Complexity and Public Policy

About this course

Complex public policy challenges rarely have simple solutions. This course helps you develop the systems thinking and analytical skills needed to understand wicked problems, navigate uncertainty, and design more effective policy responses. Explore complexity theory, complex adaptive systems, nonlinearity, emergence, self-organization, feedback loops, and tipping points. Learn to use tools such as the Cynefin framework and Stacy Matrix to make sense of complex policy situations. Apply complexity thinking to real-world challenges in health, education, sustainability, and public policy. Examine how complexity principles can improve policy design and understand approaches such as self-organization, emergence, and agent-based modelling. Develop practical approaches to program and policy design, evaluation, resilience, and decision-making in complex environments. Explore design thinking, developmental evaluation, outcomes harvesting, outcomes mapping, and other tools for evaluating complex situations. Gain insights into Human Learning Systems, systems thinking, ethical public service delivery, complexity-guided strategy, and policy-making under radical uncertainty. Learn how narrative policy analysis can support decision-making when traditional approaches are insufficient. Build the confidence to approach complex policy challenges with a more holistic, adaptive, and evidence-informed perspective.

Course objectives

• Gain insights into public policy analysis, formulation, monitoring, and evaluation
• Learn about complexity economics and its applications in public policy
• Differentiate between complicated and appropriate tools for public policy analysis