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Based on a three year research project studying the impact of academics on business, government and civil society sectors, this groundbreaking book undertakes the most thorough analysis yet of how academic research in the social sciences achieves public policy impacts, contributes to economic prosperity, and informs public understanding of policy issues.--

Public policy systems often sustain chronic capacity stress (CCS) meaning they neither excel nor fail in what they do, but do both in ways that are somehow manageable and acceptable. This book is about one archetypal case of CCS - crowding in the British prison system - and how we need a more integrated theoretical understanding of its complexity.

Public policy systems, much like humans, can operate under continual stress over long periods of time. Whereas analysis of these systems often tends to focus on the extremes of success or failure, the more complex reality is that more often than not they neither completely excel nor completely fail in what they do, but combine elements of both in the way they cope and perform under stress. This book explores these dynamics through the archetypal case of crowding in British prisons. Packed with data, it provides an original analysis of the prison system through an era of managerialist change. It contributes to contemporary debates on the management of prisons, and the wider fields of public management, governance, and executive politics. At its heart lies a new concept of "chronic capacity stress" (CCS), one which will be valuable to anyone - academics, practitioners, students alike - interested in how policy systems both succeed and fail in complex and ever-changing political, economic, and social environments

The "new public management" (NPM) wave in public sector organizational change was founded on themes of disaggregation, competition, & incentivization. Although its effects are still working through in countries new to NPM, this wave has now largely stalled or been reversed in some key "leading-edge" countries. This ebbing chiefly reflects the cumulation of adverse indirect effects on citizens' capacities for solving social problems because NPM has radically increased institutional & policy complexity. The character of the post-NPM regime is currently being formed. We set out the case that a range of connected & information technology-centered changes will be critical for the current & next wave of change, & we focus on themes of reintegration, needs-based holism, & digitization changes. The overall movement incorporating these new shifts is toward "digital-era governance" (DEG), which involves reintegrating functions into the governmental sphere, adopting holistic & needs-oriented structures, & progressing digitalization of administrative processes. DEG offers a perhaps unique opportunity to create self-sustaining change, in a broad range of closely connected technological, organizational, cultural, & social effects. But there are alternative scenarios as to how far DEG will be recognized as a coherent phenomenon & implemented successfully. Tables, Figures, References. Adapted from the source document.