Cultivating Policy Innovation in Hierarchical Societies (2026)

📘 New Book by Our Faculty Member at the School of Public Policy, Chiang Mai University

✨ We are delighted to share the publication of “Cultivating Policy Innovation in Hierarchical Societies” by Assistant Professor Dr. Pobsook Chamchong, published by Palgrave Macmillan.

From the Preface:

“To cultivate policy innovations, policy innovation cultivators are vital actors who plant and nurture the momentum of co-creation within the policy ecosystems in which they operate. Recognising that such ecosystems are neither static nor sealed, they help turn them into generative ecosystems by navigating, shaping, and utilising their elements. Through co-creative tactics, they prepare the soil and fertilise the ground for policy innovations across different seasons.

In strongly hierarchical systems, hierarchy is not confined to bureaucratic structures. It also functions as a powerful social norm deeply embedded in both individual behaviour and institutional arrangements. This makes the role of policy innovation cultivators particularly crucial. As discursive agents, they interpret different frames, shift narratives, and transform stakeholder worldviews. They also help create a generative ecosystem by securing vertical collaboration among actors within patronage-based and power-asymmetric systems.

Framed by co-creation, generative policy ecosystem, and critical interpretivist approaches, the book highlights the role of policy innovation cultivators in seeding innovations through both bonding and bridging efforts. It also shows how they fertilise a culture of innovation through normative assimilation.”

The book is endorsed by leading scholars in the field, including Professor Eva Sørensen, Roskilde School of Governance, Roskilde University, Denmark, and Professor Christopher Ansell, University of California, Berkeley.

👉 More information: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-032-16226-7