How do governments learn to do new things?
In theory, everything starts by some new awareness emerging within the public opinion. It is then picked up by politicians competing for office and translated into law. Law, then, is enacted into new policy. In practice, elected officials and public servants live in a far messier world, characterized by inertia, windows of opportunity, technocracy, information asymmetries, and all kinds of "short circuits" for vested interests to influence policy without going through a public debate (lobbying being exhibit A).
Our policy space is still geared towards traditional ways of learning. Edgeryders aims to change that and challenge mantras in European policy. So we're opening channel of interlocution towards the European Commission and member states. This session can be summarised as an interactive conversation on how to teach a new trick to old dogs. We think it is especially relevant to people with experiences from processes to make voices heard in the policy space as well as those interested in doing lobbying through new channels.
