Prospects for Change at the Nexus of Policy and Design

Abstract

Recent analyses point to the importance of communication and policy representation in understanding and fostering reform success. I propose adopting the idea of a pattern language(Alexander, Ishikawa, Silverstein, Jacobson, Fiksdahl-King, & Angel, 1977) as a profitable direction for policy research on the design of policy documents. A pattern language is a comprehensive set of design elements that integrates abstract and concrete levels of description and notes the interconnections between these elements. In a reform document, the elements would be individual reform recommendations. It is argued that this form of representation, if adopted in standards-based reform documents, could facilitate the construction of shared meaning between policy-makers and reform-implementation agents, while sanctioning and guiding local adaptations that reflect the spirit of the reform