Policy learning and policy change

Policy learning and policy change stand amongst the most central yet fragmented research areas in public policy research. Both have developed into independent strands of scholarship, raising the question of whether, and how, they still engage with one another. This chapter explores the intersection between policy learning and policy change by going back to their conceptual foundations and their evolution over the past decades. Through an explorative review of the literature, the chapter highlights the growing scholarly interest in the policy learning-change nexus and underscores its contemporary relevance. Building on this, it outlines a research agenda focusing on the institutional and ideational contexts in which both processes unfold. In doing so, the chapter reconnects two foundational areas of public policy research and advances a more integrated understanding of how learning shapes, and is shaped by, processes of policy change.