Charles’s favourite readings from the Institute of Innovation and Public Purpose’s MPA
This is a set of summaries of the readings I found most impacted my thinking during the UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose’s MPA in Innovation, Public Policy and Public Value. There were six modules with extensive reading lists so it was hard to pick just a few. I hyperlinked my summaries of those courses in their titles if any of these subjects interest you more. I also included some readings at the end that I came across throughout the year, which supplement the assigned readings.
Public Value and Public Purpose
The economics of change: Policy and appraisal for missions, market shaping and public purpose by Rainer Kattel, Mariana Mazzucato, Josh Ryan-Collins, and Simon Sharpe
The Institute of Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP) has put out a number of articles with similar messages but I think this paper provides an overview of the overall philosophy for the Institute. It talks about market fixing versus market shaping, a mission-oriented approach, and evaluation. The beginners guide that I discuss at the end provides a more practical version of some of these ideas.
“Chapter 4: Invention of Innovation” in The Wealth and Poverty of Nations by David Landes
This chapter provided an overview of different innovations throughout history. It examines what accelerated or slowed their adoption, and how these trends affected different countries’ leadership.
Systems Innovation by Geoff Mulgan and Charlie Leadbeater
These two papers look at what systems innovation is and how to do it effectively. It provides the case for how policy responses cannot be done in silos, but need to work at different intervention points, in different parts of a system, and in a coordinated way.
Grand Challenges and Systems Change
Leverage Points: Places to Intervene in a System by Donella Meadows
This piece provides an alternative way to look at systems, and offers new interventions points policymakers can look at when designing their policy interventions. Thinking in these new ways can challenge policymakers by making them consider their policies in new lights or different approaches to achieve the same result.
The Moon and the Ghetto Revisited by Richard Nelson
This paper looks at the challenges behind a lack of progress on enduring societal issues in contrast to how governments have been able to support great technological feats — hence the title, the moon and the ghetto.
Technological Revolutions and Techno-Economic Paradigms by Carlota Perez
I could have picked any number of Carlota Perez’s articles (who is a visiting professor at the IIPP) but this one I felt summed up her thinking the best. She talks about how the world has experienced five different technological revolutions every 40–60 years: industrial; steam & railways; steel, electricity & heavy engineering; oil, automobiles & mass production; and information and telecommunications. With each revolution, we require a new set of institutions and regulations to prevent inequality and create a ‘new golden age’. I talk about this more in the course summary in the ‘technological revolutions’ section.
Creative Bureaucracies
Managing Government, Governing Management by Henry Mintzberg
This piece provides an alternative model to delivering government services from the dichotomy of public or private sector delivery models, depending on the type of service. I summarize it in the course summary in the ‘The delivery of public services’ section.
The Challenge of Policy Coordination by B. Guy Peters
This paper discusses the importance of policy coordination, and the government-specific challenges of how to do it effectively.
The Right Way to Lead Design Thinking. by Christian Bason and Robert D. Austin
This piece provided me with a greater appreciation for why policymakers need to understand their users’ experiences more fully, and how to do it with design thinking.
Science Funding and Governance
Why should taxpayers fund science and research? by Graeme Reid
This piece provides an overview of the major arguments surrounding science and research funding from the government. Graeme Reid was a guest lecturer throughout this course who helped us gain a deeper understanding of the issues of science governance, drawing from his wealth of experience.
The Evolution of Science Policy & Innovation Studies by Ben R. Martin
If you want to learn about the different schools of thought regarding science policy and innovation, then this is the piece for you. It provides a really great overview of many different ideas, and then references who the lead thinkers are in that space so that you can learn more about their work.
Rethinking Capitalism
Prosperity and justice: A plan for the new economy — The final report of the IPPR Commission on Economic Justice
This is one of the most practical pieces I read this year. It provides an extensive list of progressive economic policy recommendations. I think every policymaker working on innovation and industrial policy should read this.
Rethinking Capitalism
This is the core textbook of the course, which was developed by a number of big-name economists. Many of the ideas (e.g. from Mazzucato, Perez, and Haldane) are also found in other articles I’ve shared here, but Stiglitz’s chapter on inequality, and Lazonick’s chapter on the theory of the firm were my personal highlights.
Breaking the housing–finance cycle: Macroeconomic policy reforms for more affordable homes by Josh Ryan Collins
This paper provides an overview of the different issues regarding the affordability of housing and its impacts on productive investments across the economy.
Capitalism Redefined by Nick Hanauer and Eric Beinhocker
Although I don’t know if I agree with it, this piece provides an interesting alternative to GDP in measuring progress: the development of solutions to problems. It offers a number of innovation policy recommendations on how to promote this.
The Dog and the Frisbee by Andrew Haldane
This paper provides an overview of the different issues regarding regulating banks, and how the complexity of regulations led to the 2008 financial crisis.
Transformation by Design
From Design Thinking to Systems Change: How to Invest in Innovation for Social Impact by Rowan Conway, Jeff Masters and Jake Thorold
This report talks about topics at the nexus of design thinking and systems change, and looks at how important they are in policymaking. Rowan Conway, Head of Policy Partnerships at the IIPP, lectured several times during this course and no single piece sums up what she taught.
Dark Matter and Trojan Horses by Dan Hill
Like Rowan, Dan Hill lectured throughout the year and provided an endless number of practical examples for how design thinking works. It was the examples that really gave us a greater understanding of design thinking. This link includes a number of pieces you can go to for inspiration.
Surveillance Capitalism and the Challenge of Collective Action by Shoshana Zuboff
This paper provides an overview of Shoshana Zuboff’s main arguments regarding the problems with ‘surveillance capitalism’, and how big tech firms are taking advantage of users in a one-sided relationship. Shoshana gave a public lecture in the first week of classes at UCL, regarding her more detailed book, the Age of Surveillance Capitalism.
Other
Nesta’s critiques of Mariana Mazzucato’s the Entrepreneurial State by Stian Westlake
These pieces provide a really good set of critiques to Mariana Mazzucato’s seminal book, the Entrepreneurial State, and how many of the policy recommendations may actually discourage innovation. It is important to consider alternative viewpoints and I would recommend these articles to anyone who has read the book.
Missions: A Beginner’s Guide by Mariana Mazzucato and George Dibb
This paper provides a more practical overview of how to take a missions-oriented approach to policymaking.
The Value of Data: Towards a Framework to Redistribute It by Maria Savona
This paper provides a series of alternative ways of looking at data and how to better redistribute the value of data: data as capital — create a data market to sell data; data as labour — have data mediators or data trusts work as intermediaries between data generators and users of the data; and data as intellectual property — use licences for people’s data.
