Cities, Climate Policy, Journal of Urban Affairs and Journal of Transport Geography. 

Words from the author

Martin de Jong

“It is always a pleasant feeling to be rewarded for hard work and this prize from GPPG is certainly no exception to this rule. The editorial staff has done a remarkable job in seeing the journal from early beginnings where authors were doubtful about submitting their work to GPPG to making it high-brow outlet through persistence, dedication and smartness and by attaching the most valuable scholars in the field to it. This bodes well for the coming years.”

Haiyan Lu

“I am grateful that our paper was selected as one of the best papers in GPPG this year. Thank editors and staff of GPPG to help researchers publish articles related to governance and public policy with an international perspective.” 

2. Kuzma, J (2022). Implementing responsible research and innovation: a case study of U.S. biotechnology oversight. Global Public Policy and Governance, 2(3), 306–325.

Abstract

This article explores two research questions through a case study of U.S. biotechnology oversight: why visions of Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) are difficult to implement in governance systems for emerging technologies, and how to get policies and programs to overcome barriers to RRI implementation on the national policy agenda. Recent research on barriers to RRI is first reviewed to categorize the types of barriers. Key barriers center around meso- and macro-level institutional and societal forces that disincentivize RRI in innovation systems, as well as micro-level attitudinal and capacity barriers. These barriers point to policy changes that are likely needed to implement RRI in governance systems, in particular incentives for RRI from national funding organizations. However, getting RRI on the policy agenda for biotechnology may be difficult given macro-level socioeconomic and political forces. Therefore, the article uses insights from policy process theory to identify possible ways to get RRI on the national policy agenda. It identifies several ways to promote RRI in national policy-making, such as shifting the policy image of RRI, changing policy venues to encourage RRI, expanding the scope of RRI as a policy issue, and catalyzing focusing events to raise national awareness about RRI.

Author

Jennifer Kuzma, Ph.D. is the Goodnight-NCGSK Foundation Distinguished Professor in the School of Public and International Affairs, and co-founder and co-director of the Genetic Engineering and Society (GES) Center, at NC State University. Her research has been appeared in Science, Regulation and GovernanceandJournal of Responsible Innovationand other prestigious journals.

Words from the author

“I found GPPG a pleasure to work with in publishing this manuscript. The editors were helpful in responding to technical questions about submission, and detailed and fair in the review process. I expect the volume and the journal to grow in its impact.”