Meeting Details

Polaris Koi, University of Turku. Co-creation and the quest for agency in behavioural public policy

Abstract

Interest in behavioural public policy has grown rapidly, but some have raised concerns that behavioural interventions may undermine human agency. Many of these interventions rely on top-down processes in which policymakers and experts define both policy goals and the shape of the interventions themselves. This top-down stance raises concerns about paternalism, limited stakeholder buy-in, and reduced effectiveness in complex, large-scale societal challenges. This is despite that behavioural policy, such as nudges and boosts, specifically purports to safeguard individual agency and autonomy.
This talk proceeds in two moves. First, it articulates the conception of agency underlying mainstream behavioural public policy. Drawing on a range of approaches in philosophy of action, it shows that there are many aspects of agency that mainstream behavioural policy ignores. Second, it explores whether co-creation as a methodology could help behavioural policy address agency as a subjective experience and a social phenomenon. This talk is based on joint work with Jarno Tuominen.