Re-thinking the coronavirus pandemic as a policy punctuation: COVID-19 as a path-clearing policy accelerator

Abstract

This article joins with others in this special issue to examine the evolution of our understanding of how the coronavirus disease (COVID)-19 pandemic impacted policy ideas and routines across a wide variety of sectors of government activity. Did policy ideas and routines transform as a result of the pandemic or were they merely a continuation of the status quo ante? If they did transform, are the transformations temporary in nature or likely to lead to significant, deep and permanent reform to existing policy paths and trajectories? As this article sets out, the literature on policy punctuations has evolved and helps us understand the impact of COVID-19 on policy-making but tends to conflate several distinct aspects of path trajectories and deviations under the general concept of “critical junctures” which muddy reflections and findings. Once the different possible types of punctuations have been clarified, however, the result is a set of concepts related to path creation and disruption—especially that of “path clearing”—which are better able to provide an explanation of the kinds of policy change to be expected to result from the impact of events such as the 2019 coronavirus pandemic.

Building Trauma-Informed Approaches in Higher Education

“…Menschner and Maul [ 76 ] highlighted how implementing trauma-informed approaches in healthcare systems “require a paradigm shift”(p. 10). The punctuated equilibrium of COVID-19 presents an opportunity for policy change at HEIs, for which research is needed to inform [ 77 ]. Thus, this serves as a call to action in higher education; a call to resist blissful ignorance and challenge history by naming trauma for what it is and addressing it, so that students can reach their full learning potential.…”

From Bureaucratic Coordination to a Data-Driven Model: Transformation and Capacity Building of Community-Based Prevention and Control of Public Health Events

“…Although the COVID-19 crisis has caused extensive and in-depth impacts in different policy areas of countries around the world, it is not yet a paradigm shift in the traditional sense of a critical juncture [ 38 ]. Technology-driven governance reflects the basic orientation of adaptive transformation of social governance [ 39 ].…”

Ideas and Policy Response to the COVID-19 Crisis: Evidence from Jakarta, Indonesia

“…Path creation-related concept is centred on the premise that policy entrepreneurs shape paths, rather than exogenous shocks, by initiating processes that actively shape emerging social practices (cf. Hogan et al, 2022). In our context, new 'potential' paths are not simply emerging as a result of shocks associated with COVID-19, but rather as a result of strategic agencies creatively modifying policy content based on embedded cultural values, previous practices, and policy learning (cf.…”

“…A review of various literature Karnøe, 2001, 2005;Garud et al, 2010) has shown that the path creation process is characterised by a deviation of the policy from the established path and principle, while discontinuing the previous one. Recently, Hogan et al (2022) defined it as 'novel or innovative actions creating new paths' (p. 43). The path creation process is characterised by an extensive modification and even a replacement of the main ideas and features of policy with a new one in a very short period of time, as opposed to displacement, path-breaking, and path-switching, which requires a slow-moving, long-term process.…”

“…To mitigate the insecurity, many national and sub-national governments around the world implemented a range of generic welfare measures aimed at minimising health and socialeconomic damages (Irving, 2021). However, their responses often conflict with their traditional welfare system attachments (Ramia and Perrone, 2021;Hogan et al, 2022).…”